El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-02-07

, ing a garden with one kind of bloom
no matter how greatly you preferred
that sort OF flower. You would not
keep always on your desk a bunch OF
Tiolets nor on your table cluster OF
roses You would gather and spread
about you flowers according to season
or circumstance. Now the friendships
of lifetime are bouquet Of many
/ sorts Of flowers. 1t would be a one
sided incomplete life that had gath
cred flowers OF but one color and
fragrance.
We need not one friend. but many
friends in the harvesting Of LIES ex-
periences- For in one person one help
full quality predominates, in another
another, and their combined virtues
are the bouquet Of our 4ife's friend
ships. 1t is one OF the inevitably dis
appointing truths that all our friends
have limitations and that so human
and faulty are we that when we are
constantly reminded Of those 1mita-
lions they frk US. The remedy is IN
not letting ourselves be constantly re-
minded OF them. There is an adage
warning against the continuous assO-
citation that surely causes contempt
Ny small friend was seeing too
much OF Maude- She had stepped upon
the thorns OF her friends limitations.
II
times a week, had enjoyed walk, a
matinee and gone to a church service
together their need for human contact
and the human outpouring OF expert
ence would have been satisfied She
would have enjoyed the semf-weekiy
bulletins about Jim She would have
thought her friends pensive features
classic, and the budget Of news and
impressions Maude had gathered sincs
Taf- Ia rf
their girlish world would have enter
tanned instead OF boring her. She
would have thought her comfortable
instead OF irritating brilliant instead
Of stupid.
In the bouquet OF friendship we en-
joy the exquisite, exotic orchid and
the splendid gardenia- Rare beauty OF
person or splendOr OF mind are stimu-
1ative- Our lives are richer for having
known the human beings who CORE
spond TO these. But we need, too. the
commoner softer beauty and more deli
cate fragrance Of the violet. the hum
bier, everyday qualities OF the less
gifted friend We need the sturdy
fiber and wholesome fragrance OF mig
nOnette- Even the brilliant common
ness Of the durable hollyhock is not
without its place
The friend whose surprising beauty
was the picture LldI 1lXGS F1FlQ1y anu
always in memory; the woman whose
household virtues were as hun biz
helpful as her own tender spirit; L
woman who lacked fine perceptions,
but was genuine as the sunshine it
self; and the woman CT IOWly station.
but Of strong and lasting spirit We
have had all these friends. and we
have needed them all.
The orchids brilliant beauty and
the gardenia's heavy fragrance pail if
we have too much OF them The viO-
LET'S unObtrusiveness becomes too obtru-
sive. The hollyhOcks commences ex-
asperates- The mignOnette's IOwliness
invites indifference. seen too often
So because OF our own limitations
we weary OF the beauty because we
touch upon her vanity; the humb1y
good person because she seems to lack
spirit: and the joyous person because
We more than suspect that she is friv-
olous. Learning the boundaries OF
what Carlyle called the mean impris-
onments" OF our friends we reveal our
own mean imprisonments" by weary
ing Of theirs.
But until we grow nobler we are
not fitted for too constant association
nor exceeding intimaciss- Aloneness is
the soil in which the soul grows So
ciety is merely its occasional exercise
ground