The sun., 1912-07-07

elled By al who bad ocoasioa 20 pass
from the one village to The other. The
rich only would have ridden. the poor
would have walked. Now everybody
rides. poor and rich alike. The very
tramp il proving false to his profession.
He also rides. He steals his way In
freight cars and rides upon couplings.
Poor nature Ia forsaken Of her lovers:
her ways are desolate: her byways arc
forsaken. There Ia no eye to 80 her
cloud shadows a. they float over the
hills. no ear to listen to the whisperings
Of her soul as she moves through the
leaves OF the trees. Tho wayfarine man
Is almost an extinct a. the dodo.
could not help feeling IN emotion Of
sadness az I thought Of tho better days
when men were less civilized; when they
made real pilgrimAges from place to
place; when with star In hand and sandal
shoon and scAllop and scrip. men wan
dered In groups from Village 20 village
and communed with each other by the
way, Now they travel In their boxes In
crowds. and no man speaks to another,
and travel is another name fortsdiousness.
weariness and fatigue. al because man
no longer walks but r1des.
oould not but envy The msn q othsr
days who walked from J9asAlem 10
Jericho and had tho chance Of hearing
by the way the pilgrim teachers preaching
tho coming Of the kingdom Of God. The
day Of the vagrant preacher u past;
nobody will stop 70 listen to him. Tho
Newspaper press. yellow and otherwise,
has driven him out Of existenoe.
That walk from village to village was
an unceasing delight In spite Of IL loneli-
meas. There was enough to bs seen.
although that landscape had besn robbed
by man Of much that ahould have been
there to charm. Man has out down tho
trees and killed most Of tho birds, and
driven away the beasts, but he has not
been able to destroy utterly tho charm
OF nature. The hills with their rounded
breasts are there; the sky IL there not yet
hidden by machines: tho winds are still
free and there Is enough In any twenty
miles OF walk to delight the eye and charm
the ear and make walking worth while.
The vagrant Is able to $50 the wrong
side Of life. He Is behind the scene. Ap-
parently nobody. and really nobody.
he sits in HIS humble seat In inn and hos
telry and discovers the nakedness Of
tho people As q vagrant. was aston
ished to discover tho great part that
religion plays In the ordinary life OF men
They are intensely religious without
knowing It.
They use the language Of religion
constantly. With it they punctuats their
ordinary talk. God Is not forgotten Of
men. He is remembered every moment.
II He be really conscious being. and can
hear what men say. His ears must tingle
ut their use Of His name. The average
American man has no vocabulary. He
an only talk by making use OF phrases
and words which come to him from out
side.
He has been educated In a religion
that has given him phrases; ne uses them
he god damns" everything and every
body; he tells the whole world and his
grandaunt and his cousin to go to hell
His religion has apparently curdled and
gone sour on his spiritual stomach. and
he vomits it up in disgusting and dis
graceful profanity. Nothing Ia more
significant of the decay of religion than
this abuse of it's terms
The ccascess. uncndng profanity which
one hears rs enc gees about makes enc
fearful, Thoso rrofaIo men give evil
dence by their profanity Of the feebleness
Of their intelligence and the depravity
OF their souls. Coupled with this 10 an
indecency Of oonvessa&ion showtng the