The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1914-05-13
As MAN TO MAN.

| As MAN III MAN.
Tom Doran came around the other
day and asked the Newspaper man to
go with him out to his farm and look
at his Jersey cows. It was az fine a
day as ever smiled on the Kaw val
ley. The lawyer and his Newspaper
friend rolled along in the automobile
and looked at the landscape and were
glad they were alive. just then D0ran
turned the car into shady lane and
slowed the speed down to suit the
roughness of the road. We passed .
big gate with an arch over it. By the
side of the gate was little lodge. In
a chair in front OF this lodge sat a
man with whiskers. He was leaning
back against the corner of the build
ing and he had crossed his legs and
; dozed there under the lacing Of the
sunlight and shadow watching
through half closed, lazy eyes while
the world went by.
1 turned to look more closely at this
peaceful pilgrim and I saw that he
was the gatekeeper of cemetery.
Beyond the green of the little hedge
could see the white slabs of marble.
Yes, that old man sat there waiting for
business to come to his door. He did
not have to advertise for it. There
or urge them not to put or the call.
He had lots to sell in an addition and
he was sure to sell every lot. He did
not have to depend On car line, new
factories, cement walks. signposts or
active real estate agents.
His business was sure and his call
ing certain. Every citizen of the town
behind US would, in the days to come,
be taken through his gates by those
who in their turn should follow them.
The matron and maid. the speech
less babe and the gray headed man
of the Thanatopsis poem. all would
come.
The old man sat there in the sun
shine waiting for the man with the
spade and the man who drives the
hearse. Sitting by his gate. indiffer-
ent of the future. sure to sell his lots
inside.
The newspaper man felt a chill in
his bones in spite of the warmth of
the day and the caressing fingers Of
gentle south wind. This man by the
wide open gate who was SO sure of
selling space within, he was a bad
omen. Who could say what was ahead
just beyond the bend in the road?
The car rolled on and there to the
right was a big lilac bush in full
bloom as message and a token of
the resurrection. It made that gate
keeper look like melted frost in the
sunlight. It's beauty wiped out the
picture of the opens gate and the
mournful pathways. It's fragrance
dispeNed the mists of fear and sad
ness. That lilac bush was placed just
where it would do the most good to
the most people. 1t sent out its pur-
pie blooms that spring day just to
illustrate a miracle. The newspaper
man is strong for the lilac. 1t is the
first flower IN the spring and it never
"a tn n 80 he Aruk
day.
Doran Cid not paytmuch attention
to the man at the Graveyard gate or
the lilac bush beyond the gate He
was thinking about hfs' Jersey cows
When he got to the farm he went
down to the lot behind the barn and
watched those cows come up in a long
procession Indian file to get their sup
per from the silo. They looked like a
picture of the lands. across the sea
where the beasts are sacred and the
people hire great painters to put them
on canvas and have the tintype man
take pictures of the family.
DOran walked across his farm and
his wrath was aroused when he saw
the bugs eating up his orchard. He
called down the plaques of desolation
upon the heads of the dandeliOns that
were fighting his alfalfa for possess
sion of a tract of meadowland He
that brute crawled under a gate. He
had lots of troubles to come and wipe
out the Pheasant picture of the cows.
1t came on time to go home and
the lawyer-farmer got in his car still
thinking with Bonded brows about that
ubiquitous pig. Then up came a tall
competent looking young fellow to re-
port that every precious COW was in
fine shape and had eaten a big sup
per. And then out of the house came
a dark haired Kentucky woman
bearing milk in quart bottles. And
wrinkles and he fOrgave that white
pig his sins.
The lawyer and the newspaper man
| lilac bush was still on the job and it
green frame in the gathering dusk.
closed his gloomy gate and gone home.
Some one lighted the lamps in the big
town ahead and they twinkled like a
and the lights in front became larger
on to the pavement and the brown
chard became merged into the past.
The street car bells c1ang and there
are smokestacks round about. Peo-
pie hurry, and even dandelions cannot
grow through the pavement. But the
newspaper man, hugs to him still his
faith in that lilac bush because he
will surely need it to calm his fears
when 1t comes his turn to take a lot
in ~ofo oddi<;or The