Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1916-04-29
Life.

Journal.l
Walking thru the poorer quarters OF
one Of our large cities the other day.
was oppressed by sight Of its squat
or and its suggestions of vice. Block
after block. the only evidence Of trade
was in the multiplicity of drinking re-
sorts and the equally numerous second
hand clothing stores. all filthy places
past description. The air was sour with
stale beer, and thru the gratings in the
sidewalk came the reek Of whisky bar
rels piled in the cellars, while at the
doorway OF every shop hung festoons
Of sadly worn and badly patched shoes.
The windows We're piled high with
pasteboard "gripsf Shoes and grips
alike suggested that the people who
''holed' here were always hearing the
command to move on
But, unexpectedly, from one of the
dirtiest of the passages between the
tottering houses issued two little chill
dren, a boy of s and a girl of 8.
dressed in the bedraggled finery Of
some past festival, raising in my mind
long. long thoughts and calling to
my eyes tears Of compassion. Yet just
as these thoughts were too mournful
for me to bear, the tiny pair, hand In
hand, broke into lamb-like gamboI
and went rollicking down the vile
street rs tho it were the '.tapis vert" of
a kings garden. And straightway
thanked God, whatever the later years,
heaven lies about US in our infancy"
as Wordsworth says. and before the
shades Of the prison house begin to
close" upon US, we born In hut or born
in palace. realize the "joie de viyre,''
just the joy Of being alive, fresh from
the hand of God, the Source of Life,
dancing under a sapphire sky a brief
hour before our carefree morning
fades into the light of common day.
ls.E--.t TX" 49, II
Yes, Notwithstanding the sings and
arrows Of outrageous fortune" Life ID
sweet, the sweetest thing we know ex-
cept love, the dearest Of our posses
sions making all the rest possible. We
haye-who knows how many-arts and
sciences to which men devote them.
selves in studious years. but it 10 life
after all that gives either an art or q
science its fascination for US. The
geologist breaks in bits the sandston!
OF the shale. not that he cares for the
fragments, but that he may discover
from the mold what form life as
sumed in those paleozoic ages oyel
whose Shiny shores the saurian traile6
s.s rec. bulk and /; !ss. e"!ae::ee g =.
existence. We turn our telescopes t.
| the sky, not that we care to know thu
number Of stars In the milky way, bu
because we are forever tormented witt
| the question whether there are "othel
worlds than ours" In which life exists
| In the picture gallery It is not thu
swelling wave that catches our eye, pu
I The swimmer who breasts the wave o.
the sailor who faces the storm. IL 1t b
| 4 landscape it has little interest for vi
unless the plowman be seen driyinl
1 his team afield or some angler wade'
1 the ripping stream or the meditativ'
| grandsire sits beneath the arches Of tn
elm. Even music stirs us but feeba
II It be simply the concord OF sWee
sounds: but let It be the vehicle 9
ifife,s emotions. a Miserere, q Jabilat
4 or q requiem, we are moved. Whateve
may have been our disappointment
however heavy our burdens or sIafl
(our pains, we are likely to say as W
4 drawAnear the bounds Of our years;
.afe. we've been long together, fa
Thru pleasant and thru cloudy weather
j rris hard to part when friends are deal
irwin cost 4 Sigh, perhaps q tear;
tThen steal. away. give little warming
moose thine own time M
4 ray not good night, but N some nap
pier cline
Hid me good morning. i;