The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1917-04-02
ev EDGAR lLlFF

ev EDGAR iLiFF
When you awoke that morning the
sun was shining in your eastern win.
dows and flooding with gold the pic.
ture Of your mother hanging on the
wall. Your first thought was, And
this is my birthday. Does anyone on
earth but myself know II? VIII 1t oc.
cur TO any persons that have reached
another milestone
This WAS egotism, of course Why
should anyone be taxed with the mem
ory OF your or my birthday? Birth.
days are as common as death and
taxes and as sure. A persons owns
his birthday absolutely No one. no
corporation, no government, however
powerful, can take 1t away from him
No One Else Wants IT,
No one else would want 1t and No
one else would take 1t as gift. es-
pecially If II is little shopworn or
ancient, You must attain it yourself
Just as you are notified scripturally
that every man must work out his own
salvation himself.
Your mother gave you the right to
win birthdays and you will keep on at.
tanning them until--well. will not say
until death comes, for we do not know
~ yet what death is, besides | prefer
the Oriental phrase, Until the De
stroyer Delights and the Sunderer oil
Companions visits thy house"
Woman's beauty is not the only
thing yelled in the Orient Persian
and Arabian literature softens the
harsh and ugly in life. Flowers, fruits,
the lutte, and cool refreshing fountains
are pictured to us instead Of CHASTITY
realism. The women are as fair az
the young moon. that delicate silver
crescent hanging In q pale blue sky.
Hates Brutal Frankness.
hate that brutal frankness found
In the representative novel Of this
age. "The Rise and Fall of Susan
Lenox'' l shrink from it as one would
from alazaretto or leper. hate the
universally described dying scenes
found in the realistic novels of Arnold
Bennett. His "Old Wives Tale" is
morbid. Then there is Camille, and
Tolstoy's Death of Ivan Illyitch.
There are horrible pictures of physical
decay of dissolution, of fresh corrupt
ion, the last dying gasp, the rattle in
the throat. the stark and staring
corpse. These are facts of course bur
the world does not live upon facts but
demands truths. Facts are for science
and truths are of the things unseen
and made up of eternal verities. 1t is
not the fact that makes you free; it If
the truth. Fact and truth stand apart
fp,tth q ~
Is in chains; truth is free as the air.
"5est Sellers Diseased
The real fact is that current, best
sellers" are diseased; they have mi
crobes. germs of decay. The average
picture show is no better. There are
books that should never faint the
soul OF man or woman and picture
Aims that should never be exhibited.
Susan Lenox" faithfully portrayed
in Abe moving pictures would be as
shameful, as putrid and sinking as a
sewer. And yet the book is scattered
h~o~dcaet through public libraries and
''"7kstores. 1t reveals life in all its
\ l;deons ASPECT. 1t takes the lid off
nf he'll. 1t is more horrible than
Dante's Inferno. 1t inculcates psssi.
~. SUI. IL SHOWc the SlCCcso vi luS
beast, the failure OF the lamb. 1t
teaches that there is no hope for the
honest and virtuous poor. and success
and money and responsibility and
power and comforts and luxury for
the Wise however crooked.
If YOU will take up any Persian OF
Arabian tale you will see many stories
ending like this:
According to Persian Version
Then they abode in JOY and pleas
u-e and good cheer till the Destroyer
Of Delights and the Sunderer of Com.
psnions came to them. He who layeth
reorleth the sanctuary of the tomb
So they were removed from the world
and became of the number Of the dead
and glory be 10 the living One who
oieth not and in whose hand are the
KEYS Of the Seen and Unseen"
| may as well confess that I am
not worshipper at the shrine of that
breed Of science assuming to be the
whole thing When everything is re-
duceG to scientific measurements and
scundings, and the laboratory puts its
STAMP upon the sweetest sentim ents
Of life. there won't be any more
people Or romances, or songs Of the
nightingale under the lindens, or Mid.
sumner Nights Dreams. or hitching
Jour wagon to star, or the leaps and
bounds OF Joyous young souls. Then
we shall be deeply educated in the let
ter, In the facts Of life. and then We
shall have death, for surely the letter
killeth while the spirit alone sivest
life.
Neglect Small Amenities.
French and German critics, speak.
ing for two races Of people who make
much OF the small amenities OF life,
say that we Americans have no real
family affection. Tile French and Ger.
nan observe all birthdays in young
and old. making merry over the an.
niversaries Of mother, father. child
srandchild and grandparents. They
charge US with neglecting these little
amenities Of home life. We are too
busy for such trfling things. Our
very names prove our cold indiffer.
ence. We speak OF grandmothers as