The Washington times., 1918-01-18
The Brown Rat in ChiCagO's
Lincoln Park
de Never Goes Over Look at the Great Lake His Hole
In the Ground Interests Him.


soe OF the drive as you walk from the bear pit climb
suicide bridge to the edge of Lake Michigan in Chicago
When you watch him he watches you He does not 90
down into his hole unless presume much get close
enough to see his eyes distinctly.
Then ne goes down. but and keeps tree
between you and him. He does like to miss the end of
the day
He is wonderfully active, alert and EFFICIENT
His trail leads from the foot of the tree beside the drive
to the andocked body of water upon which the little motor
it is safe.
He swim-that brown rat-and does swim. He is
wonderfully organized boatthe only the water that
never gets out of order.
His engine his heart the nerves are his rausmis
sion and ignition his lungs his carburetor and the brain
In the rat sku-as mysterious your bran-is his
driver.
He lives happy in his domain, never doubling that the
whole park was made for him. little beings believe the
whole universe made for He is quite sure that the
motors rushing by his raho the drive are NOT inhab
ited and that intelligent mind created them He is an
agnoscyou can make him believe anything that he can
not understand and he understand
prove very much he is happy and sefsatished rat and
knows that the yarn about the park being laid and the
stone orVe maze on purpose fairy story not to be
swallowed by any AGNOSTIC rat
He good rat however; minds his own business keeps
regular hours and goes look the big lake
He up and down his little path lives in his hole at
the foot of the tree looks with contempt at the queer gray
animals with bush tails that live UP the tree and day
ne Will die his hole with his teeth grown long, and die
WINGED that he has not missed anything that life had offer
You may see that rat any evening if you will take the
trouble to visit Chcagos Lincoln Park and watch the
right spot.
city They humans not rodents twoegged and without
fur, but Intellectually they, too are rats
They live in their little holes and have their little run
ways They deny what they can't understand, and they
look the big lake. which, human beings walking
erect great mysterious sky of night with all its beauty
Beautiful is Lake Michigan that the brown rat has never
SEEN although he might reach in minutes from his hole
The sun is down. leaving behind him enough light to
The rising moon fights with pale light against thin
clouds and against the bright memory of the just gone
wind full of life and power blows the water carry
ing cold with It, Those that must walk by the lake get
from work to their holes hurry and shver The are
taking on the dreariness of winter.
In the southwest great planet shines with pure light
When you will have been dead million years that noble
light will shine In that spot and then perhaps,
will begin to know and appreciate the lake, which
they live.
It is the lake of infinite space and unening time the
lake of the stars and planets and nebuae-the lake
in which solar systems the units the Milky Way single
current and we microscopic atoms OF life cngng to grain
Of sand.
The brown of Lincoln Park the great lake
few hundred yards from his hoe-10 900 900 miles could
not separate him from completely And if he did
it would to him only drearness horror and terror
it too big for his BRAIN too overwhelming for his courage
We rats that live here do not OUR great lake. the
eternal infinite universe in which grain of sand is rolling
And because cosmc rats and less than rats,
reco from it in and horror that brown would
Tecoil from the lake so near him.
We invent time and space and the clock to comfort
We plan gded heaven at the top of innity and pain
full hell at the bottom We cannot bear to look at it
We cannot bear to face it, study it and revere it.
But built to stand strag and look at the sky will
not forever be human rat living in intellectual hole in
the ground.
The stars that out by one and look down so
codly will different the thousands of centuries
go by. They will always tiny feeble pitifu little be-
gnnngs of thought for cannot rise above planet
But they will at least not afraid to face his destiny
and study the universe that contains him.
Man will find the courage to live mentally and to THINK
as far in the universe his telescope will carry him
and far beyond.
He will glory the fact that he dwells in the infinite
and can think in the infinite.
will be forever the mental brother of the rat of
Lincoln Park -
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