Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1919-10-15
FONDGLANCES BACKWARD
FROM THE BLOSSOM SHINES OF
THE GOLDEN STATE
Printer and Writer in Fond Remem-
brance of the Old Home and
Parents in Viroqua
Los Angeles. Cal. SeptenbI

tdSb--ELDLh Z. OON Lar.
My Dear Brothers and Sisters -
From his trip to the east, Wayne has
returned to The glorious west, where
sunshine, continual summer, soft airs,
the fragrance of flowers, the noun
tains, and the sand, the sea and the
surf combine to make the heart glad
He visited many cities with which he
used to be familiar, but Viroqua prov
ed of the greatest interest. While
there he visited the spot where the
old home used to stand, of which
nothing remains. He slowly and
Of the ground which we knew so well
thoughtfully walked over every foot
in other days, picking up and con-
templating, each in its turn, a door
knob here, lock there, hinge, the
broken remains of an old crock, which
maybe, used to contain some of those
wonderful cookies-the while men,
cries were running riot through his
mind of the things that used to be.
He looked with sorrowful eyes at
the place where the red raspberry
bushes used to stand, where, as a hap
py boy, in the early morning of each
day he picked a saucer of dew-cover-
ed berries and joyously rushed to
grandma for sugar and cream. And
as he stood there he saw, over in one
corner, last surviving bush, old and
careworn fromne and he brought
sprig of it home to me in California,
and it now lies enshrined in a place
of honor. and will be used as a key
to unlock the door to the memories
of the past. And he also found, amid
the mud and debris and the dead and
dying things, two lilies in bloom,
started and made beautiful by old
and wrinkled hands in that flower bed,
and these, too, he plucked and brought
to this land of the setting sun, to be
preserved and kept where flowers (col-
lectively) never die.
When the old home was bought and
paid for, beginning in 1866, money
was scarce. Probably there were not
more than few hundred dollars in all
of Viroqua. Several summers father
went to southern Minnesota with his
team of horses, "Dock" and "Seal",
and worked in the harvest fields.
But the last dollar finally was paid,
and such feeling of relief, content
ment and satisfaction possessed moth
er and father that those were really
joyous days.
We had many happy days in Viro-
qua, and perhaps some sorrows, but
do not feel harsh toward any one, for
anger blows out the lamp of the mind
which lights the way. | may antag-
oniZe selfishness, but not seriously
the one who is selfish, for Love is all
there is in the world-love of life,
love of nature, love of all creatures.
Love shines upon the babe and sheds
its radience on the quiet tomb. 1t
fills the world with melody. Love is
the magician, the enchanter that
changes worthless things to joy. Love
is religion that takes the place of
creeds, dogmas, tracts and platforms.
There on the old side porch, to the
music of the crickets, the song of the
wind and the lullaby of rustling leaves,
/ had, many times in later life, talked
hour, and at such times she was at
were over and all the household were
asleep and safe. She was a deep
thinker and she looked through PHYS
tears upon the faults of her children,
and could see the winding ways of
greed, ambition and deceit of the
world, and, she said, at is all for the
best"
The six of us; yea, seven of us, were
born of love and hope, of happiness
and pain, of agony and fear, of tears
and joy. We were held to happy
hearts, rocked by willing feet and
wooed to the shadowy shores of sleep
by mother singing soft and low
~Gently falls the dews of evening
Der that little grassy mound"
The words proving love that
would never die for Cora, the first
born. Night after night we were
held in wondrous arms and lulled to
rest, and in our last conscious mo-
ments, and seemingly far distant, we
could just distinguish:
Hush, my babe, lie still and slumber,
Guiding angels guard thy bod
All! And in the early, sleepy morn
ing, just before he went away on the
stage, father would say: Hold up
your head! Hold up your head!"
And strong arms would grasp us,
hold us, and each would receive a kiss
from an honest father.
But they are both gone now, and
we can but stand beside their graves,
and in the hush and silence, feel what
speech has never told. The old home
is gone-the home where In youth
we faced the sun, where we lived in
the light without fear or thought
of the dusk or night.
And now some of us have reached
the zenith of life and are peering over
the top trying to see the road that
leads down on the other side; and,
later, when the sun begins to sink
IN the west, and shadows fall in front
and lengthen on the path, then will
fall upon the heart the dim and half
remembered things, and in the hour
glass of time the eyes will watch the
few remaining grains of sand that
hasten to their end. But when the
aged have performed the duties of life
nobly, when the sun touches the hor-
lion, when the purple twilight falls
upon the past, death comes like a
strain of music. The day was long,
the road weary and the traveller glad
ly goes to his rest.
Life is a shadowy strange and wind
ing road which we travel for a little
way-a few short steps-just from
the cradle with its lullaby of love to
the low and quiet wayside inn, where
all at last must sleep, and where the
only salutation is: Good night"
Affectionately, your brother,
ELMER.