The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1920-09-02
BEAUTIFUL

mississippi. us banks on DOth SldeS
are a continuous stretch of scenic
beauty. Trees of every kind, but
mostly oak. The whole thing is a
tangled mass of forest and wildwood,
vines and ferns and running springs
Such a sight to me is one of the most
fascinating in all nature. Where there
is a barren spot too poor and shady
along this river for anything else to
grow you will find the beautiful pines.
The pine seems to delight in showing
the rest OF the trees what ii can do
on barren soil-in fact, no soil nothing
but pure sand. Among the great flint
and granite rocks there o find the
pines again They seem to be trying
to soften a frowning providence by
getting a foothold and covering these
awful, aw~e-inspiring rock with beauty.
One will send its roots down into a
crack in the great rock so small you
could scarcely drive a wedge in. These
Zine trees ought to serve as an object
lesson to man to encourage him TO
do hard things in this world. Nature
is a great educator, IL we will only
watch her ways. She only teaches
by hints, no talk about it. Solomon
pays a great compliment to the ant
as a teacher, and the ant has never
been known to say a word to anybody.
Some one says the man who invented
the telescope OF his hint from the con-
truction Of the human eye, Where
could he have found a hint more help
full?
There are no birds about the woods.
! suppose it is too late for anything but
hers, probably waiting for the corr to
ripen. One man told me that the
crow was a great enemy of the farm
er, eating the corn from the shocks.
| could not help thinking Of the old
nursery rhyme: said the black bird
to the crow into the cornfield we must
90, it's been our trade since I've been
born eating up the farmers corn"
Lakes and rivers! Water and trees
seem to go together in this world like
some other things-like milk and hon
cy, ham and eggs, and the president
Of Drake University says, gum chew
ing and bad grammar" But the placid
waters of Wisconsin, together with
her trees, have a charm for everybody
nearly everybody. or course, there
ere always a few like Wadsworth's
character who saw a primrose by the
rivers brim, but that was all il was to
him, nothing more. The tired man and
his wife go to the lakeside for rest.
They have a cottage in the woods
along the beach and a rowboat and a
bathing suit for each one OF the fam
ily-no phones, no books, no aid So
c~ieties, no politics. Everybody is sup
posed to fish. Three and four year old
children carry a hook and line as they
ride in the boat with their parents.
These people do but little damage to
the fish but they keep at it. This fish
ing has a strange fascination for
many people-both the intellectuals
and the other kind, from Grover Cleve-
land down. | told them a story about
the man who was fishing Just outside
the walls of the asylum. He flshed all
day and did not get a bite. At sun
down one Of the inmates of the insti-
tuition climbed up on the wall and ask
ed the fisherman to come in where he
was, because said he, here is where
YOU belong" They laughed at my
story but that was all the good it did,
they kept right on fishing. The fish
gre shy and hard to catch. They ought
:. q be for the prophet, Isaiah says they
were angling in the brook for fish
when he was on earth. But. like some
men buy oil stock and other get-rich-
quick schemes, some of them do get
caught. / wonder how long it will
take before the suckers. both men and
fish. will learn not to bite another
mans game. Will they ever learn il:
/ ought TO say a word about the
beautiful steam boats that run excur-
sions out Of st Paul. They run down
he Mississippi 25 miles, then up the
st. Croix so miles and back, some
boats Carrying one thousand people.
One such boat passing in the night
burned enough electricity to light a
city. One boat belonging to the Mayo
Brothers, the surgeons that have made
Minnesota famous. carrying maybe 100
young people, stopped over night near
the shore OF the river within 200 feet
of the point where I was stopping.
They no sooner finished their evening
meal on the boat than they donned
their bathing suits and went into the
water. Young men and young women
and children, delightful. happy young
folks overlooking with life. / could
not help thinking Of the change since
was youug aud fret Sfortad 70 sohoo1