The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-04-06

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HeRE LIES fsAss ANe'emr esEssv.
outL cAae.
VINO D's'.rERs the vslove0 evss.
WINTER IN THE TRENCHES
IA Memory
How strange to lie here in this trench Of pain.
scoursed by the winds and pelted by cold rain.
As shrieking winter trafhcs wildly by
And desolates the fields and blights the sly.
Out in the hills the lanterns dance and hy
In answer to the star sheen in the sky
Cold stars that glisten in the frosty night
And scintillate and stab with frozen light
Why only yesterday was at home;
The pleasant paths my feet were wont to roam
The war seemed far away; / did not deem
It was for me more than passing dream.
Yet here am tonight Am to find
The dream is still to pass? My startled mind
Can hardly grasp this grim reality
That fits and dies, yet holds mo utterly
The air that trembles through my weary head
Is but the tune / murmured as l read
Before nv hearth wherein rudy blaze
Shut out the bitter cold of winter days.
But here is snow, cold snow-this much is real
And these close walls of clay are grim as STEEL
There's water in this trench: and-oh!
Can this be war-this weary watching game
Where every day that follows is the same?
have not met my foeman face to face
Yet cold and snow are foemen in his place.
The spring may come and summer rear its head.
And vet for me the hours will be dead;
No bird has sung Here on this weary strand,
And desolation stalks throughout the land.
The forest on the hills is gaunt and torn
Huge shells have made of it thing forlorn.
The fields are churned into murky fen
OF rain and mud and muck and blood Of men.
They say that on the morrow we shall try
The issue out with Steel and may die, 4
Like thousands who before me have charged on
And thousands who will charge when / am
| gone.
Well that is what came for. There's a thrill
In doing things like that. The will to kill
May easily awake; at least I'll fnd
That as change from this, cen death were
Yes. am homesick and this unreal fear
Shall pass. :. But Oh, if could only hear
Some sparrow sing his simple song Of JOY
Or see some flower that bloomed in Illinois.
| &C. E. H.
THE war" appends c. E. H.. lis over
as we'll know. II you think this untimely
!. ;" Well. we did think So But we have just
looked, at picture Of President Harding II
Walter Reed hospital. The president is leaning
over to shake the hand of wounded veteran
an erect, smiling chap who might have beer
as tall as the president. But just below his
hips his body is replaced by small wooder
platform on wheels That was untimely
too.
SMALL TOWN STUFF.
Sir: 1t happened in Peoria county ILL., H,
was young minister counting a maiden BY
the name of Hill "Sundaying' in the neighbor
hood where his sweetheart lived he was con
scripted to preach in the church where she ant
her family attended. Without realizing its ap
propriateness he commenced his scripture
reading for the morning with the passage. :"
will lift up mine eyes unto the hills TIT
moment was more mrthful than devotional
-CAI4LIOPE.
SPEAKING OF spelling las Of course VI
seldom do) here are two first page headlines
from the Dubuque Times-Journal:
! "Col. Harvey Selected as ambassador"
CUT:
Then there is the editorial writer Of tn
Muscatine Journal who is "loathe" to accep
Mary Pickford as an arbiter Of dress.
SINCE we are feeling "pernickety' "a
Cap Stubs ma puts it, today we'd like t.
know if the Davenport Times proofreader con
sidered Joe Carmichael's copy sacred. Tn
caption on his article sounds, he says, "por
tentious' somebody's heroine is "beautious
creature; somebody wants to do something an,
visa versa" and he concludes by inviting yo
to clap your heals" together.
NO-o-O, THE EINsTEIN THEORY, WE
SHOULD SAY.
Sir: The following incident was related +
me by member Of the library board in tn
Iowa city where it took place. A book agen
called at the library. He was selling Tor at
tempting to SELL that series Of volumes on per
sonal subjects, with titles, What Young Bo
Ought to Know. What Young Girl Ough
/ to Know, ETC.. including books for those an
, preaching the evening of life. The libraria.
was spinster who remembered when Brya
attended his first national convention Tn
agent endeavored to sell sets Of the books t
, the library, but she told him she would hay
to bring the matter before the library commit
tee before she could order. Accordingly at tn
next meeting of the board she preached tn
subject Her memory was somewhat defectiy
and in trying to tell the titles Of the books sh
said: "They have subjects such as What
Woman OF As Wants and Ought to Have"
Was she an example Of Freud's theory?
> -LUCIFER.
AS Berton Braley wrote the other day. "r',
I damned il I'll be forty while I'm twenty in m
!, heart"