The L'Anse sentinel., 1923-12-28
WITH THE
HIGH SCHOOL
CLASSICS
By MARGARET BOYD
-. Iife's fitful fever :"
-Macbeth


than year; because, he said. II
wished to live deliberately, TO front
only the essential facts Of life. and
see IL could not learn what it had to
teach. and not, when l came TO die,
discover that l had not lived"
He obeyed Eplctetus' injunction,
Cease to make yourselves slaves,
first Of things. and then upon their
account, of the men who have the
power either to bestow or take them
away'-he had In his house no furni-
ture that wds not essential to his
and he supplied practically all his
needs from his own garden. In this
manner he secured lucid Interval In
"life's ftful fever" and learned that,
"When we are unhurried and wise, we
perceive that only great and worthy
things have any permanent and abso-
lutte existence"
A generation ago the mass Of hu-
manity secured momentary lucid In
terval In life's fitful fever once each
week. The automobile, the movies,
the radio and general relaxation OF
the blue laws have changed that. Sun
day Is now as filed and hurried as
any other day of the week.
Nowadays few Of us secure even the
slightest lucid inaerval-we never at
all get away from the needs and duties
and responsibilities of everyday exist
ence. Yet these are things without
permanent existence-things such as
those that interest us during the de-
lirium Of fever, things that are real
for the moment only.
The savage who sits on the bank
and fishes or who ranges the woods in
search of game has lifetime in which,
to evolve a theory of life; but his
civilized brother is so busy getting to
the Office on time. reading the papers,
dressing conventionally, seeing all the
shows, inventing labor-saving devices,
and the like, that he never has time
to think Of life until time for death.
Then he cries with Peer Gynt:
SO unspeakably poor. then. a soul can
go
Back to nothingness. into the gray of
Thou beautiful earth. be not angry
with me
That I trampied thy grasses to no
Thou beautiful sun. thou hast squan-
dered away
Thy glory of light in an empty hut.
There was no one within 1t. to hearten
The owner they tell me. was never at
home.
where the Father Of Waters
seizes the hills in his hands, and
drags them down to the ocean,"
-Evangeline.
We speak of the everlasting hills,
yet even the mountains do not last
forever. Bit by bit the rills and rivu-l
lets carry the mountain to the brooks
and the creeks; these carry 1t to the
rivers and they, in turn, to the ocean.
When a mountain stream Is muddy, 1t
is at work dragging down the noun
tain-the muddier the stream, the
quicker 1t is carrying away the noun
tain.
The best place to see streams at
work on hillsides Is where the hill
sides are farmed. So long as slope
is covered with forest, it washes lit
tie, no matter how steep II may be.
Even after the timber has been cut
off and the slope turned into pastur-
age, the roots Of the sod prevent
washing except during severe storms;
but when the mountaineer plows his
fields and puts in corn or wheat, you
can fairly see the hillside go. Every
rain washes great gulleys, and in no
time at all the top soil has all been
carried away. II is not taken at once
to the ocean, but is left for period
to enrich the valley land.
We have helped tremendously In
natures lcveling work by cutting the
forests that once clothed our hill.
sides. There is nothing like net
work of roots plus covering Of fallen
leaves when it comes to keeping a
hillside In place. The forest furnished
both.
One of the country's richest rail-
roads runs, In part, through hills and
mountains. Their engineers tried all
sorts of devices TO. keep the slopes
and cuts from washing. Finally they
tried planting cuttings Of Virginia
creeper along all bare slopes, and
that seems to have solved the prob,
lem. Many Of the patrons Of the road
took It for granted that the railroad
was trying to beautlfy Its lines when
they first noticed the cuttings planted
on the banks, because banks and cuts
covered with green creeper In the
summer and with flaming creeper in
the autumn are much lovelier sights
than washed clay slopes.
In old countries where the value Of
soil Is better recognized than II is
with us, humanity has checked the
rate at which streams can carry away
hillsldes by terracing the slopes.
Walled terraces are most expensive,
but so far humanity has not found any
other device that will enable It to cul-
tivate a'steep slope without haviag the
streams seize the top soil and
carry 1t or toward the ocean.