The Seattle star. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1899-1947, 1924-07-21
BY John w. NELSON

w.
lEOR 40 years, day in and day out, Josef Reche has
watched dawn creep the Cascades and day recede
behind the treecovered hills.
Things in Reches little farmsead high up lssaquah
mountain. have moved little. The small fruit trees-appe
cherry plum and pearof have become stately
creatures Each spring the hay shoots up and each sum
mer is scythed down by Reche's skilful arms.
The chickens utter around the barnyard and the goats
Craze esrey wandering here and there as the taste for
fodder prompts.
Probably the animated thing the place is saucy
little stream that babbes nosy down thru the center OF
the place singing cheerful song in summer which deepens
almost to bass roar when the rains come.
PUT APART from the walks of men, Reche lives quietly
- and contentedly cuvang probably three acres, and
these acres provide him with sustenance
Outside the great world hurtles onward-to what2
Dynastes crash moving fields Of sway and struggle
in destructive combat In the cities the railroad train
suppants the wagon train the automobile cures past the
steam locomotive. And airpanes to tease the earth
bound motorist.
Statesmen flash the pages of history and paint
their iii bazon letters upon nations consciousness
They are gone, but Reche remains.
lT UNEMPLOYMENT and famine haunt the crowded tene-
- ments and panics and bankruptcy spur the giants Of
Industry to unceasng toll Mother nature provides for
Reche each year bounteous supply Of food and comfort
do you not get lonesome here, Monsieur Reche?'
"Lonesome-for what? Yes. sometimes I get lonesome
II wish sometimes to talk with my wife-ong since dead
Sometimes to talk to her here And my friends who
come sometimes to Yes sometimes get lonesome
II am old man. There is no one near here"
But the ctesdo you not want to mngle in the crowds
the lights flash hear the swish of sken garments and
the gay voices of beautiful women?"
Reche smiled. See my dog-he has no name But he
keeps the wolves and coyotes away He good friend
true friend My Buck big felowhow easily he could
kill a He. too watches the farm and keeps harm
away from the chickens and the kids and the members of
his flock
MY cats destroy the mice and rats that would eat my
vegetables have plenty do not want food. If wish
meat kill goat chicken. My dog eats rabbits and
mountain beaver. But am getting old"
THREE SCORE AND TEN YEARS the allotted span of
man. have passed the grazing locks of Monsieur
Reche sometimes called the Hermit of Issaquah Mountain
But they have dealt kindly with him. leaving him hale and
hearty, with kindly smile in his faded gray eyes
"But each day read; get the newspapers. Each day
walk down and get The Star in Seattle before The
Star there. ! have read it every year since And
there read about the world News from far and near
printed there each day in The Star 1t is good paper
"And watch the world go by-n The Star-the world
that hurries onward with speed each year. Speed
speed everything rush to get somewhere The Star tells
me of the speed of the trains and the automobiles the
arpanes in battle array at Sand Point Everything is this
Speed They hurry-to what? The Star does not tell me
that"
THE kindly eyes of the Hermit shifted to little green
arbor in of the farmyard. Was it magma
ton did the reporter white sab headstone there
among the greenery?