Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-11-02

The thoughtful person" IL would
seem, Is one who worships A. the mod.
ern shrine OF intelligence. and so come,
to have A natural shame for the emo.
tons and all that they stand for In
human life.
One can tell. from the very smart
chatter of the writer that so far his
life has been healthy, happy and free
from disease or death. Some day. when
the one or the other of these calami.
ties comes TO him. ne will wonder al
his present book and how one so in
telligent, and particularly so "Scier
tific," could have been so sure a.
everything.
The helpful thing about garden work
is that it keeps alive the spirit OF won
der in man. and shows him that the
unknown forces which sway the uni
verse are not to be summed up In a
little book written by the hands or
brain Of man.
The garden tells It's old. old story 10
any one who chooses to go there, pro-
yided ne make his pilgrimage often
enough and in the frame Of mind and
heart which will permit him to sink
something of the ego of man in the
universal processes.
Here is seedtime, and planting, and
harvest. and here Is the annual death
of those things which grow, and are
happy and beautiful in their time, but
yet must meet the universal fate.
In the garden. where there Is neither
writing nor reading. nor even arith-
metic, the false pride of intelligence
falls away, and the gardener finds him.
self face to face with the world as it is,
not as he would like it to be or thinks it
ought to be.
Yet the garden Is no cure-all for the
woes Of the disposition or the faults OF
character which weigh down humanity
the same today as In the old days.
Scipio old savage, as he plowed his
land kept looking across the sea and
muttering, Carthage must fall!' He
cared nothing for the thousands of
helpless and innocent who would be a
part Of that fall.
The land which he cultivated had no
softening influence on his mind, or
heart. or soul, or so much of these
qualities as he possessed. Neither will
garden work today give man anything
but what he has to begin with. SO let
no one expect miracles.
Indeed. gardening probably merely
intensif1es such traits as a man has.
That is why it is not for every one. The
cruel and mean tempered will scowl
over their trowels much as they would
do at the club when some brother arose
and proposed for membership some one
they did not like.
1t would therefore seem proper to
believe that gardening makes its best
appeal to those men and women who
are of such innate kindly dispositions
that they can bring to their work the
qualities which mix best with sunshine.
green leaves and colorful flowers.
Such people always are attracted to
gardening. Selfish, self-centered per-
sons. who always are thinking about
themselves who want to astound others
with their learning or achievements,
seldom take up gardening as hobby.
They are too busy"
At this point we can hear some
reader pop UP and declare, why, the
meanest man ever knew raised the
finest tomatoes in our community
Probably so, probably so. We recall
that once In this column when we
hazarded the the statement that only
gentlemen smoked pipes, an ac-
quaintAnce Immediately called our at
tention to the janitor but we have
always thought the janitor was quite
the gentleman. and so we stuck to our
statement, and We will now.