Evening star., 1949-10-25
This and That
By Charles E. TraceweH

~ was sort OF summer day in October
Wnen the white-throated sparrow new in.
Usually he finds 1t cold enough to suit
him. But If he were dissatisfied, he gave
no indication of it.
He f1ew into the rhododendrons below the
dining room windows.
Did we say below?
"a AL over the windows would be better.
the years cause plants to grow and men
TO draw into their shells like turtles
one becomes afraid to prune plants and
shrubs the way they ought to be pruned
with the result that windows become dark
ened.
This overgrowth Of shrubs is one of the
sadoer traits OF civilization. Maybe old
Observation-Disclosures him?-was thinking
OF nothing more nor less than overgrown
Snruooery when he told so glowingly of the
glories Of war.
Peace hath its victories no less than war
out surely overgrown shrubbery is not one
of them
Countless homeownerS need to be stirred
out OF their easy chairs and their inertia.
1ney should take to saw and pruning
knife. and ruthlessly hack down. saw and
pierce the various shrubs until they are in
more civilized condition.
Not that the birds care,
The wilder. the larger, the leggier shrub
berry and all foundation paintings are, the
more the little birds like them.
The birds, including the white-throated
sparrow. fly in. and make themselves at
home.
FOR them no worries as to whether a
natural thing is overgrown or not II they
could think and talk as we do, no doubt
they would say, "Why, do you call this
overgrown? call it delightful, tweet-tweet.
tweet"
Thus we have a variation Of another old
saying, that what is one mans meat is
another's poison; what is humans des-
pair, is a birds delight
1t is thus that bit of over-ripeness in
the home ground paintings is not bad, If
we think of the birds and the other wild
things
Old Man Rabbit, he Of the brown fur and
cotton TAIL leaps across the yard, and finds
it more to his liking If the grass Is tall and
the shrubbery thick
Old Man Squirrel, pest in England, fel-
low traveller on the way here, springs at
one bound into the midst of the bird feed
ing station, as light as bird himself and
twice as hungry.
Old Man Possum heaves in, at midnight.
to catch a bit Of suet from the suet holder,
and happy is he if he is able to outwit
Malty the cat
Malty. the cat, neat as prince in his
blue-gray suit thinks nothing amiss if he
can find plenty of bushes to hide in from
Toady, the aisdale.
Toady Is pest as far as Malty is con-
cerned. And the same to Tar Baby, black
cocker spaniel, and another long legged
pooch up the street whose name Malty does
not know.
All the things you are may be summed
up in shrubbery, but every ones interpre-
tation Of the evidence may differ
That, Of course, is what makes life in
teresting, and also accounts for all the
disputes and the $3.50 split in opinion on
most topics.
cally all men Of good will agreed on most
things. Or did they? Maybe some Of them
were just too afraid to say what they
thought? What and who are they afraid
Of now?
Or did they think then? Or do they think
now? Life is all such a puzzle.
One longs, at times, to be just a white
throated sparrow, flying in at ease into an
overgrown mass of rhododendrons, and
swapping up piece of food found there
at no trouble or expense.
That way madness lies-for a human
being? Probably. Probably Ours to do
or die, to hew close to the line of the edu-
Gated man (or educated fooD to the end
Of time, and the devil take the hindmost.
Today the devils name is Uncle Joe, yes
terday it was Adolf, and once 1t was Ma
poleon.
What will tomorrow's devils name be'