Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1957-11-21
Roy Lee Yinger's-
Beauty at Your Back Door

I've been thinking about this thing for a long
time, and have finally decided that it is about
time got it off my chest
Ralph Waldo Emerson once had a handyman
by the name of Thoreau Now Thoreau thought
that Emerson was certainly wonderful fellow,
and he also thought that maybe he could write
something better and of more consequence than
his boss could.
So Thoreau hied off to some pond out in the
bushes, he built himself shack, and he sat down
and started to write book
At the end of two years Mr.. Thoreau had
finished his "book" so he decided that it was
time that he took himself back to civilization and
have his book printed for all the world to enjoy.
The book, when it was printed, was called
walden Pond" Lately it has come out in paper
backs as walden" Some smart land do mean
smart) editor deeted the pond" word certainly
not calculated to promote interest or euphony.
The book has had, as far as I can ascertain,
phenomenal sale and has helped to create
growing interest in Nature and the great out-of-
doors.
But here's what 1 started out to say couldn't
read it.
It wasn't because didn't try to read it; I
sat down with it the first time thinking 1 was
going to find something out about Nature that
didn't know. read twenty-five or thirty pages
and 1 said to myself "that man is trying to write
about something he doesn't know anything about"
That the end of Walden Pond as far as I
was concerned. There certainly wasn't anything
interesting or Informative in that book for me-
Several years passed. Every so often some
one would say Troy you write about Nature -
have you ever read Walden Pond?" This hap
pened so often that one day 1 thought would
try to read it again. l thought that I could
just possibly have misiudged the book the first
time 1 thought you'd better read it all
through" and then you can see if your judgment
about 1t was right the first time.
And so I tried Walden Pond again / tried
to read it with an open, an unprecedented mind
gave 1t an honest try.
Do you know what? 1 couldn't read as far
in it as did the first time.
This little piece is not meant to belittle book
whom critics have acclaimed as a masterpiece.
And certainly none who read this column will
refuse to read this book just because couldn't
read it. might make the most damaging state
ments about Walden Pond, might call it pure
tommyrot, but instead of hurting the sale of it
/ am quite it would cause more people to
go out and buy it.
Why do think Thoreau failed when he tried
to write about Nature? I'll tell you why.
Maybe did read only rs pages in this book
But Thoreau left something out which he shouldn't
have left out when he wrote I found that much
out in twenty-five pages.
Thoreau left out God / didn't read the whole
book, but God certainly wasn't in the first part
of 1t, and as far as / am concerned there is no
such thing as Nature unless it is unequvocally
tied up in some way with the celestial. You try
to find even an oak leaf which is not linked with
something divine and YOU would have a curiosity
the Smithsonian Institute would clamor for so
that they could preserve it for posterity to won
der at
There is nothing idvllyic or superlatively
divine about ANYTHING say when 1 write about
Nature, but like to think when write that I've
got God in there somewhere and that mavbe
there'll be some thought transference when some
one reads what I've set down.
Mavbe Thoreau would have written better
book II he had heard the sermon once heard
in beautiful and stately church in Philadelphia.
have forgotten the preachers name; but
he certainly must have been a wonderful man
he has lust taken the pastorate of the church
rel'nquished by the eminent DR. Russell H. Con-
we'll man revered the world over for his inn
mortal lecture (Which everyone should read)
Acres of Diamonds
1t seems that this preacher when bow had
lived on a farm in the state of Oregon Toward
Fall the men would take four horse WAGONS and
go to the mountain for wood fuel for the stoves
which had to be kent going dav and night during
the long, cold winter But let the preacher tell
the story:
when the wood was all finally gotten in"
said he 1T was pile as big as a house II was