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The Commoner.
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Whether Common or Notw
Don't Grumble, Orowl or nurmur.
If fortune seems to frown on you,
Don't grumble, growl or murmur.
If 111 fates all your plans pursue,
Don't grumble, growl or murmur.
Just grit your teeth and work away;'
Just wear a smile, let como what may?
Thore'll como a bettor time some day
Don't grumblo, growl or murmur.
The sun may bum your growing grain,
Don't grumble, growl or murmur.
The fields turn. brown from lack' of rain.
Don't grumble, growl, or murmur. C
Some day the rain clouds fast will fly -To,
wet the fields now parched and dry;
There'll come a good time by and by
Don't grumble, growl or murmur.
We yet may lean on God's strong arm.'
Don't grumble, growl or murmur. .' -His
promises will shield from harm. .
Don't grumble, growl or murmur.
In other times when sorrow fell
We read His book and heard it tell
That God still lives and all is well .
Don't grumble, growl or murmur.
AA
Another Chance. ., ""
"Edward Markham should make another khlt by
writing a poem in the plural number."" "Sv.,:. '.
"What's that?"
He
Hose.' "
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Daft
"I'm afraid the sun has affected poor Diisen
berry's mind." " - '.:
"Why, I'm astonished! I thought Dusenberry
was all right."
"Perhaps he is, but I'm afraid, I met him
yesterday and in the course .of our conversation
he admitted that his two-year-old boy Has not yet
ay id a really clever thing." '
Credit and Censure.
0, Hanna! Mr. Hanna! When the spring's Tefresh
" ing shower
Gave vigor to our growing fields of grain,
We heard it claimed you sent 'em by the magic
of your power,
That you were author of each soaking rain.
And wo had it pressed upon us that you ruled the
elements; .
That without you harvest chances wouldn't be
worth 30 cents;
And we watched your swift gyrations with an In
terest intense, Mr. Hanna.'
But if you deserve the credit for the well produc
tive years
That filled the barns and bins with corn and
wheat,
Then, Hanna Mr. Hanna It would certainly ap
pear You've got to bear the blame for drouth and
heat.
0, Hanna! Mr. Hanna! Can It bo you've lost your
grip ' - '
On the lever that controls the universe? ,
Can it bo that you are mortal, that you often make
, a slip?
That your engineering skill grows worse and
worse?
.Will you shoulder blame for failure? You took
credit for success.
Will you meekly make admission that you're
nothing more nor less
Than an ordinary mortal? Will you? Come, your
faults confess, Mr. Hanna. x
Toll the truth! The wondrous harvest that we
had in '98
'99 and 1900 wero not duo
To the bounty of the kindness of yourself or MacX,
, V tho Great . . .
If you don't we'll blame the drouth on both of
-you.
i NN
A Cauflo for Worry.
Hitte De Pike "I see dat de Kentucky booze
makers hev decided not t' make over twenty-five
million gallons dis year."
;.:;fJ7alker Rhodes "Dat would be gad news t
ttiitky, humanity, Hitte, 6V boy, 'if wo could git all
we could drink before de rest had a whack at do
i output" .
The Eternal Feminine.
Miss Flighty (visiting in the, country) "What
time 'do you harvest your corn, Mr. Plowem?"
Farmer Plowem "Wo gin'rally begin shuckin
It in November." ,
Miss Flighty "0, I should think you jw.ould
r harvest it in September. Papa says September corn
,'is worth money right now." .
.. . . V ....
Some Consolation.
' ' When heat like this our ills "increase.
One thing doth not concern us,
We do not have to crawl down stairs
To feed a hungry furnace.
A Woman's Reason.
"You remember that stately Miss Minerva
Biggers thogirl who read the essay on'Mind and
Master For.ce' at the, graduation exercises?" -
" -"Yes, Twhat, abouS.her?" - , .'V"
"She's just married that whippersnapperr Slim
set"' ' rV'.. - 4 :-
"You don't say! What could she see in him
to admire?"
' " 'fShe.-jaiscovered that his complexion just
' matohed the ribbon on her diploma." -. '
:
Uncle Eben.
"I hev often noticed," remarked Uncle Eben
as he reached for a fan and seated himself in the
shade of the dry goods box, "that th' man who
is alius hoppin' in t' claim th' credit f'r a. good
thing Is alius th' fust man t' blame other folks
when things go wrong." .
:-
2
Brain Leaks. - . . .
Kind words are- ball bearings that make the
wheels of life run smoothly.
The good in a dollar should be measured by the
motive of the giver.
Charity does not consist in giving what you
do not need. It means sacrifice for the good of
others.
The happy laughter of children is written in
the key of songs sung by the choir celestial.
Patriotism, like charity, begins at home, but
takes an early start into the country.
W. M. M.
A Campaign Story. -
The gold element in the democratic party Is
now trying to control tho party and any demo
crat who raises an objection is accused of disturb
ing the harmony of the party. One Is reminded of
the boy who was playing with the cat. His mother
said, "Tommy, stop pulling the cat's tail.'' He re
plied :,t "I am not pulling the cat's tail. I, am just
holding to tho tail; the cat is doing the pulling."
Wo are just holding to the Kansas City platform
the gold bugs are doing the pulling and disturb
ing tho harmony of the party.
Connecticut's "Rotten Boroughs"
The defeat of the Fyler amendment to the
state constitution by the Connecticut house of
representatives last week calls attention to tho
peculiar plan of representation In tho lowej: house
o! the legislature in that state. There are about
ono hundred! and seventy towns in Connection
and, roughly speaking, half tho towns, tho smallest
ones, havo one representative apiece in th hous
of representatives, and the other half havo two
apiece. This systm has the merit of simplicity,
hut It gives riso to some curious anomalies ofi
government One result Is that New Haven, with
100,000. population, and Union, with 428, havo the
same representation. Twelve towns containing
cities with a population of 484,000 have twenty
four representatives, while twelve other towns,
with a total population of only 8,600, have the
same number of representatives, and, therefore,
equal power in state affairs. Ninety-five towns
with a total population of 105,000 have 128 repre
sentatives, and control the house. As Connecti
cut has a population of over 900,000, it is felt In
some quarters that the control of the house should
not be held by 105,000. The demand has been
rising strongly in late years that this system,
which was adopted generations ago, be reformed
to suit the disributionof population; and the re
publican leaders prepared the Fyler amendment,
a moderate reform measure which gave seven rep
resentatives to New Haven, five each to Hartford
and Bridgeport, and three eacll to twenty-ono
small cities and towns. Thirty-five little towns
would have lost one representative apiece; but tho
small towns would still have controlled two-thirds
of the house. The fact remained, however, that it
was a bill in favor of the cities at the expense of
the small towns, and when it came to a vote in
the house, in spite of the fact that the government,
tho republican leaders, and every republican daily
paper in' the state favored the bill, it was de
feated by the overwhelming vote of 145 to 61. The
Hartford Gourant (yep.) believes that this vote
"has set hack the whole movement for two years;'
but it adds, "if will develop then stronger than
ever," for "this is not the sort of fire that dies
out" The prediction .is freely made, too, that
the next! time the' matter comes up it will come in
a more radical form, and that the representatives
of the little towns will wish then that they had ac
cepted the moderate measure they have just de
feated. "The small towns which killed the amend
ment," declares the Hartford' Times (ind. dem.),
"have helped the very cause to which they were
most opposed, and they have done it in defiance
of the advice and appeal of the best leaders of the
republican party, which has enjoyed all that could
be had from the- present situation." The same
paper adds: "It is not a question of mere abstract
right. It involves money interests in the disposi
tion of taxes paid from tho larger places while
these places have little influence in determining
the use to be made of tho money. It involves the
opportunities for political advancement. It in
volves other things which relate to 'equal oppor
tunity under the law, and since all these causes
work together to one end, that of demanding an
amended system, the demand for that is likely to
continue and become more urgent." Literary Digest.
Tonic for the Soul.
The account of a superb life Is the sweetest
tonic of the soul. Men may amass great fortunes,
build powerful governments, wage great wars, and
like the incomparable Napoleon, drench tho world
in blood, yet they shall all pass away and be for
gotten covered beneath the dust of similar things
decayed. But a wise, serious, high-purposed life,
full of saintly sentiment and crowded with deeds
of Godly intent, will live forever shining with rare
radiance through tho dust of oblivion, as the stars
shine through the ether and circumambient air
glorifying this old earth with a soft and soothing
effulgence. I like to contemplate and, -in my
imagination, loaf around the haunts and fre
quented places of the great men and women whose
noble lives have made this world worth living in.
I like biography, I like to form the acquaintance
of the larger contributors to the sum of the world's
real good. There Is inspiration it is a moral
tonic and a mental stimulant, which is not only
delightful, but absolutely essential to the life and
growth of a well ordered character. For this
reason' I have devoted -so much space in today's
Commonwealth to the article on the first page,-j-Ealph
Waldo Emerson,
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