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The Commoner.
VOLUME 7, NUMBER 3
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The Book of Life
Our lifo Ih liko a book; within
Arc loaves of pure unsullied white,
Whereon the record wo must write
Of each hour's victory or Bin.
Many there be read I lie hook,
Hut fow will pause lo closely look
Between the linos.
"What Hen between the lines?" you
ask;
Tlio hidden Btory of the heart;
Of ovory human life that part,
Which, hold from careloHK eyes away,
Jb yet the meaHiiro of the man.
Look then, and read where'er you
can
Between the lines.
Wo mark, perchance, a brother's sin,
And say, "O, thou, accursed of man,
Henceforth I'll Blum theo where 1
can ; '
My door thou shalt not stop within."
Wo road the story of his shame,
Nor stop to question whoso tho
blame,
Between the lines.
Ilohind each act a niotivo lies;
For each effect a causo must be;
And, If wo would but stop to see
What caused our brother's shame, sur
prise Might start lo us. Ah, there is need,
Before- wo blame, to pauso and read
Between tho linos.
"Thus, oro wo daro to criticise
Tho faults of others, great and
small,
'Tworo bottor that we should recall
Our Judgmont, and direct, our oyes
To our own life-book, thoro to seo
That no blurred, blotted marks there
bo
Between the lines.
Far short of what wo all should bo
Must each ono fall; and yet, ' 'tis
truo
Tis not so much by what we do,
As what wo wished to do that wo
Can best bo jiulgod. Tn each life-book
Aro found such writings only look
Between tho lines.
do let us strive, as pages turn,
To road th' unwritten. All mankind
To their own faults aro strangely
blind,
Though othor's fallings thev discern.
Ah, woll It Is, tho Ono above
Will ever road with patient lovo
Between the lines.
Selected.
Our Home Talks
T have so many things to say to you,
this morning, that I hardly know
whore to begin. But first, lot me
thank those who sent mo letters and
Christmas cards. They wero all so
choory and encouraging that, despite
tho dreadfully dark days tho now year
has brought with it dark in more
1 1 it i 0 l0 somo oC us wo
.""" uu lc'ul ulJitor lor them thev,
tor tho sending; 1, for receiving. Many
good suggestions camo in them, and
I thank vnn fm. .u p m ,,'..
i " .:.: . .. vt uivih. mere
iwu.b room in uio letter box for
wYc T"llsslra. "ear friends, and
wish I could send to each of vou
i'i,au'"i Kiouiuig, in return.
Ono of our renders lives on a "coun
ty road," and is often called unon in
1 iuough recent change of residenco
she is short of tablo supplies exS
tho Inevitable "standards" of broad
meat and coffee, which most isolated
is
all
I
a
farms manage to have, and she would
liko recipes and suggestions for
"moals at all hours" from our eco
nomical housewives. Sho expects to
uiiii1wirif nn nrncsnnl Klinnlv with
canned goods, but hardly knows what
will no the Post, i win oe giau iu
forwa-rd such suggestions to her, if
any are sent in.
In another column, J am giving you
a clipping, which .V wish our "men
rolks" to rend. As tho writer says,
"Some brother may got mad at this,"
but it will bo in his favor if he does;
for it will bo evidence that ho has the
intelligence to "see himself as others
seo him," and tho picture may cause
him to straighten up and mend his
manners. Let us hope so. In my ex
perience of years in country life, I
have often seen this type.
Much is being written, and said, and,
let us hope, being done for the reliof
of tho littlo whltn sbivos t.hn hnhios
and young children who aro impris
oned In lactones and work-shops; but
how many are taking thought for the
littlo children on the farms who are
worked just as hard, fed as poorly, and
deprived of school privileges in order
lo help make tho scant livhur the bar-
Ton farm grudgingly yields them. Who
is to blame lor this condition of
tilings? Not always tho parents; for
they, too, work hard and live the lifo
of "driven cattle" in many instances,
and the school privileges are not to
bo had, except for a few months in the
late summer and early autumn, at a
time when tho young people are par
ticularly needed for gathering in the
crops. During the winter months, the
excuse of bad roads and rough weather
is made, and tho older ones jri-event-od
from getting oven tho little to be
had in tho way of schooling in sparse
ly settled districts.
It is well for children to work; but
the work should bo suited to their age
and intelligence. A few hours every
day will bring bottor results than
working them from "candle-lighting"
in the morning to lato bed-time at
night. Even play will tire a child,
and if play is continued for a long
time it becomes work, then drudgery.
It is not so much more children we
want, but bettor caro of those we
have. In largo families, especially as
conditions now are, tho older children
are forced to become bread winners
for the younger, and it does not always
breed harmony in the family, or ce
inont family ties when the youth finds
himself hampered and tied down with
responsibilities he has not incurred,
and which should never be laid upon his
young shoulders. "I just hate big fa
mlllos, said a good wjfe and affec
tionate mother to mo, one day; "I was
mado to slave for my father's younger
children from my earliest years. Even
when forced out into the world to work
for myself, my scant earnings wero
taken to dress and school my younger
brothers and sisters, who have never
thanked mo by so much as a word for
my years of sacrifice and humiliating
self-denial for their sakes."
More, or Better?
The doctrine of the survival of the
attest, so far as human beings are
concerned does not always work in
S? SSUiin C 0lImInatIng the unfit.
!f"',fSP.,l,8 wn purposes, has re-
t tL V ? ,practIcal demonstration
in the breeding and grading of do-
comol0 f2n ,mal8' tC" m Jien t
comes to tho nnrnHmf? p v!.
species, it too often happens that he
iSJ ySa by the Pulses of nature
rather than guided by the dictates of
reason or wisdom. Ho learns little
from experience, and cares even less
for tho advice or admonitions of those
who would warn him of breakers
ahead.
Race suicide is not, according to sta
tistics, so much to be feared as the
evils of congestion, especially in the
older states and larger cities, such as
will tend in the direction of an in
crease of want, poverty, misery and
crime, becoming rruitful of widespread
discontent, turmoil and, maybe, civil
strife. Better a slower rate of growth
and proper assimilation of the in
crease, so as to insure for all tho con
ditions requisite to produce the types
of manhood and womanhood essential
to the moral as well as the physical
well-being of the people as a whole.
Better even decrease, if in time it re
sults in giving the world not only a
better, but the best men and women,
thus restoring man to the image of his
maker. Home Friend.
Voman's Necessity
In a recent sermon preached to a
St. Louis congregation, the Rev. Mr.
Bishop said:
"It is a numerical impossibility for
every woman to have a husband, there
not being enough husDands, or even
excuses for husbands, to go around;
that the question of a woman's capac
ity to make her own living presents it
self more strongly every year, and that
she must learn to do something useful
to the world in order to solve the
bread and butter problem. He said
they should branch out into new
fields and make their ingenuity and
ability count. That an unmarried wo
man is a hundred times better off than
one unhappily married, for should one
make a mistake, nothing will relieve
it out a luneral. "Comfort yourselves,
if you are unmarried, that you have at
least escaped a purgatory on earth,"
he said. He said "There are mascu
line bipeds, suitors for your hand, who
needs a course of lectures from the
text 'wash and be clean'; who need
to be dipped oftener than the leper,
Naaman, in Jordan; who need to be
kept longer in the refining furnace
than were Shadrach, Meshach and
Abednego; who need to be soaked in
vats of carbolic acid longer than hides
are soaked in vats of red-oak bark
and should then be kept in quaran
tine for a year and fumigated daily
before being allowed to come into de
cont society." He does not describe
the good husbands, for he says every
woman who has a husband at all has
one of that kind; but he further con
tends that almost every one of-the bad
husbands will go around telling that
his wife is "one of the best women
heaven over made."
Ho says there are a few bad wives
and may be a few bad women; but
that many women are "so different be
fore taking and after taking" espe
cially in the matter of dress and neat
ness of person.
For Pimples
It is a very usual thing for boys be
tween the ages of fourteen and Uven-ty-one
years to be troubled with pim
ples, and they should be very careful
as to trying remedies. The best way
liofVid n thm is t0 regulate the
diet keep the body perfectly clean
nV u,se of S0P and warm water
and not be constantly picking and
pressing the pimples as they 'form
Eat plenty of green things, especialTy
lettuce and nnfrma. f..w ,r IUIiy
Pies, oranges, date's, and be sure your
sleeping room is well ventilated. Keep
early hours, and spend more time at
home than you do on the streets.
Medical Magazine.
i
Pillows
The "fashion" in shape of pillows
changes like everything else. Now it
is the oblong pillow, in place of the
round or square ones so long used.
Fashion decrees that none but long,
narrow pillows will be "smart" for
couches or window seats, and even
the- covers of these show distinctive
changes. For materials, in place of
silk, either velour or felt is selected
in plain coiors, among which the dark
wine-red, old-rose and dark-green are
most favored. ' ,
Cords are no longer used for" edges,
but galloons; and these are decorative
in themselves, some being in bright
gilt. Ruffles are not used, and large
buttons covered with gilt give a serv
iceable finish.
For bedrooms, the newest pillows
that are to make the corner seat or
window boxes so comfortable, are iu
the new shape, long and narrow. Serv
iceable hollands are used, or the plain
linens embroidered in the vivid blues,
yellows, and greens that made these
covers so attractive. There are no
ruffles or cords on these, either, but
some have big linen-covered buttons,
one at each corner, as a finish.
Does This Mean You?
I know farmers who go to town six
days in the week and leave little boys
at home to do the work. Unfortun
ately their name is legion. They are
in almost every neighborhood. Their
places look like widows' houses and'
their wives have to pick up wood
along branches and glean the fence to
get fire wood to cook their meals -of
western pork and such vegetables as
they can raise themselves. They have
no house for the fowls, which sleep in
trees and under the leaky shelters on
the wagons and buggies. The wife
had some chickens which she raised,
but tho gate was all to pieces and the
sow got in and ate them up. The
fruit trees are never trimmed. They
have run away to wood till they bring
no fruit, but knotty, wormy things
unfit to eat. These men have no time
to do anything at home; their interest
seems to be centered in town. They
are deeply interested in the war in
the Far East, and will go to the post
offlce and wait for hours to get the
news and if perchance they happen to
stay at home one day, they will stop at
the end of a row and talk politics with
whoever may chance to come along
till the signal for dinner is given and
then wait for their little boys, or even
girls, to come and take their horses
to the lot and feed them the best they
may The stable is a miserable pen,
unfit for any animal to stay in, and
is only cleaned when manure is
obliged to be had. Tell these men of
the duties they owe to their families,
and it is to them a fable. Tell them
of the great possibilities that lay be-
!Lem' ?nd ifc is an iridescent
dream; is it any wonder that hard
times are present with such?. Wauld
it not be in any business followed in
the same way?
Is it any wonder that the occupa-
Sfn VS i6uch tmanasement has
fallen into bad repute? In the interest
of humanity, such men should be sen
tenced to the roads or some other
penal servitude, that they may have
opportunity to reflect on their ways
and think of the good women they
are murdering. Some brother may
get mad at this, but I have heard as
long as men get mad at being told
of their faults, there is a chance for
u,a&P AND WELL TRIED REMEDY
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