THE COURIER.
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When lie begins to talk about how
bright he is and how much he has
learned at school it reminds me of
the doleful, desert hours I spent, years
ago, listening to young men expatiat
ing on their talents and intellectual
achievements. Calypso listened to
Tclemachuf with unassumed eager
ness, but then Telemachus really had
had adventures and he did not men
tion what his professors thought of
liis examination papers. If he had,
Calypso could not have maintained
the smiling, interested expression
wiiifth lincers upon her face in the
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Edited by Miss Helen 6. Harwood. f
OOOMOOCOOOMOOooooocoi
Mrs. C.F. Stoutenborough baa re
turned to her home inPlattsmouth from
her northern trip.
Sign painting ie a trade regularly
practiced by women in Berlin. A reg
ular apprenticeship is served where the
women are taught to mix paints and
.. U I U 1 ,
pictures taken while she was enter- "DD luou UIUBU tt,B aro Slven a
Lining Telemachus. Mr. Bachellcr's orough gymnasium training before
model young man approaches himself V V Tt r08-
" ii. c,,,h mnflestv that the effort is Wh,le at work " wear " grey linen
tVIIia wuw
apparent and signalizes the virtues,
which he refers to with reverence.
He is a bore but there is not much
of him in the book. He is only a
sketch. And the same may be said
of all the other characters in the
book. Mr. Bacheller has not the
Shaksperean gift of Individualizing
all his characters, citizens, clowns,
servants and soldiers. Never mind;
we are indebted to him for the char
acter of Eben Holden, whose epitaph
tells more of him than I can:
"I aint afraid.
Shamed o' nuthin' I ever done.
Alurus kep' my tugs tight,
Never swore Mess 'twas nec'sary,
Never ketched a fish bigger'n it was
Er lied in a hoss trade
Er shed a tear I didn't hev to.
Goin' off somewhere, Bill dunno the
waj nuther
Dunno f it er east er west er north er
south,
Er road er trail;
But I aint afraid."
The book is like David Harum in
this respect, that when the hero is
out of sight there is a wearisome
weight of commonplaceness. But
inspiration and the open enters with
him, so it does not matter.
A Sketch.
The August number of Ainslee's
magazine contains a page story by
Mr. Walt Mason of Beatrice. It is
reprinted in the Courier in order that
the readers of this paper who are not
readers of Ainslee's may read an ex
ceedingly clever sketch. "The Spot
ted Broncho contains only 550 words
yet the story of a man's life and a
woman's is told and nothing is left
out. Its simplicity and pathos to
gether with the fine drawing and the
economy of line are remarkable. Mr.
Mason has been a Nebraska favorite
for a long time. Only an artist can
draw figures simply, with so little
effort. Among the illustrators, 1
think it was Gibson who first showed
the meaning of one line and the im
pertinence of many to express the
line disorder of Julia's skirt. Now all
the illustrators make their drawings
simple and strong. The weak ones
who still make fussy pictures cannot
get a job. De Maupassant showed
all the story-writers how to make one
word do the work of a score, how to
make one situation tell the story of a
man's life and foretell his future.
His stories take the reader back into
his hero's childhoood and forward to
his passing. His stories are a matter
of few pages, but the perspective is
so well managed they ha ire the effect
of an exhaustive biography in four
volumes.
Mr. Mason's story is one of the best
in the month's magazine. The mod
eling is so bold and free I shall not
soon forget the man, his prairie
schooner and the bosses, and the wo
man with her dead child.
irock and cap which are the painter's
badge as well as his defense against
paint.
A committee representing the feder
ation of women's clubs called on Presi
dent Francis of the Louisiana Purchase
exposition urging the establishment of a
building to be used for the entertain
ment of distinguished women visitors at
the fair. The committee received the
assurance that such a building would
be provided.
On no other Bubject do people gen
erally have as erroneous conceptions as
on the subject of poetry. It is often re
garded as simply a pleasing recurrence
of harmonious bounds, designed only to
gratify the organs of time and tune.
Parker says: "Poetry may be properly
defined as the language of the imagina
tion." Notwithstanding the profound
erudition of Parker, from this view I
must dissent a little. From his defini-
out of the windows shall be darkened.
nd tho doors shall bo shut in the
streets when the Eound of the grinding
is low, and he shall rise up at the voice
of the bird, and all the daughters of
music shall be brought low. And when
they shall be afraid of that which is
high, and fears Bhall be in the way, and
the almond tree shall flourish, and the
grasshopper shall be a burden, and do
eiro shall fail; because man goeth to his
long home, and the mourners go about
the streets. Or ever the silver corii be
loosed, or the golden bowl be broken,
or the pitcher be broken at tho fountain,
or the wheel at the cistern: Then shall
tho dust return to the earth as it was;
and tho spirit shall return unto God
who gave it."
A more felicitous use of metaphor
than is here presented, can not be found.
"Remember now thy Creator.... when
the sun or the moon or the stars be not
darkened," refer to the springtime of
life. "Nor the clouds return" typifies
the infirmities of old age, of which win
ter is a proper emblsm. "In the day
when the keepers of the house shall
tremble." The body of man is here
compared to a house, the hands repre
senting the keepers, or the watch. Here
is good ecope for the imagination. We
are reminded of the times, now consid
ered almost mythical, when overy man's
house waB his castle, when each lordly
proprietor felt the independence of a
king on bis throne. Those feudal days
of the past have been prolific of romance
and poetry.
"And those that look out of the win
dows Bhall be darkened. And the doors
shall be shut in the streets when the
sound of the grinding is low, and he
shall rise up at the voice of the bird,
linn wo nrpi lnntitipri in fsunnnaincr that.
it is in the world of imagination, in dis- and a!1 the daughtera t music shall be
tinction from the world of reality, where brou5ht ,ow" The word "windowa1 in
Poesy dwells in her virgin purity. I dis- thia ca9e refers to the eye8' and the
sent from this opinion because in the fact that in old aSe tho corDea and tho
world of fact and of reality exist, and humora of the lose the,r, tranBPare-
ever have existed, some of the brighteet, The door8 meaa the lips, and the
streets, ine caviuea ui iuu muuiu auu
living, breathing poems.
Take, for example, the shortest verse
in the New Testament: "Jesus wept."
The sun in the midday heavens is not
more radiant of light, heat and glory
than is this simple, unostentatious rec
ord of fact radiant of poetic fire. There
is no necessity here for a translation
into the mystic realms of imagination;
the simple record in its naked beauty
appeals directly to the soul without any
medium, save that of a physical sense.
The poet condenses and fashions into
a thing of beauty life's ethereal essence,
and prolongs its more refined but evan
escent joys. And as the world grows
older and the race of man ircreases, a
greater degree of poetic fire will be de
veloped. The Bible contains as much, if not
more, of true poetry than any other
volume in the world. The expressions:
"And the earth was without form, and
void, and darkness was upon the face of
the deep. And the spirit of God moved
upon the face of the waters," are truly
poetic. How laconically, yet how vivid
ly, are tho ideas conveyed of chaotic
condition, of emptiness, of darkness,
and of a vast waste of waters. Then the
next verse: "And God said, 'Let there
be light,' and there was light." Noth
ing could be more explicit, more dimply
and purely expressive.
throat. The teeth also are gone, and no
hard substance can be masticated;
hence the sound is low. An old man's
sleep is not sound; the chirping of a
sparrow will awaken him. His voice,
once sonorous and musical, in old age
becomes harsh and querulous.
"Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or
the golden bowl be broken." The silver
cord is the spina! marrow, and the gold
en bowl the cavity of the cranium, or
more properly its contents, the brain,
the container being used for the thing
contained. "Or the pitcher be broken
at the fountain, or the wheel at the cis
tern." Here the pitcher typifies the
vena cava, which bringa back the blood
to the right ventricle of the heart, while
the wheel represents the aorta, the dis
tributor of blood through the system.
The latter comparison is especially sug
gestive. In imagination we can see in
the far, dim distance the land of the
olive and the vine, the springing verdure
of an oriental garden watered by a hun
dred tiny rivers, each one going forth
on its errand of benevolence, willingly
resigning its own existence for the bene
fit of surrounding life. When we trace
these streams of water to the fountain,
we find the object of our search, the
wheel at the cistern. With bared arms
and perspiring brow, at the crank of
sparkling gems which are too numerous
to mention separately.
Tho principle, the essonce of poetry is
as diffusible and as extensive as space
itself. Poetry is one of tho most potent,
effective influences that can be used for
the elevation of the spiritual part of
man's nature. This fact has long been
recognized by ecclesiastical bodioe, and
who is able to compute the benefit, in u
moral and religious sense, that has ac
crued from that class of pooms called
sacred poetry? Men are powerfully in
fluenced by thia ubiquitous agency,
while they may not be seneiblo of tho
cause. The soul, excited, angry, full of
revenge, by the silent inspiration of u
twilight scene, the moaning sympathy
of the healing breezes, the tearful pity
of the attentive stars, is soothed and
quieted, and is open to the impulse of
generous forgiveness.
Was it a weakness in Daniel Webster
to request the reading of Gray's Elegy,
when ho was on his death bed? Ah,
tbooe words fell upon his spirit like
drops of balm from the tree of life; the
sacred influence stole upon him like
angels' voices in the "stilly night;" and
gently, peacefully, his spirit passed from
this earthly vestibule into the celestial
temple.
Let us, then, as club members and as
individual women, improve every oppor
tunity of cultivating an appreciation of
the poetic, that in future years our
memories may be glorious; that, though
our present BurroundingB may be unfa
vorable, wo may yet say with the poet:
44 I hear the muffled tramp of years
Come stealing up the slope of time ;
They bear a train of smiles and tears,
Of burning hopes and dreams sublime ;
But future years may never fling
A treasure from their passing hours
Like those that come on sleepless wing
From memory's golden plain of flowers."
Following ib the program arranged by
Mrs. S. M. Walker, state president of
the W.C.T.U., to be given at the con
gress which will be held at Lincoln park
August 7 to 14:
Thursday, 9 to 10 Greetings and top
ics: State officers. Mrs. A. H. Hunt;
Advance in Temperance Sentiment;
Progress in W.C.T.U. Work; The Out
look. Friday "A White Life for Two,"
Mrs. Jean Shuman, Aurora; "The
Home." Mrs. M. D. Nickel.
Saturday Mrs. Ormiston Champ,
London, England.
Monday "Influence of the Ballot,"
Miss Laura A. Gregg.
Tuesday "Duty and Destiny." Rev.
C. E. Bentley.
Wednesday "The Mission of Flow
ers," State Superintendent Mrs. L. S.
1'aite; "The Medical Prescription," Mrs.
M. M. Clafiin.
Thursday "Domestic Science," Mrs.
C. C. Welton; "Humanitarianism," Mrs.
M. D. Plumb.
The Panama hat capB the climax.
Solomon also, in Ecclesiastes, has en- the huge wheel toils one torn from a
nome or nappiness, torn away oy me
demands of insatiable war, a captive in
a strange land, breathing a prayer at
each revolution of the wheel for deliver
ance from the burden of life! By means
of this wheel and its connections, the
water ia raised to the desired altitude,
and then distributed as desired. A most
happy inspiration was it, then, that
caused the poet to compare the aorta
and the distributing functions of the
heart, to the wheel at the cistern.
The New Testament abounds in
ricbed literature with a unique and un
approachable description of old age. It
runs thus: "Remember now thy Cre
ator in the dayB of thy youth, while the
evil days come not, nor the years draw
nigh when thou sbalt Bay, I have no
pleasure in them. While the sun or the
moon or the stars be not darkened, nor
the clouds return after the rain. In the
day when the keepers of the bouse shall
tremble, and the 6trong men shall bow
themselves, and the grinders cease be
cause they are few, and those that look
No young woman in New York who
has a good voice need lack opportunity
to cultivate it merely because she has
not money enough to pay her teacher
when she begins her lessons, says the
New York Sun. In her voice Bhe haa a
valuable asset on which she can realize
before she has actually begun her work.
It ia thia fact that so often impels teach
ers to take charge of the entire musical
training of singers and to agree to wait
for their compensation until the pupils
have begun to earn money. Not only do
singers on the stage succeed in making
this arrangement with teachers church
choir singers also receive instruction on
the same plan; and the teacher who re
fuses to take on these terms pupils like
ly from their natural talents to succeed
well enough to pay eventually for their
instruction, would be an exception to
the general rule.
The more prosperous a teacher is the
more exacting he is likely to be as to
the quality of the voice of the applicant
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