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reached up to get the rein to put it on the horse,
we were too old to reach up, you see. The world is
progressing. We got along very slowly behind a horse,
in an airship we can nearly go up and hitch to a star
—perhaps —but some day, we may have so far con
quered terra firma that we can leave it altogether for
rides around “the starry-decked heavens.” We have
been advised to get away from the earth. We try to
hide it with pavements and sod —to climb away from
it in sky-scrapers and balloons. Any effort to get.
away from the earth interests everybody—and I won
der why. It seems to me the good old solid ground
is the safest and most comfortable place yet, and if
we stay on it, till it and beautify it and raise domes
tic animals and poultry and dig the minerals and fu
els out of it, we will have no need for pure food
laws, government inspectors, etc. We rate our
selves as progressive in proportion as we get above
the earth, physically and mentally, but I call the peo
ple wise who stay close to the heart of nature with
feet planted firmly on the capacious bosom of moth
er earth. We are advised to be progressive—to be
up-to-date, to keep up with the procession—but when
we search the columns of the daily press, when we
read the society dots —when we read scientific ex
periments —we see plainly manifested the wisdom
and prudence of the fine people who live quietly out
of “things” and look on with indifferent amusement
at the mad rush and push of the many who imagine
they are up-to-date but who are really furnishing
news for the daily press —accidents, divorce courts,
law suits, etc. I am not pessimistic, I believe we are
rapidly realizing the futility of efforts to live away
from nature and out of communion with nature’s God,
and when we realize it fully and get back to get
ting our living from the good old solid soil we will
have attained true wisdom.
LITTLE WHITE GIRL.
MEETING OLD FRIENDS—AN INDIAN PLAY
GROUND.
After reading the letters from some of our band,
I have felt a desire to come in and at least say
“Howdy” to “You all.” I notice that some of our
“Sunny” members are still with us, and was especially
glad to read the little poem from Annice; then I was
delighted to find that our Margaret Richard had con
tributed one of her soulful poems to our page; how
she finds strength to do so much is one of the mar
vels to me; and anything from her pen is always
helpful to me. I also liked the teaching of the ar
ticle by Mattie Howard, of the Sunny. It is when
we look up that we are enabled to fix our minds on
the blessings and forget the darker side of life; may
we all remember the beautiful thought.
I am away out here in the mountains doing busi
ness for a large lumber company. I find much to in
terest me as I come in contact with these mountain
people; I will write of them some other time, if I
may. You will know, now, why I wished to change
my pen name to “Mountaineer;” I do not like it so
well, so will retain my old name, “Tennesseean,” that
I was known by in the old Sunny South; I expect
Miss Bryan to notice how fickle I am, but shall try
to redeem myself in her eyes by retaining the name
of Tennesseean until “Death do us part,” this time.
I am stepping on old historic ground just now,
and after I have had time to learn all that I can
about this place where the Indians used to congre
gate to play ball I will try to write about it; the val
ley is very level and a suitable place for the
sport that the Indians used to delight in. I am so
lonely that I can hardly wait for the Golden Age to
pay its weekly visit from the outside world.
“TENNESSEEAN.”
DREAMS THAT COME TRUE.
How many of the Household believe in dreams?
asks Hortense in a recent issue of the Golden Age
at the risk of being called superistitious. I must
confess that I, for one, believe in dreams. In ancient
times the highest importance was attached to
dreams. By the highest and most enlightened of
that day dreams were believed to foreshadow com
ing events and there were professional interpreters
of dreams, who were esteemed as men of import
ance. In the Old Testament we read of many instan
ces of the fulfillment of dreams. The dream of Pha
raoh, king of Egypt, interpreted by Joseph—caused
provision to be made against a year of terrible fam
ine. Joseph had also interpreted the dreams of
his two "fellow-prisoners. The dreams of Abimelech
iand Belshazzar were also fulfilled. Had Julius
(Caesar taken heed of his wife’s dream he would not
beep assassinated by Brutus.
The Golden Age for September 12, 1907.
Many dreams are idle —mere phantoms of the
mind when out of the control of reason. Horace, the
Latin poet, says, “All dreams are not true, but there
are dreams that come from God.” But there is a
mystery concerning dreams that psychology has not
fathomed. It has been said that we dream only
about things we have seen or of which we have
read or heard. This may be true, but these things
are usually combined in new and startling ways. I
have had future events of my life prefigured to me in
dreams and these events took place between three
and four years after the dream that had foreshadow
ed them. Also I have seen in my dreams persons
whom I had never met or had described to me —and
when I saw them their real appearance correspond
ed with that shown in the dream.
Recently I dreamed that I was traveling and had
stopped at a place where there was a public dinner.
Here I met an old friend, who invited me to dine
with him and introduced a young lady—a Miss
Thatcher, to whom he, a widower, was paying at
tention; she seemed to be about thirty years old, a
blond, blue eyes, with light brown hair, medium in
stature and of average weight; she appeared to be of
lively, social disposition and she and her admirer
seemed to enjoy themselves immensely; also she
was very pleasant to me, telling me she knew of me
before through articles of mine she had read in the
papers and enjoyed very much. Time passed pleas
antly; I enjoyed an excellent dinner and reluctant
ly bade my friends adieu. At this point I awoke and
could hardly believe the vivid vision had been a
dream. I think I shall yet meet Miss Thatcher and
know her.
It is related in Texas that an officer —a colonel —
in the confederate service dreamed on the night be
fore a battle that he was killed. He told his dream
to his friends next morning, and, though they tried
to ridicule him out of a belief in it, he was so im
pressed it would come true that he wrote his wife
before he went into battle. He was killed in just the
way his dream foretold, and later his will was con
tested on the ground that it had been written under
the deluding influence of a dream.
Ivy, Ala. B. R. IVY.
THE GOLDEN AGE-FREE
We are inaugurating a campaign for an increase of Ten Thousand
in our circulation. We want to secure this increase in the shortest pos
sible time. The Golden Age has experienced the most remarkable
growth of any weekly family paper published in recent years, and the
hearty reception of the paper by the public inspires us to make an ef
fort to reach the many who are not now on our list. The Golden Age is
the paper that is different, and that’s the reason the people like it. But
here is our offer:
Fifteen Months For $2
As an inducement we offer The Golden Age FIFTEEN MONTHS for
the price of ONE YEAR —$2.00. This gives THREE MONTHS FREE.
If you will send us $2.00, the subscription price of The Golden
Age for one year, we will enter your name on our list, and send you the
paper fifteen months. We will also allow this offer to apply to old sub
scribers who renew their subscriptions. We want every one who is now
a subscriber to The Golden Age to take (advantage of this offer, and
send in their arrearage and renewal at once. It is money to you to do
it. We want our present readers to bring this offer to the attention of
their friends, and get them to subscribe at once. Let us strike hands in
this forward movement for an immediate increase in the already large
subscription list of The Golden Age, and place it in every home in our
Southland. Act NOW, NOT TOMORROW. Two Dollars; Fifteen
Months; Three Months Free. That’s The Proposition.
Address,
Department C, THE GOLDEN AGE, Atlanta, Ga.
N. B.—This offer is good only until October 15, 1907.
IN THE BOOK SALON.
Emily Woodson Barksdale has given us a fine and
readable little book “Stella Hope, or Under the shad
ow of the Alps.” We meet in this book, many pleas
ant and entertaining people—we find variety, inter
est, a little comedy, quite a deal of natural, beauti
ful home life, we find girls of several types, bril
liant, haughty, gentle, gracious, vain, selfish, beau
tiful; then the girl whose name gave title to the
book, “Stella Hope;” sad, neglected, full of ambition,
kept away from other girls and made to do disa
greeable domestic duties —lastly sent away to a con
vent where her hopes and ambitions are realized in
studying the books she has longed for, and in inter
course with cultured people. Then comes the tragedy,
almost; how vain all human efforts to change the
plans of the All Wise! When we try to control cir
cumstances, what a mess we make of things! We al
ways over-reach ourselves. The woman in this
book who gave her daughters leisure and opportu
nities to become belles of the first magnitude, and
kept Stella doing domestic duties, to lessen her
beauty and coarsen her nature; how she over-reach
ed herself! Her own daughters were shaallow, selfish
and vain—they had nothing to develop their char
acters, therefore they had none, they had no duties
to call forth any real mental or physical effort and
endurance, therefore they had none of these quali
ties, they thought only of clothes, and men, and the
care of their own important bodies. But Stella was
taught domestic duties, her mind and her body were
taxed, she developed mental and physical endurance,
consequently she was more womanly. She was shy
because kept away from, and taught to avoid, men,
and, lastly, when her beauty attracted attention any
how, despite Mrs. Houghton’s efforts, she was sent
to a convent to be kept away from “Weston,” and
the convent, with its scholarly atmosphere and
discipline, was the very thing she needed. She sur
passed the girls who had been raised in ways of
ease, and who developed no higher ambition than to
shine in Vanity Fair. This book teaches helpful les
sons —the tone is high and the morals pointed are
good. LITTLE WHITE GIRL.
Long Beach, Miss.
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