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7/e Gibeth Snow Like Wool
Arthur boodenough
The green of the Spring has faded
The Summer’s gold is dim;
The Summer songs have vanished
Beyond the world’s blue rim;
The days of autumn are over,
The cup of the year is full
And clothing the naked landscape
He giveth snow like wool.
The bird nests are empty and silent,
For the singing ones have flown
And the wind like a restless spirit
Grieves in the wood alone.
The dead leaves, brown and withered,
Flutter beside the pool;
And out of the infinite heaven
He giveth snow like wool.
(C
□□CHAT □□ J
TOM LOCKHART’S question, why
the national government, that
gives fat pensions to the well
off descendants of every man who
claims to have done the smallest ser
vice in bloody war, should do nothing
for its citizens who have been disabled
in the battle of life and are dependent
on relatives too poor to sustain such
burdens, is a pertinent inquiry. There
are homes for almost every other class
of life’s handicapped—homes for crim
inals, for the insane, for the incurably
diseased; but the shut-in, who has no
means and no way of earning money,
must be dependent on such charitable
souls as he can reach with his little
pathetic appeal, which it costs him so
much mortification to be obliged to
make.
In some pleasant spot in our land
there might be a colony established
for these unfortunates, where they
could be comfortably housed and
taught to do such work as their condi
tion allowed —bee keeping, fish cul
ture, the raising of chickens, and,
when the hands were not disabled,
wood carving and the making of toys.
They would have the pleasure of
sympathetic association and freedom
from the intense anxiety about them
selves which now renders their exist
ence joyless.
The bureau which has been estab
lished for the money must be depend
ent on such charitable souls as they
may be able to reach with their timid
appeals.
Can the government do nothing to
help these, its citizens, to be happier
and to contribute to the world, instead
of having to feel themselves useless
burdens? In some pleasant spot in
our broad land may not these unfor
tunates be established in comfortable
cottages and taught, helped or directed
to do such work as their condition
allows? There are occupations in
which most of the disabled ones may
engage with pleasure to themselves
and profit to others. Bee-keeping,
poultry raising, the manufacture of
baskets, the making of toys, canning,
preserving, fancy work—these and
many other occupations, with a little
training and direction, could employ
the crippled and semi-disabled. They
could have the pleasure of sympathetic
association, of encouragement and va
riety—the joy of doing things.
In New York and Chicago there have
been established bureaus for the pur
pose of aiding the family of handi
capped to help themselves. The di
rectors of these bureaus publish quite
THE HOUSEHOLD
A Department of Expression For Those Who Feel and Think.
The fields are sterile and dreary,
In the dull, December light,
The clouds are lowering and sullen
They shut the sun from sight.
The year is waning and weary,
For daily his pulses cool;
And after the olden fashion
He giveth the snow like wool.
Hiding the scars of battle
Where heroes warred and bled;
Hiding the sleeping places
Where rest the quiet dead;
And the wise man’s dust disdains not
To mix with that of the fool,
And silently out of heaven
He giveth snow like wool.
a long list of occupations in which
these citizens may engage with a little
training, which the bureau offers to
give them through correspondence;
also proposes to assist them in obtain
ing such positions as they are able to
fill. This is a movement in the right
direction, and may lead to something
better. A number of our shut-ins who
are trying to do work at home, with
poor encouragement, would be glad to
have the help of the bureau in selling
their fancy work, wood carvings, etc.
Mattie Beverage, I believe, only needs
the assistance of a correspondence
course in writing for publication to de
velop into a very fair writer of short
stories. But training, practical sug
gestions, encouragement and reasona
ble hope of success are needed in put
ting these inexperienced ones who,
like Mattie Beverage, have taught
themselves aR tfeey knew, in away to
help earn their support.
If I were a millionaire and wanted
to get rid of my surplus money useful
ly, or if I were the government and
wished to build up the country instead
of building and keeping up costly
means of horrible war, I would utilize
all those islands which encircle Flori
da like a necklace of emeralds by mak
ing them habitable for colonies of all
Nature’s step-children, to whom she
has denied a full birthright. There
ai e many persons who are hot sound
of mind and not capable of working
without being directed, who are often
a burden on their families, and in
many instances a menace to public
safety, yet who are not insane enough
to be confined in overcrowded asy
lums. These cranks—human dere
licts—useless, burdensome and danger
ous in their lack of self control, would
be happy and self-supporting if com
fortably colonized on islands in a sum
mer land, where they could engage in
producing fruits and vegetables, fish
ing, canning, the manufacture of the
numerous marketable articles from the
palmetto and the woods of the coun
try. In this way might be conserved
human forces that are being worse
than wasted, while the natural re
sources of soil and sea would be util
ized.
As an object lesson of what may be
done in this way there is the Koreshan
Colony, which established itself a few
years ago on two of the gulf islands,
that its people might enjoy their pecu
liar religious belief and their com
munal ideas as to property. They
have sustained themselves excellently
well, built neat houses and made the
The Golden Age for December 15, 1910.
islands blossom as the rose. Their
settlement is sometimes called a crank
colony, but they have shown them
selves practical in their methods. No
crops in Florida, it is said, are better
cultivated and more productive than
those of the Koreshan Crank Colony.
There are so many splendid fields
for reform and for philanthropic enter
prise in our country, so many magnif
icent ways in which the people’s
money in the treasury could be spent
besides building warships at a cost of
many millions, and keeping up an
army of idle, non-producing men, for
whose support the country is taxed.
And recently the government has
bought a number of air vessels to use
in the noble business of killing men.
I pray constantly that the horrible in
stitution of war—a relic of ancient
barbarism and ignorance—may be
abolished over the entire world. To
this end all churches, all schools,
should work. There should be no
more glorification of war and its he
roes. The men and women who do
something for the good of humanity,
who fight the great moral battles of
the world, with tongue and pen, with
inspired power and patience—these
should be held up in schools and in the
home training of children as the men
and women to be honored and imi
tated.
With Our Correspondents
A GREETING FROM BROTHER
TOM.
Once more I am alive, to wish my
friends of The Golden Age a happy
Christmas. I have had a pretty hard
year of it. Life seems to grow more
difficult for us shut-ins and it takes
a strong will and a good deal of pray
ing and trusting to keep cheerful and
at work. I have had but one little bit
of recreation this year. I went to a
small show at a cost to me of three
dollars and a half. It takes money for
a helpless fellow like me to get lifted
and moved about and I am afraid I
shall have to do without any more
glimpses at the outside world, and
the people, my brothers, whom I love
and like to see enjoying their free
life ahd limbs.
t have beetl trying hard to get the
shtit-in family givfen a shiall pension.'
of course, nothing like that bestoWed
on the families of all who were in any
way connected with the Grand Army
of the Republic in the long-ago war.
I appealed to several Congressmen but
they declined to bother with the mat
ter. Mr. Heaton, of the Survey Press
Bureau, urges the authorities to give
a chance to the handicapped and it
seems that a special employment bu
reau for the maimed, cramped and
crippled has been established in New
York and in Chicago. But the occupa
tions suggested for these, do not bear
on my case. I have no means of earn
ing a living, being wholly rigid and
moveless, save one elbow and one
thumb and finger, but in writing little
newspaper articles, which I am very
rarely able to sell, and in disposing
of my books, which are three in num
ber and sell for only a few cents each.
The books are, The Story of My Life —
Twenty Years on a Mattress Grave —
25 cents; Plain Talks and Tales —35
cents and my latest book, “Cheerful
Chats”—so cents. Selling these is my
only way to support myself and my
good and faithful nurse.
Npw, dear friends, I wish to ask
you Ho cheer me on Christmas with
t Household Economy t
+ How to Have the Best Cough +
T Syrup and Save $2, by Mak- T
X ing it at Home. I
Cough medicines, as a rule, contain
a large quantity of plain syrup. If
you take one pint of granulated sugar,
add % pint of warm water, and stir
about 2 minutes, you have as good
syrup as money could buy.
If you will then put 2% ounces of
Pinex (fifty cents’ worth) in a pint
bottle, and fill it up with the Sugar
Syrup, you will have as much cough
syrup as you could buy ready-made
for $2.50. It keeps perfectly.
And you will find it the best cough
syrup you ever used —even in whoop
ing cough. You can feel it take hold
--usually stops the most severe cough
in 24 hours. It is just laxative enough,
has a good tonic effect and taste is
pleasant. Take a teaspoonful every
one, two or three hours.
It is a splendid remedy, too, for
hoarseness, asthma, chest pains, etc.
Pinex is the most valuable concen
trated compound of Norway white pine
extract, rich in guiacol and all the
healing pine elements. No other
preparation will work in this formula.
This recipe for making cough
remedy with Pinex and Sugar Syrup
is now used and prized in thousands
of homes in the United States and
Canada. The plan has often been
imitated, but never successfully.
A guarantee of absolute satisfac
tion, or money promptly refunded,
goes with this recipe. Your druggist
has Pinex or will get it for you. If
hot, send to The Pinex Co., Ft. Wayne,
Ind;, 236 Main St.
a big letter and card shower, and just
as many orders for my books or any
one of them, as your kind heart will
tell you to send The books are said
to be worth double the small price
asked for them. They are all spiced
with cheerfulness and humor. I can’t
help having a buoyant, fun-loving na
ture. I suppose I would have been too
buoyant if Providence had not seen
fit to weight me down with this afflic
tion. I look forward to a grand letter
party Christmas, and oh, it will cheer
me more than you can tell.
God bless you, and many thanks in
advance.
From your friend,
TOM LOCKHART.
JUDGING others.
It seems to be natural to judge oth
ers. It surely is sinful, for it is a di
rect breaking of that Scripture which
says, “Judge not lest ye be judged.”
The doing and thinking of people
depend largely on surroundings. A
truly good Christian sometimes con
demns practices which are no more
sinful than practices of which he or
she is guilty. For instance, a city
lady may think her country friends
almost barbarians for staying from
church to have a big dinner for kin
dred and friends whose business is
such that they can not visit them dur
ing the week; these country people at
the same time may condemn their
fashionable city friends for having
card parties and dances. The coun
try people may be church members
and the city people may also be
church members and regular attend
ants, their daughters singing in the'
choir and teachers in Sunday School.
A mother who prides herself in the
standing of her family- may be harsh
in her eritcism of girls and boys, who*
