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WISE OR OTHERWISE
Entered according to Act of Par-
liament in the year 1898, by Lydia
Leavitt and Thad. W. H. Leavitt^
at the Department of Agriculture.
WISE
OK
OTHERWISE
UY
LYDIA LEAVITT
AUTHOR OP "BOHIMIAN BOCIBTY,"
"A TRIP AROUND THE WORLD," BTC, KTC.
AND
TIIAD. W. H. LEAVITT
AUTHOR OF "run WITCH OF PLUll HOLLOW,"
'KAFFIR, KASOAHOO, KLOKDIKU, TALKS OK TUB OOLD FIBLDB, ETC.
Illustrated by Atma Lake >^
WELLS PUBLISHING CO.
TORONTO
1898
\-
CONTENTS
BOOK THE FIRST
"LEAD KINDLY LIGHT."
A FABLE.
THE WIND.
PASSING THOUGHTS,
BOOK THE SECOND
ODDS AND ENDS.
PREFACE
It is probable that the reader will
discover among the "Short Sayings"
some familiar acquaintance and even
old friend, unconsciously appropri-
ated. Should such be the case,
kindly credit to the "Wise" and
leave the " Otherwise " to
The Authors.
BOOK THE FIRST
BV
LYDIA LEAVITT
u
LEAD KINDLY LIGHT
"Lead, kind-
ly light." The
words are
lightly spoken
by the young,
who tread
life's pathway
with nimble
f e e t, whose
eager hands
are outstretch-
ed to gather
life's roses,
regardless of
thorns, whose
voice is rip-
pling with laughter and mirth, with blood
coursing through the veins and bright eyes
looking fearlessly into the future ; the words
have merely a joyous, musical ring. " Lead,
kindly light."
" Lead, kindly light." The words are gravely
spoken by the middle-aged, whose feet have
12
grown a trifle weary, whose hands have gath-
ered the roses, only to find them turned to
ashes, whose laughter has more sadness than
mirth, whose eyes have grown dim, whose
lips tremblingly plead, " Lead, kindly light."
" Lead, kindly light." The words are whis-
pered by the old, whose tired feet are unable
to move, whose palsied hands are helpless,
whose head is bowed by the weight of years,
whose eyes are sightless, from whose tremb-
ling lips are scarcely heard the whispered
prayer, " Lead, kindly light."
" Lead, kindly light." The sunken eyes are
closed in death, the tired hands are folded,
the heart has ceased to beat, the mute lips
are stilled, the weary feet are at rest, a look
of ineffable peace rests upon the still face,
while all the air is filled with sweet music and
the murmur of gentle voices pleading, "Lead,
kindly light."
IS
A FABLE
one of
the German
fo rests the re
stood a tree, which " r^^^'
could not be classified by any
of the learned scientists. It was not more
beautiful than many others, but there were
distinctive peculiarities which no other tree
possessed. Her dress was of a sadder hue
than that of her companions, and the birds
refused to build their nests in her branches.
She was unable to understand the language
of her brothers and sisters and so stood alone
and unheeded in the dense forest. One
morning she awakened and found standing
by her side a companion tree, odd, like her-
self, and she said in her heart : — " I shall be
no longer alone. He will understand my
language and we shall hold sweet converse."
But he, in his heart, was saying — "What
strange tree is this ? We two are unlike all
our companions. I like it not." But she did
not hear the murmur of discontent, and her
14
heart grew glad within her at the great joy
that had come to her and she said in her
heart : — " I will cause him to forget that we
are unlike our companions ; I will sing to him
my softest songs and gradually her dress of
sombre green assumed a brighter hue, young
buds sprang forth, her branches waved softly
in the breeze and she wooed the birds by
gentle voice to build their nests in her arms,
and,
" In foul weather and in fair,
Day by day in vaster numbers,
Flocked the poets of the air."
At eventide she folded them in her bosom,
that their songs might not disturb the sleep of
her companion, and while all the forest slept,
she alone was awake and, in the silence of the
night, she murmured softly, " Ich liebe Dich,"
and when the sun arose the birds from her
arms flew throngh the forest, singing, " Ich
liebe Dich," and all the trees took up the
song ; the birds, the trees and the brooks
caught up the refrain and all the great forest
sang, " Ich liebe Dich, Ich liebe Dich."
So the summer passed and her heart grew
sad, for she saw the discontent of her com-
panion, but she said to herself, " When the
winter comes I will shelter him from the
blasts," but he said complain ingly, " I would
I were like the other trees ; I would like my
16
garments to be as those I see around me. I
would my limbs were as those of my com-
panions all through the forest." And she
heard, and said to herself, " I will make his
garments of brilliant green." So she sent
from her own roots and branches the sap — •
her life blood — to enrich the roots and beautify
the dress of her companion. When the cc Id
blast of winter swept through the. forest she
sheltered him with her long limbs, when the
snow fell she covered his head with her
brancheii and caught the weight of snow in
her own arms ; so all through the long winter
she sheltered him from the blasts and the
weight of snow bore heavily on her branches
and at times they grew weary almost to
breaking but her great heart never faltered.
So the spring came and day by day she sent
from her own store of life-blood to enrich
that of her companion and soon his garments
assumed the most brilliant hues of all the trees
in the forest ; the leaves glinted and glistened
in the sunlight, and from the branches there
was ever a low murmur of song ; the birds
came to build their nests and rear their young
in his arms ; and over all there floated a
delicate perfume born of the love which she
had breathed over him all the long winter.
So in all the forest there was none so beauti-
ful and stately as he.
le
His companion said, " Now will he be
happy," but her own great iicart began to beat
more slowly, the life-blood of which she had
given him could not be replaced, and her
garments gradually assumed a sombre hue and
her arms were empty, for the birds no longer
nested there.
One morning she awakened and found her
companion gone. He had joined the other
trees in the forest ; and now the limbs that
had borne the weight of snow began to wither,
her leaves began to fall, and when the winter
came again there was no raiment to cover her.
And the woodman said,
" We will cut this tree down, it is dead."
17
THE WIND
"HARK to the
voice of the wind!"
wesay,asthewind-
ows rattle
and house
\n ^ shakes; the
winds as
fthcy shout in
angry voices,
"" clamoring loud-
er in their fury,
are telling of storms
at sea, of the bat-
tles with the ships
and the brave
hearts that have
gone to their death.
"It has been on the
desolate ocean
When the lightening
struck the mast ;
It has heard the cry of
the drowning,
Who sank as they
hurried past.
The words of despair
and anguish
That were heard by
no living ear ;
The gun that no signal
answered —
It brings them all
to us here.
Hark to the voice of
the wind !"
18
It shakes angrily the trees whose limbs are
swaying in protest against the onslaught ; it
carries the leaves rustling to the ground, and
in its fury uproots the giant oaks, which groan
in agony as they are hurled to the ground, lying
like soldiers on the field of battle.
'• Hark to the voice of the wind !"
Its fury is abated, and softly, like a benedic-
tion it enters the room where the weary
mother is watching by the bedside of her sick
child ; it gently fans the fevered head ; it
touches with a caress the parched lips of the
babe, and with murmur of song it lulls the
child to rest.
** Hark to the voice of the wind."
It enters the counting room of the tired man
of business, bringing a perfume of flowers : he
lays down his pen, while his thoughts go back
to the home of his boyhood, to the meadows,
to the hillside covered with flowers, the new-
mown hay, and the tired brain is refreshed,
he knows not how, and the unseen messenger
is gone —
•• Hark to the voice of the wind !"
It visits the silent City of the Dead and
gently scatters the leaves over the new-made
grave of a young child, sighing softly the
while, the voice now rising, now falling, sobb-
ing and moaning, and at last dies away in a
10
melancholy sound, like the strings of an
Aeolian harp touched by unseen hands.
•• Hark to the music of the wind I"
Human nature approaches the Divine in
moments of great sacrifice, forgiveness and
self-forgetfulness.
•e
PASSING THOUGHTS
" It seems the fate of woman to wait in
silence while men act," ' Men must work and
woman must weep.'
««
How delightful it must be to understand
one's own nature thoroughly, to know that no
whirlwind will ever sweep us off the beaten
track, no stormy passions stir the calm placid-
ity of our life. But is that life ? No, give
me the glories of expectation, the wildest ex-
haltation ; the heart beating, the brain throb-
bing, the stormiest passions with force enough
to carry everything before them, even if they
bring deep grief— that is lite."
People who deal in dry, hard facts are not
interesting. They may make themselves
names in the financial world, may become
railway magnates and coal kings, may control
the money market ; but they are not interest-
ing. They are the prose of life. They who
see the clouds forming into fantastic shapes,
the glories of a sunset, the shadows in pools,
the colour on a bird's wing, the rose tint on
the cheek of a child, — they and such as they
are the poetry of life.
■t
Man's inhumanity to man is proverbial,
woman's inhumanity to woman is diabolical.
««
" Society, as it exists at present moment in
Colonial towns and cities, possesses neither
birth, brains or breeding."
«4»
**We hear men speak so frequently of
womanly women, ending their praises with,
* 3he is essentially womanly.' I knew one of
these womanly women, whose voice was like
liquid music, wiiosc ways were gentle, whose
eyes filled with tears at the recital of some
tale of woe, and always about her was an air
of gentle, womanly sweetness and dainty
femininity. She had a friend who loved her,
one whose voice was not so soft, whose
manner was brusque, who was considered,
"not quite good form, you know." My
womanly woman allowed this friend to take
upon herself the burden of a sin which she
herself had committed, allowed her to bear
the brunt ot scorn ai J x:intumely of her
world, allowed her to die w thout righting the
great wrong. A lonely grave and a plain
marble slab mark the spot where she who was
" not quite good form," lies : v/hile she, to
whom she had given more than life, gathers
the rose leaves with dainty grace, for she is
so essentially * womanly.' "
SB
Life : a little joy, great Forrow,some tragedy,
and the curtain falls.
Nothing can hurt so cruelly as the hand of
love. The hand of hate is velvet in com-
parison.
There are women who consider the world
well lost for the man whom they love and
idealize ; while upon close acquaintance they
would discover that he was not worth even
the loss of a dinner.
Twelve " good men and true," will, after
mature deliberation, consign a man to the
gallows. Twelve women, good and true, will,
without any deliberation, send a woman to
death by their venomous tongues.
There are a few people who would change
their individuality for that of another. We
might be willing to exchange positions, to ex-
change all that is apparent to the eyes of the
world, but our inner consciousness, our
memories, our thoughts, feelings and desires ;
all that is part and parcel of ourselves, we
hold sacred.
as
Some minds are so small that a favour
weighs heavily upon them.
At times one is inclined to believe that even
the gods are guilty of favouritism.
Some people's lives are like a flower, the
more they are crushed, the sweeter the per-
fume they exhale.
There are some people who look so rigidly
virtuous and repellant that it is a satisfaction
to feel one's self just a little bit wicked.
We look to the higher classes and to the
lower for good breeding. Middle class people
are proverbially ill-bred. What can equal the
airs and assumptions of the retired grocer's
wife, who has neither the breeding of a lady,
nor the unaffected manner of the working-
woman.
What a pity there is such an incessant
babbling of human tongues, when the daisies
by the wayside, the trees of the forest, the
birds in their nests, could tell us such wondrous
things if our ears were attuned to hear, but
the senses are deadened by the discordant din
of dismal sounds.
24
Love is the one power which transfigures
the common things of life.
One-half of our lives is spent in making
blunders, the other half in trying to rectify
them.
How useless to tell many people to think,
for they have nothing to think. A man
reasons, a woman divines.
There are so many inconsistencies in life
that at times one is appalled. Take marriage,
for instance : — A young woman marries a man
who is tottering on the brink of the grave j
old, blaze, a worn-out roue ; but with money
enough to gild and gloss the antiquated ruin.
She goes before a clergyman and promises to
love, honour and obey. Yes ; she loves the
luxury with which she will be surrounded,
the glitter of diamonds, the equipages, the
great house, all the paraphanalia of wealth,
but she hales the trembling, tottering, blear-
eyed object who bought her.
The clergyman gives his blessing, society
receives them with open arms, and legalized
prostitution is upheld by the majesty of the
law and encircled by the sanctified robes of
the Church.
26
The ruling passion of the age : worship of
self and worship of pelf.
The age of good breeding has passed ; in-
solence has taken its place.
A woman ceases to think of self when she
looks in the face of her new-born child.
There are people who go through life as if
they were going to their own funernl — and did
not enioy it.
I would rather have for a friend the most
thorough-paced scamp, with a generous heart,
than the most respectable, canting, whining,
Pharisee.
To stand in a rarefied atmosphere on a
mountain height and view the struggles of
ordinary mortals below may be poetic, but it
is very lonely.
A woman may defy the world for a man she
loves, and imagine that he will love her for
the sacrifice, but no greater mistake can be
made. Men are not so constituted. When
he sees her standing aione, dishonored, a
mark for the finger of scorn, her charm for
him is forever lost.
06
Realism is the grave of love.
A woman's smile is two edged.
Life is too short to prepare a soul for eternity
A great love is only inspired by a great
nature.
It is as wise to cultivate forgetfulness as
memory.
Society, a haven for fools ; literature and
art for brains.
Many people have courage to face anything
but themselves.
A woman is always in love, either with her-
self or with love.
Two things in life man regards with esteem :
himself and his pipe.
Truth and sincerity are only found in the
face of a child and the eyes of a dog.
A young face and an old heart are sorry
companions, but an old face and a young
heart are sorrier still.
fi7
What people will 'say' is the bugbear of
small minds.
««
Love would cease to exist were it not for
the gift of idealizing.
A fly is but a small thing, yet it can disturb
the greatest philosopher.
Is a new soul created at every birth, or are
we merely corpses warmed over? . _
Kind words and a sympathetic handclasp
have done more to reclaim lost souls than all
the tracts ever published.
A minute is a short duration of time, yet in
that interval one may experience the whole
gamut of human emotions.
If the world valued us as we value ourselves
the heavens would not be sufficiently large
whereon to inscribe our greatness.
What becomes of the characters who play
an important part in fiction ; the strong,
brave, true fiction-people, whom we love as
we read ? Is there no place for them in the
world peopled by shadows ?
fi8
There are men who will accept any and
every sacrifice from a woman and after making
her a wreck, socially and morally, will say to
her, " I fear that I am injuring you, so I will
sacrifice myself and deny myself the pleasure
of your society." Such men would sneak
into heaven by a side entrance.
Fate, in a sportive mood, performs some
wonderful acrobatic feats with human nature ;
gives love of oriental luxury to the woman
with nothing a year ; appreciation of all that
is beautiful and artistic, to the ploughman ;
an epicurian taste to the starving mechanic ;
while to the woman rolling iu wealth is given
the manners and tastes of the fish-wife ; to the
multi-millionaire the habits of the canaille,
and fate laughs with glee over the fantastic,
incongruous muddle of the thing called Life.
BOOK THE SECOND
BY
THAD. W. H. LEAVITT
81
ODDS AND ENDS
Man's greatest enemy is himself.
Never chide fate while will sleeps.
The prophet must know the past.
Foul words kill the sweetest flowers.
Repentant tears are the soul's pearls.
Common customs are not nature's laws.
No man blesses the calm until after the
storm.
Much study makes a full head and an empty
stomach.
You cannot fan the ashes of a dead love
into a flame.
Innocence, like a beautiful dying day, goes
out with a purple blush.
To steer the true course, one must not only
see the star but have a pilot.
It is easier to remove a mountain than to
wash out a spot on a woman's reputation.
so
The marble heart has valves of flint.
««
Women covet satin, as men covet gold.
The garments of virtue are of spun gold.
When law is blind examine your own heart.
Valour in defence of wrong becomes a crime.
Man ceases to be a man when his passions
die.
Trembling patience is better than proud
evil.
Malice and ignorance constantly itch for
trouble.
Life is not a funeral dole but a living
present.
He honours the state who refuses to commit
a wrong.
Opportunities, like pretty maids, should be
embraced.
Man's injustice to man shall not be an
eternal stain.
aa
Defeat may be more glorious than victory.
««
Venom is the juice of a toad tainting the
sweet air.
««
You have but to sow the seeds of malice to
reap a crop of grief.
««
Men who would face a cannon, tremble
before a golden calf.
There is no music for man so sweet as that
set upon a woman's tongue.
I never could understand why doleful songs
should herald a joyous hereafter.
If you keep your eyes fixed upon the stars
you will fall into the first mill pond.
You are told, " That if you violate a sacra-
ment of the church you will howl in hell lor
it." You know that if you violate nature's
laws you will howl here.
While poverty spins threads of gold with
which to weave a garment to cover her naked-
ness, the plutocrat melts the threads into
sovereigns for his own use.
t4
Kvcry yellow stream Is not the Tiber.
••
The wise man dreads, not noise, hut eternal
silence.
••
Loud complaints may be only vents for
little ills.
It is not enough to conceive a truth, we
must act.
When one is bereft of hope the last sorrow
has arrived.
The woman who loves not flattery has yet
to be born.
This must be a golden age — everybody is
running after it.
Beauty is the recompense given to women
for her weakness.
Some sins squeak like a snared rabbit —
others roar like a lion.
An immaculate reputation may hide a
multitude of black lies.
Angels walk on threads of gold from heaven
to earth. These threads are only spun in the
loom of the human heart.
Abject spirits creep — men walk.
A small hole is a cavern to a mole.
«•
A kiss hangs not long on a pretty lip.
««
You cannot rear a new babe on old milk.
•*
A man may woo a dove and marry a screech
owl.
Satire is a javelin which pierces the thickest
skin.
A mist may hide the sun but it does not
blot it out.
Some women prefer a great infamy to a
little honour.
Regard not the manner of your death but
your daily life
A churlish silence is harder to endure than
a sharp tongue.
««
The man who gives away his freedom is
everlastingly bankrupt.
The rubbish from men's tongues is hoarded
while nature speaks unheard.
86
Human misery is not a volunteer.
Mirth's best nursery is contentment.
Men fly, women melt into a passion.
Prejudice is the marrow of superstition.
Better a crust of bread than a funeral elegy.
Woman's first fault is no excuse for man's
last.
Kind words are honey drops to the tired
soul.
A bad tongue is not the clapper of a good
heart.
Crossed love is forgotten — crossed opinions,
never.
Distrust but do not refuse an untried
remedy.
Hope is the only flavour for a diet of
adversity.
He is near to happiness who makes an-
other smile.
87
Greed is swifter than a greyhound.
Results give the lie to many boasts.
Nothing beslimes like a fawning tongue.
The smallest pirates fly the blackest flags.
The coming tempest is no less a great wind.
Better a bleeding wound than pent up agony.
Gigantic robberies are nevertheless rob-
beries.
Every furrow in the brow represents a drag-
tooth of care.
A tempestuous petticoat is more bewitching
than a satin gown.
For the light of beauty men go down into
the darkest pits.
The smart of the lash soon dies — the
memory of it never.
The meaner a man is, the meaner he not
only feels but looks.
88
The greenest turf covers the blackest soil'
Only an earthquake can shake a selfish soul.
One woman-wolf is more to be dreaded
than a den of lions.
There are women whose smile is poison,
whose touch is death.
Bequeath your good deeds to memory, your
bad deeds to oblivion.
Pity, as soft as feathered flakes of snow,
whitens all it falls upon.
If we peep behind a curtain we may see
the ghost of our own hopes grinning at us.
The albatross, like a great soul, remains
aloft without the flutter of a feather.
My sovereign hope is the inate desire of
the human heart that justice be done.
Love is as much higher than justice as is
the tallest mountain above an ant hill.
«(«
The people have so often been beguiled
that now they refuse to believe the truth.
80
Why is it that down hill is always greased ?
A stain upon a woman's honour is indelible.
Insolence is brutal — arrogance, intolerable.
The seeds of ill grow best in the most sterile
soil.
A heart pickled in gall cannot be called a
sweetmeat.
The promise of eternal sleep is not sweet
to a live man.
The most worthless woman is bought at
the highest price.
A man can put away his wife but he cannot
divorce a memory.
** t
Many of our good intentions are so feeble,
that like snow flakes, they melt as they come.
The earth is a fertile womb bringing forth
fruits for all. A few men claim they are God's
first sons and take the crop.
There are women who breath forth intox-
icating perfumes. The man who inhales them
is in danger of great good or of great evil.
40
Nature, unheard, performs her greatest
deeds.
Ingratitude is a tree whose fruit poisons the
very air.
Many could make lye out of the cold ashes
of their hopes.
Gather the blossoms daily — the frost may
come at night.
Plant no flowers on the graves of those we
have neglected in life.
Some men are not content so long as an
unfinished crime remains.
Some men prefer the drudgery of the devil
to the sleep of innocence.
Women are tempted to taste a little evil,
just to know what it is like.
Every life leads up to a precipice, over
which a few jump, the others tumble in and
are lost.
We know that death is ever marching be-
hind us but we never name the day when he
will catch up.
41
To hurt for mischief is to catch disaster.
Even a sigh trembles through the universe.
Nature must love woman to fashion her so
beautiful.
The chain of some men's fate must be made
of adamant.
Revere the dust— it was the men and women
of long ago.
The keenest blade in South Africa is made
from Ralph iron.
He believed her an angel— married and
found her only a woman.
A curled knot of snakes is not as deadly as
the signature to a mortgage.
In London they no longer say, " Lend me
your purse— but your name."
A painter's description of matrimony
Introduction : the background.
Courtship : the middle ground
Engagement : the foreground.
Marriage : the nude subject
42
Kruger is the epitome of obsolete ideas and
living force.
A bleating lamb in a great city is in greater
danger than in the darkest wood.
There be three birds.
One lives only in the highest altitudes.
This bird is Truth.
One lives on the plain.
This bird is Expediency.
One lives in the mire.
This bird is Subserviency.
He who writes with a feaiher plucked from
the wing of the first bird will not be listened
to for ages to come.
He who writes with a feather plucked from
the wing of the second bird will receive the
plaudits of the people.
He who writes with a feather plucked from
the wing of the third bird will be worshipped
by the mob.
Not gold, not broad acres, not vast power,
not blazoned titles, not eloquence, but truth
is the lever which moves the world.
<»*
When Europe completes the process of
Christianizing China that nation will have
disappeared from the map.
4t
The truth-seeker never digs in the columns
of the political newspaper.
A money shaver with a conscience would
soon be poorer than his clients.
I have read of the dog-like affection of
woman — I have seen their cat-like character-
istics.
Bread snatched from the poor becomes a
stone in the rich man's belly. He has only
to eat his fill to sink.
What a gas lamp is to a moth, the same is
a rose diamond to a woman — neither see the
danger till they are dead.
In olden times Sodom and Gomorrah
swallowed up the wicked. In modern times
Chicago swallows up the good.
^*
\ Chinaman's soliloquy. "First come mis-
sionary, big prayers, little book. Singee
^ Peace on earth and good willee to all men.'
Russian Bear swallow Manchuria, French
Eigle strippe off Yellow Jacket, Bille Em-
peror stealee Peacock Feather, English Lion
grabbe Pig Tail. Damme, hungry lion want
everything."
44
Slander is more subtile than any microbe.
You cannot squander ten thousand a year
and then balance the account by thrusting a
stale bun, dipped in charity soup, into a
beggar's hand.
Lolling on a velvet cushion in a fashionable
church will not be a valid answer when you
meet the poor girl ' beyond ' whom you ground
down to make trousers for twenty cents a pair.
You did'nt do it ? You wore the trousers, it's
all the same.
A cynic's description of the honeymoon —
Kisses allopathic.
Kisses homeopathic.
The cold douche.
Hot mustard plasters.
A lawyer's description of matrimony in the
United States —
Court — Appeal.
The suit filed.
Rival — an interpleader.
Marriage. Judgement given. /
Household expenses. Costs. '
Family jars. Proceedings for alimony.,
Final hearing. Divorce absolute. j
Quit claim. Deed to another man.
46
The sea-side resorts attract many queer fish.
The pohtician is wliat the ^eople make him.
The child which cries for bread is a menace
to the state.
Infamy may rise to such a height a?; to be-
come famous.
More women have been killed by innuendo
than by hard work.
To the small boy a circus is more alluring
than the Psalms of Solomon.
Eternity is an endless chain whose links
are youth, old age and decay.
Ihe shark turns on his back to devour his
prey — the hypocrite prays that he may devour.
The money lender should provide himself
with an asbestos overcoat when he leaves this
world.
Every girl in store or office means a man
without employment. Every man without
employment is a man incapable of supporting
a wife. Do you see the inevitable result?
4e
laughter is ihc doctor's deadliest enemy.
Praise is the cheapest coin but more potent
than gold.
If all men were brothers nations would
cease to exist.
Years are required to make a brutal man —
hours, a woman.
We praise God for our victories. What
does the other fellow do ?
Patriotism is but another name for, ' love
yourself and hate your neighbors.'
If churches were made as attractive as gin
palaces, the former, not the latter, would be
open six days in the week.
When you get there, you will find that
Eternal Justice is not built on the depart-
mental store system. Some pale-faced girl
will offer the evidence.
Once Pity and Charity perched on every
cloistered gate and cried, 'welcome.' Now
they only venture forth on public occasions,
when they will be seen of all men.
47
The cat's serenade gives tone to the back
yard.
Mental problem. Suicide or side-tracked.
Which ?
««
The laugh of a child is sweeter to God than
a forty miuute prayer. ' •
The Klondike is as alluring as a pretty
woman and equally as freakish.
The greatness of the Yukon is only sur-
passed by the greatness of its liars.
Innocence is a rose bud with a worm out-
side waiting to gnaw a hole in it.
A blood-sucker on a boy's toe looks bigger
to him than a sea-serpent to a man.
An Easter bonnet is more satisfying to a
woman than the most eloquent sermon.
The witch doctor taboos a banana tree, the
parson the joyous dance. Both are bigots.
The nigger who has learned to drink rum
does not regard civilization as an unmixed
blessing.
The beautiful is eternal.
••
An epitaph. " He went North and found
his grave."
The cold marble becomes a living flame
under the hands of the sciili)tor.
We «-annot turn wjiter into wine but some
men come very near turning wine into water.
««
The coral shell stores up the glorious tints
of the sun's rays — the thoughtful man the
words of the wise.
A returned Klondiker with gold very much
resembles charity — frequently read of, seldom
seen.
Whence comes eter-^al truths ? They are
written in the rocks, they are breathed out of
the soft, South wind ; they are painted in the
sunset, they speak in the flowers and the tiny
blade of grass, they twinkle in distant stari.
Ages go by and yet man grasps but one, here
and there. They are messengers to every
man, gifted or untaught. He who seizes but
one and embalms it has done a greater service
to mankind than the mightiest king.
40
Prohibition is a frozen dream, real life a
red-hot time.
•«
Inquisitivness is but anutiicr name for tlic
Auditor General.
««
Capital account is a cavern wherein poli-
ticians hide their sins.
•«
The .summer girl, in the biggest wind, is
never blown away from a man.
«•
The editor writes most charmingly of
country life in his easiest chair.
Church choirs are always at sixes and
sevens. One day of harmony and six of
discord.
A young widow's sorrow for her husband
is a phantom minnow — looks genuine but
hides the hook.
00
While the bankrupt tradesman rides in his
carriage, his honest competitor is in the back
yard sawing wood.
The uglier a woman's face, the nearer to
her chin is the hem of her bathing skirt, no
doubt to hide her blushes.
60
The French are steadfast of purpose.
What purpose ?
Changing the Ministry !
English Poet in the Soudan, — " We
are carrying * Sweetness and light' into dark-
est Africa!"
Tommy,— "Yes, we let the light in with the
Lee-Metford and the Egyptian tax-collector
will sweeten these coves later on."
Mayor of New York, — "We must re-
turn the * Torch of Liberty' by the first
French steamer."
"What for?"
" To dispel the Dreyfus gloom."
Irate Mother-in-law (to son-in-law
about to marry second wife), — "Is this the
way you treat my daughter, lying in the dark
grave?"
" Only striking a match to see into it."
Out of the loins of pride and avarice comes
the innocent child. Why is this ? It cannot
be chance. It means something. When we
discover what that something is we shall re-
main innocent.
61
Greed grasps while poverty gasps.
The agony of despair breeds the monster,
' Human Hate.'
The man who refuses to lend to the Lord
distrusts the security.
a*
The blood of the pauper shall smear the
couch of the indolent.
«<(
The sweat of the poor, frozen into gold,
gilds the rich man's purse.
The time must come when the dragon's
teeth, sown by the rich, will bring forth a
harvest of cold steel.
unit
Mother in the kitchen at the wash tub.
Daughter in the parlor at the piano. Quite
proper ; its a case of rub-a-dub-dub.
^«
Why came we here ? By blind chance or
design ? The books are full of guesses, half-
truths and lies. We only know that we are
here. From whence we came and whither
we go is the problem. Being here, our high-
est endeavors should be to do some little
good. Then close our eyes and wait for the
answer. We can find it in no other way.
6Q
Man and niisery are not twins but father
and son.
The woman to whom temptation never came
cannot be said to be virtuous.
The blast of the golden bugle shall not al-
ways drown the wa^' of the poor.
When faults lie thick and die, the crop of
good deeds to follow will be the greater.
A priest at ten thousand a year is a monu-
ment erected over the grave of Christianity.
The cry of the child for bread reaches
further into the universe than peans sung to
kings.
When Eve was created nature must have
cried ' no,' for ever since woman has continued
to repeat the word.
The rich go about the world on stilts, lest
the poor should touch the hems of their gar-
ments. They are so so high in the air that
they gather no perfume from the wild flowers
blooming by the wayside.
6S
The hand of Justice has lost its thumb and
forefinger.
Vulgar speech is a drop of filth from a
rotten heart.
A fly never sees the window pane until his
bruised nose bleeds.
««(
The greatest kindness is that which we are
not compelled to remember.
My aspirations are cut out with a broad
sword. My results with a pen knife.
The mathemetician can measure a world,
yet he cannot weigh the secret thing which
stirs a poet's heart.
Man has waited for ages for heaven to help
him. Heaven has waited equally long for
man to help himself.
^*
Slaves are bound with fetters of steel — poor
men with fetters of law. One corrodes with
age, the other is perpetually renewed.
The devil fish of the sea claws his victim,
then sinks to the bottom. The devil fish of
the land claws his, then rises to the top.
84
Want issues from the womb of greed.
Justice will be done when greed dies.
^«»
Sympathy is the sheet-anchor of the Ship
of Life.
One tear is more potent for good than a
thousand laws.
Charity, though white of plumage, is born
of black parents.
The avenger strikes down one evil and
creates a thousand.
Universal love is but another name for
universal happiness.
Life without hope is death without a grave
wherein to find rest.
A man is not only responsible for his acts,
but for their influence.
To know, and not to do is vile — to do and
not to know, an accident.
The white flowers of sympathy shall yet
bloom over graves in which the rich rot.
66
Luxury lulls— poverty dulls.
A fat priest and a poor flock.
««
The hooked fish has an open mouth.
The money lender loves a close shave.
Preachers and brokers, alike, deal in future
options.
Humility is sweet but its prj.th is strewn
with bitter herbs.
The change for which every woman prays
— a change of name.
Passengers inside the coach 'Prosperity,*
never see the galled steeds,
The knout pinches the slave's back. The
combine, the free man's belly.
The ball dress is diplomatic, in that it re-
veals what it pretends to conceal.
There is colour in the statement that one
nigger in a missionary report throws a shadow
greater than ten white men.
66
Vile thoughts only bloom on the dung-hills
of depravity.
Coarseness is as akin to vice as the flame
to the candle.
Indolence lolls in luxury while energy goes
hungry to bed.
Toil with recompense is sweeter than
recompense without toil.
Hkp . ♦
is the African heathen more precious than
a sick child in a London garret?
The ashes of a bad woman cannot be
cleansed with the waters of an ocean.
She who walks the street by night is an out-
cast. She who seduces a Prince may die a
Queen.
Princes on sale for gold, women for titles,
virtue for bread, statesmen for place, and
priests for salary.
Monopoly. A whip in the hands of
plutocrats, which bites the backs of men and
saddens the hearts of women.
87
No soul can remain stagnant.
A gossip scatters more ills than a pestilence.
'Tis useless to kill the serpent after she has
laid her eggs.
00
The poison on the fang cannot injure till
the snake strikes.
00
When thetunctious' priest wants to borrow
he cries, * Lend to the Lord.'
00
We should not blot out the sun because its
rays will hatch the eggs of a serpent.
00
The lion of the jungle seizes his prey by
night. The lion of the city by day ; one is
stripped to the bone, the other to the shirt.
00
Birds are charmed by snakes, women by
beasts in human form. The glitter of the eye
subdues the one, the glitter of gold, the other.
00
Over the grave of each child which dies in
the slums should stand a tablet inscribed,
" Died for want of sunlight and pure air."
" Who stole the land ? "
68
One tyrant dies that two may be born.
A wise man prefers virgin soil to a cultivated
widow.
The bone of contention is never covered
with sweet meat.
The woman is most lost who forgets her
babe for the ball.
* **
Self-righteousness can walk so straight that
it leans backwards.
More women are drowned * in the swim '
than in mill ponds.
When death knocks at the door the servant
answers, ' Not at home.'
A winged Cupid without a feather can soar
higher than the pinioned eagle.
He who seeks for spiritual rest in dogma
will find only a bottomless pit.
A wish from the heart travels beyond
the blare of the loudest trumpet.
It is better to lavish your affections upon a
faithful dog than upon an unfaithful friend.
b9
The poor man craves for bread — not logic.
A woman without love is a tree without sap.
The plutocrats, like the Jews, thrive on
curses
Good advice is an atom ; good deeds the
universe.
The beautiful seraph makes the most dan-
gerous fiend.
The ghost of poverty is more dreadful than
poverty itself.
«»«
A religion of details is a fruit tree which
produces only blossoms.
Each grain in the universe is a unit, re-
move but one and chaos will follow.
Hills sunlit with promise are easier to
traverse than the level road upon which hope
died.
It is as easy for the poor man to pluck
money from the rich as for the missionary to
pick the pocket's of a naked savage.
•0
A tainted heart soils the sweetest lip.
««
I'lxchange the virus of hate for ihe antidote,
love.
A woman i^rcfcrs a fervent lover to a cold
husband.
00
A ficHc woman may conquer the most
constant soldier.
00
The begrimed soul cannot be hidden with
a white- wash brush.
00
Our efforts should be to harmonize, not
simply to change.
00
The most precious gem is found in the
most worthless sand.
00
The Senate joined to the Commons is an
impotent man wedded to a vigorous maid.
00
The bombastic egotist floats on the crest of
prosperity while the philosopher starves in
his tub.
00
The priest counsels men in the sterile
present to feed upon a pregnant future. To-
morrows dinner never yet ted a hungry man.
^^■
All the good in a human heart can never
die.
You cannot denude ii woman of her masked
thoughts.
«<»
Diplomacy is cultivated in men and bred
in women.
He who would pluck contentment must
abandon force.
To console a widow is more agreeable than
to court a maid.
The man who stains the purity of a woman
tarnishes his own soul.
It is difficult to distinguish the fleshy lie
from the ghostly truth.
Tiie private ownership of land is crystalized
in the question " Is the unborn child an
heir or a bastard ? "
Love of the artistic does not account for
the crookedness of men, though the curve is
the only true line of beauty.
Sly women walk where blunt men fall.
The stench of corruption is fragrant to the
lobbyist.
««
A shrivelled soul may hide in a bishop's
paunch.
A slippery friend is more dangerous than
thin ice.
The kangaroo and the miser carry all they
love in a pouch.
You cannot staunch a bleeding wound with
a memory or a promise.
Marriage is a covenant which few women
refuse and many revoke.
Emotion in woman is the locomotive —
wisdom, the cow-catcher.
A misfit policy is as dangerous to a states-
man as a misfit dress to a woman.
The sting of a bee is not the less to be
dreaded because the bee makes honey.
Creed is as akin to righteousness as a
'bucket shop' to the kingdom of heaven.
00
An act cannot die.
To exist is not to live.
Degeneracy is born of many parents.
««
'I'lu; rich man gives advice, the poor man
bread.
Happiness is now a theory, 1 would make
it a fact.
The statute of limitation runs not against
evil deeds.
The ([uickest cure for a passionate longing
is a cold woman.
Through lapse of time the few claim the
inheritance of the many.
The cause of truth will not triumph so long
as it is intrusted to fools.
If the weakness of the present industrial
system were realized it would cease to be
dangerous.
Snakes eggs are hatched by the sun.
Misers eggs — gold — by labor. Young snakes
hiss at their mother, misers at men.
64
The charitable heart hath an empty pocket.
««
The cry of the poor is an eternal re-
monstrance.
The ocean of hope springs from a single
drop of sympathy.
The old-time robber was the flither of the
new time financier.
Injustice sleeps in a bed of roses which
rests on a bed of thorns.
The lamb 'love' and the wolf *hate' tarry
not long in the same pen.
A feather from the wing of truth is of more
weight than a mountain of lies.
«(«
Only the key sympathy can unlock the
sacred chamber hidden in every heart.
The bloodless wreath of love is stronger
than a tyrant's chain. The one shall yet bind
the world, the other be broken by a simple
wish.