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A TOAST TO MERRIMENT

A lady said to Whistler that there were but two paintershimself and Velazquez. He replied: "Madam, why drag in Velazquez?" So it is with Joyousness and Gloom. Both exist,but why drag in Gloom?

AKE merry! Though the day be gray

Forget the clouds and let's be gay !
How short the days we linger here:
A birth, a breath, and then-the bier!
Make merry, you and I, for when
We part we may not meet again!

What tonic is there in a frown?
You may go up and I go down,

Or I go up and you-who knows
The way that either of us goes?
Make merry! Here's a laugh, for when
We part we may not meet again!

Make merry! What of frets and fears?
There is no happiness in tears.

You tremble at the cloud and lo!
'Tis gone and so 'tis with our woe,
Full half of it but fancied ills.
Make merry! 'Tis the gloom that kills.

Make merry! There is sunshine yet,
The gloom that promised, let's forget,
The quip and jest are on the wing,
Why sorrow when we ought to sing?
Refill the cup of joy, for then
We part and may not meet again.

A smile, a jest, a joke-alas!
We come, we wonder, and we pass.
The shadow falls; so long we rest
în graves, where is no quip or jest.

Good day! Good cheer! Good-bye! For then
We part and may not meet again!

From "Friendly Rhymes,"

E. P. Dutton & Co.

James W. Foley.

MISTRESS FATE

"Faint heart never won fair lady." Mistress Fate herself should be courted, not with feminine finesse, but with masculine courage and aggression.

LOUT her power, young man!

FL

She is merely shrewish, scolding,

She is plastic to your molding,

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She is woman in her yielding to the fires desires fan.
Flout her power, young man!

Fight her fair, strong man!

Such a serpent love is this,-
Bitter wormwood in her kiss!

When she strikes, be nerved and ready;

Keep your gaze both bright and steady,

Chance no rapier-play, but hotly press the quarrel she

began!

Fight her fair, strong man!

Gaze her down, old man!

Now no laughter may defy her,

Not a shaft of scorn come nigh her,

But she waits within the shadows, in dark shadows very

near.

And her silence is your fear.

Meet her world-old eyes of warning! Gaze them down

with courage! Can

You gaze them down, old man?

From "Merchants from Cathay

Yale University Press.

William Rose Benét.

SLEEP AND THE MONARCH

(FROM "2 HENRY IV.")

The great elemental blessings cannot be "cornered." Indeed they cannot be bought at all, but are the natural property of the man whose ways of life are such as to retain them. In this passage a disappointed and harassed king comments on the slumber which he cannot woo to his couch, yet which his humblest subject enjoys.

How of my gentle sleep!

OW many thousand of my poorest subjects

Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee,
That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down
And steep my senses in forgetfulness?

Why rather, sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs,

Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee,

And hushed with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber,

Than in the perfumed chambers of the great,

Under the canopies of costly state,

And lulled with sound of sweetest melody?

O thou dull god! why liest thou with the vile
In loathsome beds, and leav'st the kingly couch
A watch-case or a common 'larum bell?
Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast

Seal up the ship-boy's eyes, and rock his brains
In cradle of the rude imperious surge,
And in the visitation of the winds,
Who take the ruffian billows by the top,

Curling their monstrous heads, and hanging them
With deaf'ning clamor in the slippery clouds,
That with the hurly death itself awakes?
Canst thou, O partial sleep! give thy repose
To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude,
And in the calmest and most stillest night,
With all appliances and means to boot,

Deny it to a king? Then, happy low, lie down!
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.

William Shakespeare.

NEVER TROUBLE TROUBLE

To borrow trouble is to contract a debt that any man is better without. If your troubles are not borrowed, they are not likely to be many or great.

I

USED to hear a saying
That had a deal of pith;

It gave a cheerful spirit
To face existence with,
Especially when matters
Seemed doomed to go askew.
'Twas Never trouble trouble
Till trouble troubles you.

Not woes at hand, those coming
Are hardest to resist;

We hear them stalk like giants,
We see them through a mist.
But big things in the brewing
Are small things in the brew;
So never trouble trouble

Till trouble troubles you.

Just look at things through glasses
That show the evidence;

One lens of them is courage,

The other common sense.

They'll make it clear, misgivings

Are just a bugaboo;

No more you'll trouble trouble
Till trouble troubles you.

St. Clair Adams.

CLEAR THE WAY

Humanity is always meeting obstacles. All honor to the men who do not fear obstacles, but push them aside and press on. Stephenson was explaining his idea that a locomotive steam engine could run along a track and draw cars after it. "But suppose a cow gets on the track," some one objected. "So much the worse," said Stephenson, "for the coo.'

MEN

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EN of thought! be up and stirring,
Night and day;

Sow the seed, withdraw the curtain,

Clear the way!

Men of action, aid and cheer them,
As ye may!

There's a fount about to stream,
There's a light about to gleam,
There's a warmth about to glow,
There's a flower about to blow;
There's midnight blackness changing
Into gray!

Men of thought and men of action,
Clear the way!

Once the welcome light has broken,
Who shall say

What the unimagined glories
Of the day?

What the evil that shall perish

In its ray?

Aid it, hopes of honest men;

Aid the dawning, tongue and pen;

Aid it, paper, aid it, type,

Aid it, for the hour is ripe;

And our earnest must not slacken

Into play.

Men of thought and men of action,
Clear the way!

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