Crayon and Character: Truth Made Clear Through Eye and Ear Part 24

"'The least flower with br.i.m.m.i.n.g cup may stand And share its dewdrops with another near.'

"Truly, the eyes of Helen Keller are widely opened to the great truths and wonderful beauties around her--[change lines of the eye slightly, completing Fig. 125]--whereas, the eyes of many of us which are supposed to be wide open, are indeed closed to many of G.o.d's blessings. Many of us have eyes to _see_ with, but we use them only to _look_ with. Helen Keller has seen more and done more without eyes than thousands who have perfect eyes, but have never learned to use them.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 125]

"Helen Keller should be an inspiration to every girl here today.

Learn from her life the great principles of true living.

"Let us first ask the question, 'How did she reach the high place to which she has been able to attain?' She must have had help. Yes, she did have help. It came chiefly through a dear friend, Miss Sullivan, who, through patient years, sent the light into the darkness which enveloped the poor deaf and blind girl. And listen:

"Never, during those years of patient endeavor, did Miss Sullivan allow Helen Keller to receive a wrong impression of things about her.

"Stop a moment and think what all that means! Nothing came into the life of the girl but clear, certain truth. The false, the unlovely, the hideous, the deceitful, the unreal, never came in to distort her view while she was a child, and so, when she later learned of the sadder side of life, through her extensive reading, she was well prepared to sympathize with those whose youth was not so well favored as her own. Let us be careful in helping to shape the lives of the children, never to leave with them a wrong impression which may require a lifetime to remove from their minds.

"'It must be,' says Helen Keller, 'that when the Lord took from me one faculty, He gave me another, which is in no way impossible. I think of the beautiful Italian proverb, 'When G.o.d shuts a door, he opens a window.'

"Truly, G.o.d has opened a window to let in the suns.h.i.+ne of His love and care, and this blind girl is one of His brightest children.

"What an example to the world is Helen Keller! What an example to every girl who has heard of her great success. Up with a monument to her memory! Build it high and strong! She has shown the world how difficulties can be overcome by determination and perseverance, and to what rugged, lofty heights one may attain, even though he carry the heaviest of burdens!"

THE STORY OF A KITE --Conceit --Vanity

A Fable Talk to Children About the Ambitious Flier Which Broke the String.

THE LESSON--That sometimes the things which seem to be hindering us and holding us down are the very things which we need to hold us up and build us up.

In the days of our grandfathers and grandmothers, the children were taught from the beginning to perform many household duties which the children of today know nothing of. Whether it be a cause or an effect, the truth of the matter is that the modern tendency is to get away from the home influence and home responsibilities at a very early age--to break loose from "mother's ap.r.o.n strings." The talk deals with this phase of modern life.

~~The Talk.~~ ~~(By Chas. D. Meigs.)~~

"I am going to draw you a picture this morning, and I am wondering which one of you will be able to tell me first what it is a picture of. I will go a little slow, so you can all follow every line and think real hard what it is going to be! [Begin drawing Fig. 126, at the lines indicating the distant foliage; then draw the tail, and finally the kite frame and string.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 126]

"No, no, no! It's not a wood pile! It's not a gridiron! No, it is not a trap! Where's the boy who said 'kite?' He's the smartie, for he got it right. Yes--it's a kite, and it was John's kite.

"One day the wind came up just right for the kite, so John got it out, called to his chum, Harry, across the street, and said, 'Say, Harry, come on--let's go out and fly the kite; the wind is just dandy today.'

"So, away the boys went, and before they reached the open lot three or four other kids had fallen in line, and they went along to help have the fun. 'Now, Harry, you take the kite and run out there towards that old stump,' said John, 'and when I pull the string, you stop and hold the kite up over your head as high as you can and when I say 'ready'

you let her go.' Away went Harry, and he held up the kite. [Let speaker hold up a song book, high.] 'Are you ready?' 'Yes.' 'Well, then, let her go.' And with that, along came a gust of wind which laid hold of that kite and began to climb right up towards the sky with it. Higher and higher it went till the kite which was really as tall as the boy who owned it, didn't look much bigger than his hat But Harry kept on letting out the string, till the hat looked like a bird with a great long tail.' [Let speaker here shade his eyes with his hand and peer and point steadily up towards the sky and occasionally take a peep at the audience and see the boys and girls also looking up through the roof at the kite. The writer has so caught them at it many a time.] Then John looked down to see how much string he had left, and he let out more and more, and when he looked up at the kite again he didn't look at it at all--because he could not see it. It was out of sight! But he knew it was up there all right for he _felt it pull_!

"Now, I guess this kite story is a fable, because in fables kites can talk as well as the boys who fly them. So when the kite got up so high, the story says that it began to want to talk, and as there was n.o.body up there to talk to, it began to talk to itself, and here is what it said:

"'My! but ain't I high today? Never got so high in all my life before. How beautiful the world looks below me! How beautiful the sky looks above me! Dear me, I can't be so very far from the man in the moon! I have often heard of him, but have never met him. Gee! I wish that boy would let go of that string; if he would, I'd go up and shake hands with the man in the moon and ask him how he is. I just hate to be _held down_ all the time. I heard Harry say, the other day, that he didn't went to be tied to his mother's ap.r.o.n string, and that he'd like to be his own man.' Yes, and I'd like to be my own kite, too, and then I'd show these boys where I'd go.' And the more the kite thought of being 'held down,' the madder it got and finally it said, 'If that boy don't let go of that string, I'll _break it_--that's what I'll do, and I'll go on up to the moon, now see if I don't!' And with that, the kite gave a sudden jerk--and--_snap went the string_!

"And what do you think, children--did the kite reach the man in the moon? Not much it didn't!' It began to act crazy and silly and drunk all at the same time! And it wobbled, and wobbled and stumbled and tumbled and finally it fell in the dirt, battered and broken like that! [Detach your drawing, reverse it and reattach it to the drawing board; add the lines to complete Fig. 127.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 127]

"Now boys, why did the kite fall, when the string broke? Because the very same _string_ which had _held it down_ was the very same _thing_ which _held it up_! And now listen--don't you boys and girls get as silly as the kite was. Don't you jerk, and pull and tug at your mother's ap.r.o.n string and try to break it, so you can be 'your own man' while you are nothing but a boy or a girl? If you break that string too soon, you are liable to tumble in the dirt as the kite did, and go all to pieces as it did; for--don't forget this--the things which _hold you down_ to Sunday School, to Church, to Young People's Meeting, to _School_ and to _work_, are the things which hold you up and lift you up, and keep you up and build you up into _strong_, hopeful, helpful, useful, happy men and women. Don't forget what a fool the kite was, and what happened to it!

Go as high as you can in the world but _don't break the string_!"

A STRANGE OLD EPITAPH --Narrowness --Broadness

A Talk to Boys Concerning the Narrow Life and the Broad Life--A Contrast.

THE LESSON--That it is all wrong to be satisfied to be a Mr. n.o.body. Do your best and be a Mr. Somebody.

The boy whose days in school and whose hours of serious thought in the home have opened his eyes to future years of responsibility, will drink in the sentiment of this talk and remember the lesson when he reaches the twists and corners of life's pathway which lies before him.

~~The Talk.~~ ~~(By Chas. D. Meigs.)~~

"I am going to tell you today of a very _narrow man_. Suppose we call him Mr. Slim Jim. Later on, I will tell you about Mr. Broadman, and ask you which one you would rather be when you grow up.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 128]

"But first, we will turn our minds to a strange old graveyard over in England, a burying ground where there are a good many old tomb-stones like this: [Draw Fig. 128, complete]. If you were to walk among these old gravestones, you would find one there which would make you laugh, even though you were in a cemetery, because the epitaph, on it is the funniest you ever saw or heard of. It says:

"'Here Lies the Body of John Blank.

He Was Born a Man But _Died a Grocer_!'

[As you speak the words slowly, draw them on the tombstone, completing Fig. 129.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 129]

"Did you ever hear anything to beat that? Now, that isn't anything against grocery men. A grocery man may be just as good a man as the preacher himself--and just as respectable. We can't get along in this world without groceries, and we just have to have men who will sell them to us. Then what was the matter with John? Well, just this: His business had swallowed him up! He had given it his whole time for years, and he did nothing else. It was groceries, groceries, groceries, and nothing but groceries. It was groceries on Monday, groceries on Tuesday, groceries on Wednesday, groceries on Thursday, groceries on Friday and groceries till eleven o'clock Sat.u.r.day night, and if John went to church Sunday morning, sat on the front seat, and looked straight at the preacher all the time (so the preacher would say to himself, 'John seems to be very much interested in the sermon this morning, bless the Lord'). Ten to one John wasn't thinking of the preacher or his sermon at all--just only of groceries--or some big bill he had to buy or pay on the morrow.

"Now, if the epitaph had said, 'Here lies the body of John Blank; he was born a man and died a banker,' it would have been just as bad.

Or, if he had died an undertaker, and buried himself, it would not have been any better.

"Now, John, Harry, Willie, if you want to be a grocer when you grow up, _be a grocer_ and a big one--a wholesale grocer if you wish, and be a _good one_--the very best in town, if you can, but say--don't let your grocery business _swallow you up_ till you are _not good for anything else_ but to buy and sell groceries!

Be a _good grocer_, but be a _better, bigger MAN!!_

"Perhaps you would like to be a lawyer; very well, be a _lawyer_, but see to it that you don't _die a lawyer_, and nothing but a lawyer. Don't let your profession swallow you up, and be bigger than you are yourself! Yes, be a lawyer, be a judge, if you will; the world doesn't seem to be able to get along without them--some of them to get people into trouble and others to get them out of it!

"Yes, but no matter how big and how good and just a judge you are, be a bigger, better, juster MAN.

"Here is another example. We have had Mr. Slim Jim; now let us have Mr. Broadman--broad-shouldered--broad-backed--broad-minded--big-hearted, open-pursed MAN--born a man and died a MAN. [Write last seven words on the blackboard.] Remember this: It is every man's duty to provide for his family, but it is no man's duty to provide a _million_ for them and provide nothing for those who are aged and sick and lame and blind and poverty stricken, and helpless.

"That kind of charity which 'begins at home' and _stays there_ is a shame and disgrace to its possessor. It is the kind Mr. Narrow Minded Slim Jim dispenses!

"Every man owes some of his time, his talent and his money to the town, the state, the nation to which he belongs! He gets their help and protection when needed. Protection and aid perchance in time of fire, flood or cyclone, and police protection as well. And now let me close where I begin with the gravestone and the epitaph." [Here draw picture of grave and gravestone with the epitaph, "Here Lies John Blank, He Was Born a Man But Died a Grocer."] "Let us read together once more this strange and curious epitaph, and make up our minds that no one will ever have a chance to write such a sentiment on _our_ gravestones."