Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 232, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 October 1911 — The Onlooker [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Onlooker

By WILBUR D. NESBIT

" • -4,' ' ■ ■■ ' 'Xc ■ ci-A-v' • • ■ The lonesomest kind of a lonesomeness Is not in the forest dark Where the falling leaves have a lonely look And the trees stand sere and stark; *Tis not on the ocean, wide , and blue, With never a hailing bark. >, The lonesomest kind of a lonesomeness Is not in the forest brown Nor yet in the mountain fastnesses, But here In the heart of town Where men and women on every side All day go up and down. Where never a friendly face you see Through all of the while so drear, Where never a hand is reached to you z And none gives a word of Cheer, Where each is a stranger whom yon meet— True lonesomeness is here. The lonesomest kind of, a lonesomeness Is here in the rush and sound, Where nothing but people strange to you. Encompass you all around. And you do not care any more than they Where one of the other is bound.. The tree and the breeze and the foaming sea J Draw near unto yens. all kind; But folk whom you meet with stranger eyes ‘ To strangers all are blind. And this is the lonesomest lonesomeness A lonesome man may find.