Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 234, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 October 1911 — ROSES AND THORNS. [ARTICLE]

ROSES AND THORNS.

An Old Eastern Legend and Its Appt! { oation to Human Life. Thia world we’re living tn Is mighty hard to beat You get a thorn with every roee. But ain’t the roses sweet? There is an eastern legend that when Dte ' beneficent Creator prepared the earth for man, causing it to bring fbrth herbs and trees pleasant to the eye and good for food, each bearing its Seed within itself for propagating tth kind, the roses bad no thome and the lilies, violets and other blossoming plants were free from thistles, brambles and noxious weeds. But the,sone and daughters of men in their greedy eagerness to gather the flowers, each one selfishly striving to secure a larger share than his fellow. Seemed likely to despoil the earth of its beauty and leave not even enough blossoms to perfect their seed and perpetuate their species. So the kindly All Father provided the roses with thorns for self protection-and sent a host of defenders of the more tender blossoms by causing thistles and briers to spring up around them like wardens of a castle or the bodyguard of a queen. And this is the reason for. the thorns and briers—nature’s protection against human greed. The legend has a wider application. The roses typify the pleasures of life and the thorns its pains. A life of ease and pleasure was not only useless. but satiating. It would demoral■Bßgbim who indulged in it. Satiety the rose of its beauty and the of its fragrance; hencC kind nature makes true pleasure the reward of virtuous effort and punishes overindulgence with penalizing suffering, to the end that greed may be restrained and self control developed with its attendant virtues of temperance, kindliness, Industry and thrift—John B. Stoll in South Bend Times.