Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 May 1916 — DOWN GRADE. [ARTICLE]

DOWN GRADE.

By Walt Mason.

The road down hill is* easy, your gait is brisk and breezy, companionship is gay; and as you trot along it, the dead game sports who throng it will cheer you on your way. You ply the bowl and flagon, and jeer the water wagon, the hydrant and the pump, and, laughing at the sorrow which will arrive tomorrow, you hasten to the dump. Your gait grows ever swifter, with williewaught and snifter, four fingers at a throw; with decency you quarrel, and sneer at all things moral, and to the dump you go. Oh, faster yet and faster, you speed on to disaster, and steeper is the slope: friend,, stop and look and listen, while yet in sight there glisten the snowy robes of hope! Some -turn around and scramble back through the rock and bramble; a weary, racking climb; but there are hands to aid them, and, though sore feet delayed them, they reach the top in time. But most of those who amble down hill don’t try to scram-.

hie back tp the healthful pump, back to the sane existence they’re leaving in the distance, but keep on to the dump.