Jasper County Democrat, Volume 21, Number 68, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 November 1918 — THANKFUL [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THANKFUL

lAM thankful that, lying on my back In tall grass, atop a hill, I have watched white elouds sail over a aky of measureless blue. I am thankful that on a moonlit night in the desert I have heard the heartrending throb of an Indian chant bearing a dying chief to a heaven as real as the desert peaks, purple and black on the dim horizon. I am thankful that I know a New England town, elm-shadowed, silent, with a graveyard too large for it, wherein lie men and women who begot the Nation In the name of God, and laid them down to die in deathless faith. I am thankful that I have seen youngsters diving in an old swimming hole, that I have seen lovers strolling In April twilights, that I have smelled sagebrush after rain, that I have seen babies take their first step, that I have known pain and death, laughter and tears, and work with blistered

hands and with a back aching from heavy toll. But most of all I am thankful that I am living today so that, with the rest of thinking humans, I am witness of the birth of a new code for nations, a code so deep, so high, so filled with justice that one must believe the prophecy of Revelation to be coming true. As one with aching heart and streaming eyes must be thankful for the pains of motherhood which bring a new soul to earth, so I am thankful for the heroic agony of the Allies, which is bringing a new spirit to the nations of the worlds —Delineator.