It’s the Word to the Living that Tells. A Poem

1008 IMPROVEMENT ERA. intoxicants, tobacco and other evils. Here are some extracts from the copy of The Hatchet obtained from her on the train: Hatchet Strokes. — A terror to evil doers, and the praise of them that do well. Slowly but surely the cigarette smoker is being crowded off the earth. The areas of pollution wherein he is permitted to poison good atmosphere are growing smaller and beautifully less. He has been excluded from offices, stores, and public places. While at Melvern, Arkansas, we stopped with a woman who is act- ive in the M. E. Conference of the state. She sent word to that body not to send her any more ministers who used tobacco, because of the filth they left behind. It's the Word to the Living that Tells. (For the Improvement Era.) It isn't enough to say in our hearts that we like a man for his ways, It isn't enough that we fill our minds with paeans of silent praise; Nor is it enough that we honor a man, as our confidence upward mounts — It's goin^ right up to the man himself and telling him so, that counts. For the sun may shine as never before, yet the sky be black as night, As the storm-clouds spreading fold on fold, shut out its effulgent light. But of what avail is the sun beyond, if it never appears to view? The rays that hallow their way to our hearts are the ones that penetrate through. There are men in the world, aye, and women, too, that rise to the noblest heights; Yet their paths oft lie in the humbler spheres, away from the glaring lights, And they pass on their way with never a word of comfort, or hope or trust, Till they fall at last; then a recreant world sounds its eulogy over their dust. If a man does a work you really admire, don't leave a kind word unsaid, In fear that to do so might make him vain, and cause him to "lose his head;" But reach out your hand and tell him, "Well done," and see how his gratitude swells. It isn't the flowers we strew on the grave, it's the word to the living that tells. * Lon J. Haddock. Logan, Utah.