--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Haddock, Lon J. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 14 number: 11 published: 1911-09 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Haddock, Lon J., "It’s the Word to the Living that Tells. A Poem," *Improvement Era* 14, no. 11 (September 1911): 1008.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera14011unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera14011unse start_page: 1008 end_page: 1008 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1911-09) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera14011unse publication_year: 1911 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1911, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # 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.