The city itemizer., December 20, 1917, Image 1

About The city itemizer. (Water Valley, Miss.) 1894-1918

Image provided by: Mississippi Department of Archives and History

                
'J tjxAJMAM 'ilAXAAv
The City Itemizer.
a K. LEE, Editor "Devoted to the Interest of the Editor, E itieiivelr," #1,0 *3 T«a>
VOLUME 24 WATER VALLEY, MISS., DECEMBER 20, 1017 NUMBER 8
Laughter and Tears.
Wheu God seat happiness into
the world he bade laughter run
before it as a bright herald of joy.
Sorrow also came, not unattended,
and wherever it passed there were
found the shimmering pearls of
tears. So constant was this com
panionship that in time, men came
to think of tears as only the symbol
of grief, forgetting that there are
joys so sweet, so keen, so holy, we
shrink away from laughter as from
sacrilege, aud only a tear may
fathom the depths of our divinest
rapture The sorrow that, can weep
itself out ou the bosom of pity, is
already half oomforted. It is ooly
the dry-eyed, tearless grief that
burns into the heart aod leaves
soars there 'hat notding can ever
heal In the great play of “Monte
Christo” there is soeDe of inde
scribable pathos, wiiere the hero,
embittered by long years of un
deserved and incredible cruelty,
that have steeled and hardened
him against his kind and made him
think of nothing but vengeance,
is at last touched to tears by the
urtless devotion of a boy, aud, fall
ingon his knees, thanks God for
the ability to weep ouoe more. Ii
is like the unsealing of a fountain,
long ohoked up in the desert, and
where the healing waters flow there
springs up the eternal gieen, and
the flowers and the perfume that
make life sweet and beautTul. Not
all tears are alike. No grief lin
gers in children’s tears. They are
like the brief summer showers,
through whose falling drops we
still catch sight of the shining sun;
but sometimes we see in a crowd,
or kneeling in a church, an old
faoe that seems to have known
nothing but sorrow, where the tears
have plowed furrows in the oheeks,
as the constant dripping of the
water wears the hardest granite
into hollows. To the Anglo-Saxon
there is something ludicrous in the
way foreign men fall upon each
other’s necks and weep; but when
a strong, self-contained man is
touched to tears, there is some
thing terrible in it that makes the
most thoughtless want to turn
aside with uncovered head, Wo
men have long been acoused of
using tears hs a weapon, but to
know how to weep effectively re
quires art and discretion. The
woman whoee eyes grow glassy and
dull, and whose nose gets red, and
whose face grows sodden, never
got anything by crying for it. But
there are other women who appar
ently can turn on their tear duots
at will, A few pearly tears course
down their damask oheeks without
giving them a damask rose as well
Their eyes remain wide open dur
ing the process, and the man is
more than mortal who doesn’t
think of violets drowned in dew
or quenched by fire, or something
of that sort, and succumb without
further argument. And so life
goes with laughter and tears, and
we learn to know that grief some
times masquerade in the motley of
joy, and that we, may find, if we
look, that there is a rainbow of
promise spanning every tear drop
that falls.
Talk about being unable to meet
the exigencies, what about the
exigencies meeting you? They
are going to meet you sure aud
certain, and you had just as well
get ready for the emergency,
We’ve been right in the middle of
'em lots of times, and the clouds
were mighty dark and thick. We
hadn’t looked a sufficient distance
ahead, and the result was we were
unprepared to meet the approach
of Mr. Exigency, whose livelihood
is obtained by the precipitation of
an uuhappy combination of cir
cumstances,
“Try* is the forerunner of suooess.
A CARD,
To the Citizens of the Fourth
Congressional District of
Mississippi.
I desire to announce ray candi
dacy for the Democratic nomina
tion for Congress from this the
Fourth Congressional Distriot of
Mississippi, and take this oppor
tunity to say that I am in entire
sympathy with the policies of
President Wilson in the adminis
tration of the domestic and foreign
affairs of the nation.
Our war flag has been unfurled
and our brave boys called to the
colors to resist insult and protect
our people, in their lives, their
liberty, and in their pursuit of
happiness and are now fighting by
the side of our brave Allies, in
oraer mat me spirit or lmeriy mat
enlightens the world may not be
orusbed and destroyed by theoruel
and ambitious band of absolutism.
I believe that the only adequate
system in selecting an army to win
this great war is the selective draft
system, for it insures strength and
competency in our armed force
and plaoes the burden in a careful
ly planned wsy upon the rich as
well as the poor, and does not
permit the unpatriotic to remain
at home while their more patriotic
brothers fight their common cause.
I believe that our people, and
especially our representatives in
Congress should stand solidly with
the administration in this world
war crisis, thus giving strength to
the arm of our great Command
er-in-Cbief and thus denying to
the enemy any aid or comfort by
any word or act.
It is my purpose to make a
thorough oampaign for this office
later on, as my official duties as
District Attorney will permit.
Jno F. Allen,
Kosoitisko, Miss , Dec, 17, 1917,