'698 
May 18* 1918 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
“Stepping Stones” 
Part I. 
“Men mny rise on steppiny stones of 
their (tend selves to higher things.^’ 
Most men I know will not be likely to 
rise very far in any other way. Usually 
they do not know they have risen, for 
they regard the dying of self as a pain 
and a penance and thus grieve and com¬ 
plain over the physical loss which alone can 
bring them spiritual gain. Having been 
associated with many selfish characters, 
and a few noble ones, I have seen many 
a clumsy foot try to find standing room 
on some “dead self” so that it might 
climb higher. Decoration Day means 
much to those of us who must associate 
with death and sorrow. Yet this year it 
seems to bring a new meaning. For this 
war, horrible as it is, is to bring to thou¬ 
sands of narrow and selfish lives the 
stepping stones over which they will climb 
“to higher things.” 
r)id you ever see a genuine New Eng¬ 
land pauper of 50 years ago—one of the 
true “old family” blood gone to .seed? If 
you have, you have seen the most useless, 
most pitiful human object on earth! I 
have seen them because part of my child¬ 
hood was i)a.ssed in a back country dis¬ 
trict where the town farm was located. 
The New England town farm of 50 years 
ago was usually the worst piece of land 
in town where they herded the human 
scrubs. The place was the scorn of the 
taxpayers and the .shame of the thrifty 
farmers. In New .Tersey we have a 
“county house” and over the door is a 
sign: “Bergen f’ounty Home,” but this 
town farm was boldly and truly a “Poor 
House.” 
As a boy I drove the cows home from 
pasture past this place and .saw the idle, 
lazy creatures sunning themselves under 
the trees. In one of his sermons our 
minister had fpioted Tennyson’s lines 
which I have printed at the head of this. 
I understood part of what he said because 
there had been a great debate in the dis¬ 
trict over his remarks. He was a Uni¬ 
tarian, it seems, and claimed that men 
rose to higher things through some per¬ 
sonal appeal to their own manhood. The 
orthodox people from the other church 
disputed this because they claimed that 
no man could “ri.se up” in this way exceph 
through some spiritual miracle. At any 
rate the idea crystalized in my childish 
mind and I wondered as I tnidged along 
barefoot in the dusty road how any one 
could ever rise up to higher things from 
“.selves” so thoroughly dead and filled 
with manhood decay as the lives of these 
wretched ])aupers were! Yet it was done, 
for “all tilings arc possible icHh (tod.” 
Far back among the hills of New Eng¬ 
land is a small country town—long since 
started to decay. At the opening of the 
Civil War it was pi-osperous and content. 
Nearly all of the men of fighting age vol¬ 
unteered. Many were killed. Most of 
those who returned were ini.satisfied with 
the hard, simple life of these hills. They 
went West or into towns and no one 
came to take their places. When those 
Yankees of the fourth gemeration went 
out West they built their towns where it 
seemed sure that a railroad would come 
or where some great business would cen¬ 
ter. Their ancestors never dreamed <if 
such things, but .settled on the theory that 
a good country home contains all of life 
that is worth while. 
At the top of a solemn, wind-swept hill 
with a fringe of pine trees about it to 
serve as a wind harp, the town buryiig 
ground was laid out. I need not tell you 
how the New England people regarded 
their graveyard. It was a hallowed place. 
A king might find a resting place there, 
but he would not honor it—he would 
rather be honored by lying in death be¬ 
side the best of the “old families.” And 
no unworthy or degenerate character 
could be buried there without a protest! 
Shortly after the Civil Wai- a man from a 
distant city went to this old town to 
speak on Decoration Day. The .seiwices 
were held in the cemetery and the speaker 
stood beside a grave covered with flowers. 
On the head stone was this inscription : 
UAe KURAI* NE.W.YORKER 
Hon. Joshua Drake 
God Gave Him Neto Life 
Therefore 
We Have Brought Him Home 
It caught the eye of the speaker, and 
as men will sometimes do at such a time, 
he switched away from his regular 
thought and began to speak of “this brave 
leader with the historic name.” .Toshua, 
he .said, was the fighting man of Israel. 
Drake did as much as anyone to save i 
England from the Spanish Armada. And 
so a man combining both names and car¬ 
rying in his viens the sound old New 
England blood had to be a leader. The 
“new life” which had been given him 
was the vision and power out of the.se old 
hills where all men must be thrifty and 
patriotic! He made what he thotight was 
a great .speech—so great that he did jiot 
notice the looks of wonder and dismay 
on the faces of his audience as he pictur<>d 
.Toshua Drake as a “leading citizen.” 
An old white haired farmer took the 
speaker home to dinner. He was silent 
for a time and then turned abruptly to 
his visitor. 
“Do yon know who .Tosh Drake really 
was? You made him out a saint from 
that grave stone—but do you know who 
he was?” 
“AVhy, some big man here, I suppo.se.” 
“No, he was a jinupcr—the laziest, 
meanest itoorhouse bird we ever had in 
this town I” 
“With that name? lie must have been 
an outsider!” 
“No. Born and raised in this town— 
purebred on his mother's side fi'om the 
INIayflower. He just petered out. They 
will do it .sometimes and when pure 
blond does thin out its worse than the 
meane.st .scrub. Books as if nature wants 
to make us understand now and then that 
character don’t go along with pedigree 
‘except through fasting and prayer.’” 
“But do you bury paupers in your 
graveyard?” 
“No, the potter’s field on the town 
farm. But Josh Drake got new life— 
he’.s one of us—in death!” 
“AYliat do you mean by ‘new life?’ 
and as they drove on through the sweet 
fragrance of the apple blooms the old 
man told his story. 
It was true that ,To.shua Drake was 
the laziest, meane.st ])auper in town. He 
had a fighting name from a fighting fam¬ 
ily, yet when the poor farm bull broke 
out and made a run for little ‘Mary 
Brown as she came up the road, .Toshua 
Drake, the great, hulking coward, climbed 
the fence and ran for the woods. It was 
the minister, a little consumptive man, 
who ran out with his whip, drove the 
bull back, and saved Mary. And then the 
minister chri.stened .Tosnua with a name 
which clung to him—.Tosh Duck—for 
that described him. And “.losh Duck” 
laz(‘d and slouched through life until the 
war broke out. Lincoln sent out his fa¬ 
mous call for volunteers. It ran through 
these old hills li!:e the old fiery cross 
through the Scotch Highlands. There was 
no draft at that time—the country de¬ 
pended on volunteer.s. There Avas a meet¬ 
ing on the village green in front of the 
church. The minister was the first man 
to volunteer and one by one the others 
c!uu(‘, until it seemed as if only old men 
and women were left. Still they needed 
Auie more to fill their share of the com¬ 
pany. The recruiting sergeant made his 
api)eal, and then the minister stepped for- 
Avard and read Lincoln’s proclamation 
ov(‘r once more. He read it aa'cII and 
many an eye Avas wet as he finished and 
held uj) the flag before them. 
Slouching on the grass by the school 
house Avith the other paupers lay “.Tosh 
Duck”—lazy, shiftless, inert, a burned- 
out candle—the shrivelled husk of pat¬ 
riotic honor. There seemed only a group 
of paupers—men and Avornen Avithout 
pride of birth about him—yet as the min¬ 
ister stopped reading there stepped out 
of the shadoAV tAV'O strange, invisible fig¬ 
ures. One Avas a powerful figure, clad in 
rude armor and carrying a SAVord — 
.Toshua, the fighter of Israel! The other 
a big black-bearded pirate—Drake, the 
sailor Avho ‘singed the Spaniard’s beard.’ 
They touched their .slouching name.sake 
with their swords, and ‘.Tosh Duck.’ with 
a quiver through his big frame, rose from 
the ground and slouched up to the flag. 
H. W. c. 
(To be Continued) 
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