it as long as you live." Now, from this time on, you and little Mary and I shall only let in the sunshine and [All speak] we shall live forever and ever and ever. THE END SUGGESTIONS TO YOUNG SPEAKERS To paint the passion's force, and mark it well, No pleasing powers distortions e'er express, The word and action should conjointly suit, To mark some whim, some strange peculiar mode; *From an Old Reader. * "T is not enough the voice be sound and clear, 'Tis modulation that must charm the ear. When desperate heroines grieve with tedious moan, And whine their sorrows in a see-saw tone, The same soft sounds of unimpassioned woes, Can only make the yawning hearers doze. The voice all modes of passion can express, That marks the proper word with proper stress. But none emphatic can that actor call, Who lays an equal emphasis on all. Some o'er the tongue the labored measures roll, And e'en in speaking we may seem too just. Some placid natures fill th' allotted scene He, who in earnest studies o'er his part, Will find true nature cling about his heart. MAKERS OF THE FLAG * This morning, as I passed into the Land Office, The Flag dropped me a most cordial salutation, and from its rippling folds I heard it say: "Good morning, Mr. Flag Maker." "I beg your pardon, Old Glory," I said, "are n't you mistaken? I am not the President of the United States, nor a member of Congress, nor even a general in the army. I am only a Government clerk." "I greet you again, Mr. Flag Maker," replied the gay voice, "I know you well. You are the man who worked in the swelter of yesterday straightening out the tangle of that farmer's homestead in Idaho, or perhaps you found the mistake in that Indian contract in Oklahoma, or helped to clear that patent for the hopeful inventor in New York, or pushed the opening of that new ditch in Colorado, or made that mine in Illinois more safe, or brought relief to the old soldier in Wyoming. No matter; whichever one of these beneficent individuals you may happen to be, I give you greeting, Mr. Flag Maker.' I was about to pass on, when The Flag stopped me with these words: "Yesterday the President spoke a word that made happier the future of ten million peons in Mexico; but that act looms no larger on the flag than the struggle which the boy in Georgia is making to win the Corn Club prize this summer. * Delivered on Flag Day, 1914, before the employees of the Department of the Interior, Washington, D. C., by Franklin K. Lane, Secretary of the Interior. |