The California Birthday Book Part 41

NOVEMBER 11.

BEAUTY.

A hint is flung from the scene most fair That real beauty is not there; That earth and blossom, sea and sky, Would be empty without the seeing eye, That form and color, movement and rhythm Are not true elements of heaven Till pa.s.sed through transforming power of thought; For eye seeth only what soul hath wrought.

Ah! Beauty, thou the flowering art Of the upright mind and guileless heart.

MARY RUSSELL MILLS.

NOVEMBER 12.

THE BRAKEMAN AT CHURCH.

After asking the Brakeman if he had been to each of the leading churches, the querist finally suggested the Baptists. "Ah, ha!" he shouted. "Now you're on the Sh.o.r.e Line! River Road, eh? Beautiful curves, lines of grace at every bend and sweep of the river; all steel rail and rock ballast; single track, and not a siding from the round-house to the terminus. Takes a heap of water to run it through; double tanks at every station, and there isn't an engine in the shops that can run a mile or pull a pound with less than two gauges. * * *

And yesterday morning, when the conductor came around taking up fares with a little basket punch, I didn't ask him to pa.s.s me; I paid my fare like a little Jonah--twenty-five cents for a ninety-minute run, with a concert by the pa.s.sengers thrown in."

ROBERT J. BURDETTE, _Pastor Emeritus Temple Baptist Church, Los Angeles._

NOVEMBER 13.

Directly opposite sat a Chinese dignitary richly apparrelled, serene, bland, bearing with courteous equanimity flirtatious overtures of an unattached blonde woman at his left, and the pert coquetry of a young girl at the other side. The mother of the girl ventured meek, unheeded remonstrances between mouthfuls of crab salad. * * *

"But you have not answered my question," he reminded her. "Do you believe in affinities?"

"I think that I do," hesitatingly.

"You are not certain?"

"N-o; if to have an affinity means to have a very dear friend, whom one trusts, and whom one desires to make happy--"

"You speak as if you had such a friend in mind," he hazarded.

"I have," she replied simply.

"Happy man!" he sighed.

"I referred to my St. Bernard dog."

"Oh!" Protracted silence. "No use," he drawled. "My pride will not let me enter the lists with a St. Bernard."

"That is not pride, but modesty," she a.s.serted, and laughed. Her laughter reminded Horton of liquid sunshine, melted pearls, and sparkling cascades.

IDA MANSFIELD WILSON, in _According to Confucius._

NOVEMBER 14.

There's only one thing to do, there can be but one--to say the thing your soul says, to live the life your heart wills, to die the death your imagination approves and your spirit sanctions!

MIRIAM MICHELSON, in _Anthony Overman._

NOVEMBER 15.

TWO LITTLE CHINESE SISTERS.

Their blouses were of pink silk, and their trousers of pale lavender.

They wore gay head-dresses, and were indeed beautiful to look upon.

Sai Gee, a little-footed playmate of theirs, lived a few doors from them, and they had no difficulty in finding her home. Sai Gee was also dressed up in her gayest attire. * * * Sai Gee could play the flute.

It was really wonderful. She sat upon a stool, over which an embroidered robe had been thrown, and played to them. Her hair was done in a coil back of her right ear, and her little brown face was sweet and wistful as she brought forth from the flute the most wonderful sounds.

JESSIE JULIET KNOX, in _Little Almond Blossoms._

NOVEMBER 16.

She was only a little yellow woman from Asia, with queer, wide trousers for skirts and rocker-soled shoes that flopped against her heels. Her uncovered black hair was firmly knotted and securely pinned and her eyes were black of color and soft of look. * * * She saw the morning sun push its way through a sea of amber and the nickel dome of the great observatory on Mount Hamilton standing ebony against the radiant East. She heard the Oriental jargon of the early hucksters who cried their wares in the ill-smelling alleys, and with tears she added to the number of pearls which the dew had strewn upon the porch.

W.C. MORROW, in _The Ape, the Idiot and Other People._

NOVEMBER 17.

Sing is not included in the category of "goody-goody" boys. He is full of fun, and play, and willful pranks, and he sees the ridiculous side of everything quickly, but he seems naturally to accept only the good and to shun evil in any form. He is pure and innocent by nature and seems attracted to every person of similar characteristics. He has discernment and watches the faces of people closely, seeming to care more for their motives than for their deeds.

NELLIE BLESSING EYSTER, in _A Chinese Quaker._

NOVEMBER 18.

INDIAN ARROW HEADS FOUND IN CALIFORNIA.