The Project Gutenberg EBook of Said the Observer, by Louis J. Stellman

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Title: Said the Observer

Author: Louis J. Stellman

Release Date: July 6, 2004 [EBook #12832]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SAID THE OBSERVER ***

Produced by William Flis and PG Distributed Proofreaders

[Illustration: THE TELEPHONE FACE.]

SAID THE OBSERVER

BY

LOUIS J. STELLMANN

ILLUSTRATIONS BY

J.P. BURNHAM AND V.C. FORSYTHE

San Francisco
The Whitaker & Ray Co.
Incorporated
1903

DEDICATION.

TO MY MOTHER ON HER FIFTIETH BIRTHDAY.

Half of a century's gladness
And half of a century's tears,
Lost in the mighty silence
Of the past and vanished years!

Oh, what a sea of memories
Surge back from the time gone by--
The waters of Life's river;
How many a smile or sigh--

Has made them dance and sparkle;
Or, storm-tossed as they ran,
Adown the course of Being,
Since the current first began!

How many a note of gladness
Has the music of their flow,
Brought to the hearts of others
To lighten their load of woe!

How often, too, has Duty
Claimed its sacrifice of pain?
How many hours of sorrow
Have been for another's gain?

No mind can weigh or measure,
The light that a woman's love
Casts on Life's darkened pathways,
Save that of the God above.

From out the time that's vanished
A message of Peace is borne.
A future glad in Promise,
Like a sunshine-laden morn--

Smiles welcome now and beckons
To a new and brighter day.
The years to come are gladder
Than those that have passed away.

PREFACE.

It is the custom of some authors to preface their earlier works with
excuses for sending their "little volume out into the world," and to
bespeak in its behalf the leniency of both critic and reader. I have
no such apologies, however, to make for this work. I have confidence
in its success and it will win or lose, according to its merits, no
matter what I say.

"Said The Observer" represents stray ideas, gathered here and there
and everywhere, which I have decked out in gay