Are out of tune.

In vain for me the elm tree arches
Its plumes in many a feathery spray,
In vain the evening's starry marches
And sunlit day.

In vain your beauty, Summer flowers;
Ye cannot greet these cordial eyes;
They gaze on other fields than ours--
On other skies.

The gold is rifled from the coffer,
The blade is stolen from the sheath;
Life has but one more boon to offer,
And that is--Death.

Yet well I know the voice of Duty,
And, therefore, life and health must crave,
Though she who gave the world its beauty
Is in her grave.

I live, O lost one! for the living
Who drew their earliest life from thee,
And wait, until with glad thanksgiving
I shall be free.

For life to me is as a station
Wherein apart a traveler stands--
One absent long from home and nation,
In other lands;

And I, as he who stands and listens,
Amid the twilight's chill and gloom,
To hear, approaching in the distance,
The train for home.

For death shall bring another mating,
Beyond the shadows of the tomb,
On yonder shore a bride is waiting
Until I come.

In yonder field are children playing,
And there--oh, vision of delight!--
I see the child and mother straying
In robes of white.

Thou, then, the longing heart that breakest,
Stealing the treasures one by one,
I'll call Thee blessed when Thou makest
The parted--one.

The Beginnings of Stage Careers.

By MATTHEW WHITE, Jr.

A Series of Papers That Will Be Continued from Month to Month
and Will Include All Players of Note.

BLANCHE BATES BALKED.

As a School Marm She Got Behind Footlights
to Dodge Promotion from
Kindergarten to Primary Grade.

I knew that Blanche Bates came of a theatrical family, and that,
therefore, she had an open sesame to the stage, but I did not know just
when she made her first appearance, and to learn this for THE SCRAP BOOK I
sought her out in the brief interval of rest she has, without a costume
change, between the first and second acts of "The Girl of the Golden
West."

"How did I make my start?" she repeated in answer to my question. "Well, I
rather think it was because I balked at the idea of being known as a
'school marm.' I'll tell you about it. Although b