Part 80 (1/2)

Apply to ”Summer Cottage,” care of The Forerunner or to John B. Burnham, Agent, Ess.e.x, N.Y.

THE FORERUNNER

A MONTHLY MAGAZINE

BY

CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN AUTHOR, OWNER & PUBLISHER

1.00 A YEAR .10 A COPY

Volume 1. No. 8 JUNE, 1910 Copyright for 1910 C. P. Gilman

Clothing is for five purposes: Decoration, Protection, Warmth, Modesty, and Symbolism. Can you explain yours?

THE PURITAN

”Where is G.o.d?” I cried. ”Let me hear!”

”I long for the voice of G.o.d!”

And I smote and trod On all things clamoring near; Small voices dear, That wept and murmured and sung Till my heart was wrung; That shrieked, shrieked loud and clear, As I with hammer and sword Slew them in the name of the Lord.

Where is G.o.d?” I cried. ”Let me hear!”

But my ears were ringing yet With cries I could not forget; The blood was flowing still, From the thing I could not kill; A smothered sobbing cry Filled all the red, wet earth, the cold, hard sky-- G.o.d came not near.

Then long I lived alone, On the desolate land; a stone On the thing I could not kill.

I bent to my hardened will All things that lived below; I strove to climb above, To the land of living love I had dreamed of long ago, But I could not see--not know.

”O G.o.d!” I cried, ”Come near!

Speak! Let thy servant hear!

Have I not utterly slain With tears of blood, with sweat of pain, In this base heart of mine All voices old and dear--to hear but Thine!

And if there struggleth still The thing I could not kill, Have I not put a stone On its head? O Thou alone Whom I would follow and fear-- Speak! Let Thy servant hear!”

Silent I lay, and weak; Then did the darkness speak; ”Child of the World! My love Is beneath as well as above!

Thou art not always led By a light that s.h.i.+nes ahead!

But pushed by an impulse blind-- A mighty Power behind!

Lifted, as all things grow, By forces from below!

Fear not for thy long mistake-- Listen! And there shall wake The voice that has found the way From the beginning, upward ever, into the light of day!

Lo! I am with thee still-- The thing thou couldst not kill!

MAKING A LIVING

”There won't be any litigation and chicanery to help you out, young man.