_Welcoming the Talented Children of the Soil_
Because of their closeness to the earth, the men on the farms
increase in stature and strength.
And for this very reason a certain proportion of their
children are being born with a finer strength. They are being
born with all this power concentrated in their nerves. They
have the magnificent thoughts that might stir the stars in
their courses, were they given voice.
Yea, in almost every ranch-house is born one flower-like girl
or boy, a stranger among the brothers and sisters. Welcome,
and a thousand welcomes, to these fairy changelings! They
will make our land lovely. Let all of us who love God give
our hearts to these His servants. They are born with eyes
that weep themselves blind, unless there is beauty to look
upon. They are endowed with souls that are self-devouring,
unless they be permitted to make rare music; with a desire
for truth that will make them mad as the old prophets, unless
they be permitted to preach and pray and praise God in their
own fashion, each establishing his own dream visibly in the
world.
The land is being jewelled with talented children, from Maine
to California: souls dewy as the grass, eyes wondering and
passionate, lips that tremble. Though they be born in
hovels, they have slender hands, seemingly lost amid the
heavy hands. They have hands that give way too soon amid the
bitter days of labor, but are everlastingly patient with the
violin, or chisel, or brush, or pen.
All these children as a sacred charge are appearing, coming
down upon the earth like manna. Yet many will be neglected as
the too-abundant mulberry, that is left upon the trees. Many
will perish like the wild strawberries of Kansas, cut down by
the roadside with the weeds. Many will be looked upon like an
over-abundant crop of apples, too cheap to be hauled to
market, often used as food for the beasts. There will be a
great slaughter of the innocents, more bloody than that of
Herod of old. But there will be a desperate hardy remnant,
adepts in all the conquering necromancy of agricultural Song
and democratic Craftsmanship. They will bring us our new time
in its completeness.
This by faith, and a study of the signs, we proclaim!