Article November 28, 1903 Issue

Sowing Beside all Waters

EUNICE P. ATHEY.

Some time ago an article appeared in a prominent journal which I greatly enjoyed. The title, "A Sower of Beauty," was very appropriate. It told the story of the experience of a gentleman while riding by rail through a southern state. The landscape was dreary and monotonous, and he fell to watching his fellow-passengers. The action of a sweet-faced woman excited his curiosity. She seemed to have a small salt sifter containing something which she, as unobtrusively as possible, shook out of the window now and then while the train sped on. From time to time she refilled it from a shopping-bag she carried and proceeded to use it as before.

Several months after, this gentleman while out walking with a friend in Atlanta passed his mysterious fellow-passenger, and after telling his story, asked who she was. He learned that she was the wife of a prominent physician and that she believed in the power of beauty to make life brighter and better. She therefore sowed the highways with flower seeds, and, said his friend, when you go over that route again see if the landscape has not been improved.

Later on, when our traveler started on his return trip, he had forgotten his friend's words, and not until he heard delighted exclamations, did he notice the transformation in the outlook from his car window. The small bagful of seeds sown by the wayside and wafted far and wide by the wind had sprung up into a radiant display of scarlet poppies, thousands upon thousands of them, to rejoice and revive drooping spirits. The heart and eye were alike gladdened by the sight of myraids of floral apostles that with mute lips proclaimed the helpfulness of beauty. To sow the seed was a simple act, yet how immeasurable was the harvest of comfort and cheer it yielded.

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