Show young babies show remarkable strength they represent man in his arboreal days it is said that very young babies will grasp ones fingers holding on with remarkable strength so they can be lifted to a sitting position because they represent man in his arboreal days when he still swung from limb to limb in the treetops writes J otis swift in the new york world telegram habits stored in the subconscious and handed down generation to generation are so strong in men animals and plants that they perform certain things even in their sleep beside roads and pasture paths in vacant lots of towns and growing on city dumps the bare sere stiff skeletons of cocklebur cockle bur clot bur marium with summer leaves broad ovate mostly three lobed dentate stand asleep dead lifeless apparently the oblong burs or seed containers are armed with rigid prickles brickles pr ickles little hooks lor for reaching up and seizing the wool of sheep hair of dogs stockings of human beings lic ings that they may ride away and the seeds be scattered these adventurous rides begin as soon as the seeds are ripe in the autumn but millions of years of doing it have made the habit so strong they do it even in midwinter when the stalks are dead like the grasping hand of a miser which reaches out for gold even atter after the soul has gone where gold is not a medium of exchange in case of the cocklebur weed it Is a worthy thing this instinct strong in death for it teaches the weak hearted that there is terrible earnestness in lifes determination to persist on earth though the word is from the greek for yellow the plant once used to make that dye deethe the scratchy burs ore are not yellow in spirit they are brave men in hibernation or death |