Show the old settler I 1 my hy deir dear san Jua ners I 1 I 1 must admit that with the labors I 1 have imposed on myself and the labors I 1 have allowed others to lay upon me I 1 am burdened dangerously near to the breaking I 1 point whatever I 1 say or write for the public must be ex extemporaneous fineous and therefore ju just such things as are there on tap and I 1 nothing more in the e lah labors ars to which I 1 cling even though they bring me no monetary gain these labors w which hi ic h no man can command me to carry on I 1 am moved by some very potent reasons when I 1 contemplate the many perilous turns which my fortunes mi might take I 1 rest my feet on en the solid rock jf f certain assurances and certain knowledge of of things which will remain regardless I 1 have what I 1 call my assets of soul which I 1 do not invest in tangible values these assets are secured and amplified by labors whose value is regis registered terel in what for the sake of a better name might be called conscience the preservation of these values is of much greater importance to me now than the values which are expressed in arabic numerals and decimal system I 1 haye have clear mem memory memary ary of many pilgrims with whom I 1 have traveled in the la last s t sixty years pilgrims whose abo bones n eg are blei bleaching caly by the wayside as mine soon will be bc and I 1 take carefully into account what they got out of it and the false hopes which some of them followed in vain the wrecks of their dwellings remind me how futile their effort they cl cosed their fingers on treasures w which h i c h sl slipped aped out like smoke sometimes they succeeded in piling up a lot of stuff stud for their children and their friends V tj fight over when they had to go and leave it many popular beliefs are nothing more than heresies her esies they used to burn heretics at the stake they dont do that any more but men suffer still for their heresies her esies the great heresy f this and all times is that we should lay up treasures on earth where mot moth all and rust corrupt and where th thieves ieves break through and steal I 1 have lived long enough to consider the sorry wrecks of my own efforts through the years and to place my own life along side of many men whose failure is due prin principally cipully tz to the fact that they I 1 did not live as long as I 1 have lived but now that I 1 have lived to this age where I 1 can discern that values are values at the degree to which they do not vanish into thin air it is up to me to set my heart on the things that carry on and on and can be cherished and depended on through all the change and decay and death and dissolution which we are destined to meet ALBERT R LYMAN |