Argosy All-Story Weekly, February 4, 1922 — page 154: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

AGL ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY, SaaS WE ARE SO WELL CONTENTED WE are so well contented here below To go our daily ways, and not to know The meaning of the riddle we call Life— How came we here, and whither shall we go? The splendid panorama of the skies Is spread, each night, for our unwondering eyes; We gaze, unmoved, upon a million suns— Is each a world? Ah, we can but surmise! And of the earth below, what do we know? Of men that lived ten thousand years ago, Of cities buried underneath the sands, Ah, we know nothing—yet are happy so! We talk of “I” and “ me,” yet who can say He knows himself—the soul within the clay > How came it here, and whither is it bound, If it goes on? Where was it yesterday ? We earn our bread, play out our little plays: Absorbed, intent, we fill up all our days With small events! We breed our kind and die Content, if we are fed, to go our ways! ‘ We build our towers upward to the skies, And praise ourselves and them, as up they rise— er, or up to, what we do not know. Yet oh, we count ourselves so passing wise! We fling a bridge across a rushing stream, Or build a ship to carry out a dream Of trade or conquest—we are supermen! We who are atoms in creation’s scheme! We have brought down the lightning from the sky, And wingless man at last has learned to fly, Man speaks to man across a continent But still we know not what it is to die! We build great guns to kill our fellow men, And pride ourselves on our expertness when We make one greater than the enemy’s— But who has learned to bring life back again? Is this life all> Ah, who can ever say? Some question, and some scoff—while others pray! But should one eome to tell us, he would find Us chattering of the things of every day! So well we are contented here below ‘To go our daily ways—and not to know The meaning of the riddle we call Life! — How came we here and whither shall we go? Roselle Mercier Montgomery QA { \ COmiCboolks.Gom