The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, June 14, 1903, Page 6

THY TUONE GIRZ r? LHIT OO HY - DY IV AR RICHARD7"ON HE man with kind eyes and a gruff { ) manner is like the dog that growls and wags its tail—you are never sure which sign to believe A man will write yards of poor verse about his sweetheart’s little slipper, but swear like a trooper if he stumbles over his wife's shoes some night in the dark ( Don't be afraid to scatter the sun- bout you; it often helps revive some- faith in the sweetness of things. ne of laughter ynical man is amusing at times, but, like nitro- ine, apt to be heard from most inopportunely. ) ) ) { ) is only the dyspeptic who uses his' stomach as an ? ) ( ) E ante-chamber to his heart v to go shopping with his wife of time coaxing his new stenog- ner with him The man who i spend but latch- cople seem tc lize that vices arc Limbc isery could be avoided by regarding romance and selecting the variety desired n a compromising letter r an Embassgdor or a felon who has never writ through the none of the stay- ortune that come an honored name ha ities that asiures permanent success good only his has efully through many ordeals. The man v with insolence the breeding to get gr: 10 treats feriors rust your happiness to a practical joker; they finest effects in life. spoil the artistic temperament i but is more practical. always interesting, a k account ster rather than borrow it from something as a mere name expect the author Bi a cook-book to recipes, or a doctor to take his own medicine. not all the Man has created the girl bachelor by decades of seli- ness We are fast degenerating into a state of national toady vhere a title, be ever small, h to agitate our toady-loving bosoms pride begin and end with vourseli. and { ( so is still vast alwavs e to boutonniere dge of a man's income by the only hold its mig aving no room for ) { get that re valuable thoughts and interests ORACLE OF MULBERRY CENTER BY 7 - BT B MULBERRY CENTER, June 10. g*)OW kindly let me tell yer that I've been up the big city laitly visitin’( my nephew George. George's got to( be one of the big guns. When he leit} here he knew enough to unrein a horse) to let him drink, but you couldn’t say) much more for him than that. He was the most indu\lrimr') dancers in our township, though. He{ could waltz with a fat woman and make it look as though he really liked it. T've knew George to drive nine miles to a dance and stay till daylight, thinkin® that music they made on the fid dle and dulcimer was about as enchantin’ as ennythin’ ennybody ever started a-goin’ on this here old earth But George has rose to nobler and -better things. Him and Marie—we used to call her Mary when she worked in a millinairy store over to the county seat—seemed to be con- siderably took by the playin’ of some feller named Vokner. 1 didn't hear “em say whether he fiddies or plays a horn, but they both appeared to think he knew his business. One day a feller came around with a piano on a wagon that you turn with.a crank, and commenced to play in front of the house. George's wife almost had a spazzum. She- said it was one of Vokner's pieces, and she told me it was an outrage for the authorities to let him play it. I kind of thought so myself, after the man got through, "specizlly as he seemed to expect us to pay him for it. I can’t make ‘out” how Marie knew it was one of Vokner's, though, and I ruther think vet that she might of been mis- taken. As fur as I could make out it wasn't ennvbody’s piece. 1 think the man’s instrument was broke inside( somewhere and he was just pretendin’ to play away till he could git the thing fixed. George and his wife are goin’ right in the best society there is. Yoii know he’s made a slew of money runnin’ one of these hecre places with a blackboard across one end and a lot of chaps settin’ thair watching the boy chalk up the figgers. George didn't used to be much of a hand fer fig- gers, but he's got "em down pretty fine now. Any man that can set there and look at them fractions on the blackboard and be able to tell what they're about is worth takin’ off your hat to, I guess. ! George tried to explain 'em to me one day, but I got a head aik after he'd been at it a while and had to go out and wilk it off. It seems that most of ’em have something to do with the future. but I couldn’t make out just why, unless it’s because there’s naturally no money if the past and the chaps settin’ around before the board at present haven't ennythine Jeit. I says to George one day, says I: “George, ain't you afraid vou'll lose your money speculatin’ in this way?” “I don’t speculate,” says George. “I make money givin’ other people a chance to speculate. It's not so risky and it'’s more respectable. I wouldn’t hardly feel as though I had a right to belong to the church and be one of the elders if 1 got my money by speculating, because every dollar I made I wonld know had to come out of some other fellow’s pocket that mebby worked hard for it.” “Well,” says 1. “if you look at it that way I can't see where it's any better for you to be givin’ some other feller a chance to take it out of the pockets of the one that earned it than if you done it yourself.” “There, Uncle Jefferson,” sgys George, “is where you make the same mistake other people that don’t know enny- thing about it make. You see, I give the man that earned it in the first place a chance to try his luck and mebby win it back.” 5 one of $ é % | | {- It is impossible not to believe in transmigration after hearing the bray a donkey and the conversation some men think suited for women. Ii you would keep a man’s love refrain from being too nice with him. A sense of duty is a name some Weople give to a lack of proper spirit object to a visit from their has the whooping cough. Most men until baby mother-in-law Men admire a slender waist, yet rail against lacing. Family histories are often vefftilated that are the worst form of injustice. and many a one is dragged down through life because of disreputable or discreditable con- nections. We are all more or less dependent up@n others for nearly every pleasure we enjoy, but we need'not carry this dependence too far or make use of it in such a way as to give only a flirtatious value to any serious endeavor. SWEETHEARTS <SLIPPERS I hadn’t saw it in that light before, and I guess there must be a good deal in what George says. Ennyway, his business seems to be respectable, because he's got “Banker” printed on his door, and there ain't nothin’ hardly that him and Marie ain’t invited to. Still. T couldn’t help wonderin’ sometimes when I seen their elegant mansion and fine carriages, with the bob-tailed horses steppin’ high and jinglin’ the ver chains and things on the harness, how many other men’s futures it took to git all them things, and if there wasn’t some danger that the ones that earned it wouldn't quit tryin’ to git it back some time and mebby ruin the business. “Don’t worry,” says George when I told him about it. “Out in front of that blackboard’s a grate place to study human nature. and I've discovered by keepin’ purty close watch durin’ the past ten or fifteen years that most people are just as foolish as they look.” But there’s one grate trubble about livin’ in high life. T noticed that the mornin’ aiter I got there, George and Ma- rie had both been out the night before till the policeman or sumbuddy put out the lites. At breakfast George ct a little stuff they called health food and Marie took a chunk of toast about the size of a dollar. Then they had somg medicine. Durin’ the day George had to git rubbed fer exercize and Marie went some place where there was a madam that done something fer her ’rinkles and complexion. That night they had to go to a club, and the next morning George said he was going to try the no breakfast cure. Marie staid in bed. but maniged to git up along tords night, because they had to go to the opery. George told me the next mornin’ that he suessed he wouldn’t take ennything but his medicine, bein’ that they'd had a purty late supper. Marie got in trim again by dosin’ up and takin’ a Turkish bath, so they were both in fair shape by night and didn’t need to miss the big reception. T felt sorry for George while he set there at breakfust the next mornin” lookin’ at me while T et, and groanin’ every time he seen me takin' anuther chunk of ham or any extry aig. He didn’t take his medicine in a spoon that time. but tried a a cupple of pills. Marie had a woman doctor in durin’ the day and pulled through all right. so they were both able to go out to a dinner party a little before dark, although I couldn’t help noticin’ that George looked a good deal like Hi Matters did the first time I seen him after he got over the typhoid fever. The next day they both went back to the bottle medicin’, and thafs the way it went on as long as I staid. 1 says to George the day before I come away, * long do you s’pose you can keep up this gait?”’ “Oh. I dunno,” he told me. “Some of our friends have h_ee_n goin’ it fer twenty yvears or more, and what's the use livin' anyway if there’s no fun in it?” “Well.” T says. “if you call it fun, all right, and T s'pose, with most things so high, yo git the medicin’ about ae cheap as meals would be, anyway.” So I've come to this conclusion: It may be that a man who makes a fortune must be Qise With a head that's purty big around and high between the eves: It may be that he has to know just how to strike and when And have the gift to see weak spots in all his fellow men, But gittin’ rich. it seems to me, ain’t half as great an art As livin’ with the fixin’s God gave us at the start. It may be that it’s great to be among the millionaires And mingle with the mighty few who run affairs: It may take brains to get away the money others earn i I'm ready to admit that it’s a trade which few can learn, But still, I guess, the greatest gift of all the Lord tfiay Rive Is ‘havin’ wit and grit enough to learn the way to live, Yours fer, Health, JEFFERSON DOBBS. the world's THE SUNDAY CALL. §c s 3 E TKA VEL OV OVTY MERIT” \ BY HATE ZTHYVON MARR S - F the sons of “Somebodies” had been born the sons of Nobodies many of them would have had to work for a living. or starve; furthermore, they would in all likelihoad been quoted as mild idots, or something equally harmless. : It is nauseating to see how quickly both men and women having no claim to aught save hopeless medioc- rity manage to travel through life on the advantages of a name to which they add but dull questionable luster. % The most- trifling excuse for newspaper notoriety or ven the mention of a name in the news columns calls for a family history having “such a strong flavor of toadyism as to be absurd, and in many such incidents the publica- tion is nothing more than a sort of licensed blackm;xl levied by persons using the name and ventilating family connections in the hope that a goodly sum will forthwith be coming either to suppress the whole story or at least tone it down. Poor relations are often the most trying people in the world, and one needs must have the patience of a wholé job lot of Jobs to tolerate them. Besides this, they have a way of cropping up at the most inopportune moments and doing the most impossible and aggravating things that deprive them of the little sympathy they might re- ceive, which is, at times, more than they deserve. The number who enter a business or professional career with precious little stock in trade save the halo hov- ering over a name, and thereby trade on a reputation achieved by some relative, defunct or otherwise, for the avowed purpose of filling out an income, savors of wanton indelicacy. Stage-struck society girls are exploited in glaring headlines not because of any ability they may possess, or any talent that has been developed, but from the mere fact of relationship to Major Mint Julep of Kaintucky, or Mr. High Ball of Scotland, or having married an em- bryo general when too young to know better, when it stands to reason they are no better for it, yet why such idental fame should have a marketable value would be difficult to determine. There is a dazzling glamour about the golden effulgence of the mighty dollar and a mysticism redolent of awe about a title, but when it comes to one’s own self and the pos- session of talent .it would seem that there were greater honor due its possession and cultivation, with the hard work it implies, or the energetic use of one’s brains. that would be more satisfying to real ambition than the empti ness of the glory that pertains to a name that some one has made honorable independent of any effort on your part. Let an accident, or some misfortune, happen to a man, woman or child. or let a disreputable story. be afloat., and the papers greedily seize the opportunity to go into all the details of relationship to some proud and honorable connection, who may have most assiduously itried for years to forget the hated relationship. Why such things should be ventilated is a mystery, or what interest they can possibly have for the general pub- lic as to whether a convict, a fool or a pauper were re- lated to a dead and gone hero, or whatever other exigen- cies might arise, is problematical. But that any one. particularly 2 woman, should capital of the reputation of relationship to people mark rather than on her own merits is a confession of mediocrity. But such names seem the stepping-stones to fame and fortune which otherwise would never come their way. The fame that comes of such accidents must of neces- sity be ephemeral, as there is no questioning the fact that merit alone can stand the test of experiment. : In fact. true merit needs none of the spectaetilar lights that gleam through the accidents of birth and environ- ment. but it is no less a fact that even merit is handi- capped by the lack of opportunity for its development and the advancement to the appreciation it deserves. The histories of geniuses to whom only death awarded tardy recoenition are too well authenticated to need dis- cussion. but save for creature comforts it would seem far preferable never to be recognized than to owe such simoply to relationship to a “somebody.” ;- Using the name of one’s relatives or friends is another abuse of friendship and the ties of blood. If a woman cannot travel on her own personality, or if she cannot make her own way when, the necessity for it arises. then what ever success she may achieve through the influence of a name, or whatever life work she may undertake through the influence of friends. will not assure her such permanent success as will that which she aceomplishes through her own individuality and the energy she puts into her efforts. Merit carries with it an assurance policy that should one thing fail another will be forthcoming. One who has energy, ability. a desire to achieve, and the ambition that rises superior to obstacles, need not depend upon the ac- cident - of relationship tq obtain recognition of zood work, and the use of the names of relatives when indiscretion or disgrace figure in the background is often done for the sole purpose of humiliating those whose only offense is theé possession of wealth, or a name that breeds envy in the hearts of those who have been less fortunate. That one happens to be the grandniece or the granddaughter of the stepson of somebody’s uncle does not presuppose mortgage on the family name and plate. When a Duke or something equally cute and sweet from the other side is reckless enough to enter our great Amer- ican family it seems to be the signal for a lot of poor re- lations to do something either naughty or noisy for the sole purpose of ventilating the relationship, and the name of the person so offending is not given as a personal re- flection. but merelv as an appendage of the greater name There 1s a strong tincture of iconoclasm in my make-up make of a \ that endows me with tardy reverence for popular idols or for ancestors who luckily are dead, and who perhaps if they were not would be so disagreeable and horrid that we should thank onr stars that they are where they are. The craze for heraldic devices and the snobbishness of family crests and kindred fads, as weave a halo of romance about very prosaic people, has many elements of the ab- surd. The sausage millionaire who wants a tiny pig playing on the (sausage) links woven into a crest. the brewer who dangles on to a hop vine that others find it hard to hop over, and the distiller who doctors crude stuff and tries to turn respectable aiter making his pile on “only three grains of corn, mother” (to the gallon), would like to adopt a whole ear with the tassel thrown in as the noble insignia of his rark (corn ijuice). The railroad magnate might have a few danger signals, while the steamboa? man needs an assortment of harbor lights to steady his sea legs. Ready money -ought to be sufficient salve to American pride and power without the effetism of an Old World ar4 rogance. We have the willing dollars to buy all the penniless and penurious crests in creation. Then why be so frantic in the chase after that which we can neither eat nor drink. wear nor enjoy, save to emit a long. lingering smile when we consider the cost, is something that might serve as food for lots of thought. There is nothing so empty as a title ‘except the coffers and the head of the masculine attachment thereof. as Amer- icans have had every opportunity of proving. It hasn't even the price of a wholesome “smile” in its pocleets, and if a carriase runs along any more easily for having a crest emblazoned on its panels, or if the horses are thereby so awe-inspired as to march along with the reverential dig- nity begotten of that awe and warranted not to bolt and be crest-fallen and spill out the proudly crested occupants, or if the autoknow-better will know any better than to in- dulgé in anv killing or giddy stunts because of being dig- nified by a crest. I have yet to learn such facts. In any event it is better to travel on your own merits always, and there is an immense satisfaction in knowing that you are not indebted to others for the success you may achieve. It may take a little longer to climb. but once at the head vou are sure of your footing., and the feeling bf independence is ever a large and copious dose of soothing syrup that every man or woman who has struggled enjoys administering to his or her own self-respect. Don't travel on your ancestors who are dead. travel on your relations who are li sent it and cut vou out of the will in revenge. Don't travel on vour friends if you don’t want to make of them enemies, but travel on your own merits, and later you can sniile complacently, or nod superciliously, when success does come and the whole world acknowledges it and takes off its hat to vou. v Don't ing and who might re- THE DAILY FONME COMIING DY THE 2ROV N the course of my pastoral rounds it it falls to my lot now and then to wit- ness the home-coming of the husband and father of the household. There’s a good deal of difference between men as respects this daily and somewhat ordinary function. Some men as soon as they open the door seem to arro- gate to themselves all the prerogatives that go with the lordship of cottage or mansion. Things now must move their way. Slippers, easy chair, the first reading of the svening paper, the choicest portions of the evening meal are none too good for these lords of creation. They are naturally tired and they tell you so in the first sentence they speak. But they are not too tired immediately to notice and to call attention to anything that may happen to be awry about the house—the picture that needs adjusting, the playthings not yet gathered up, the wife’s flushed and wearied countenance. Another type of men may see all these things just as quickly and they may be ijust as tired after a long day’s absence, but they have grace enough to make their greeting a cheery rather than a depressing one and to straighten the picture out of plumb without saying anything about the matter. This kind of a man is wel- comed by every one in the family from mistress to maid: and even if the household machinery has been lumbering along lamely all day there is a turn for the better the mo- ment his latch key is heard in the door. The dailv home-coming ought to mean a great deal to the busy modern man. The vision of the dwelling which harbors those dearest of all the world to him should hover about his bench. his ledger or his desk. Not that he is to keep one eye on the clock waiting for the pointers to reg- ister 5 or 6. but he should never allow himself entirely to forget that after every period of toil and perplexity there is ordained for the faithful workman a secason of relaxation and of reinvigoration. He will work harder. he will work more effectively if he schools himself to detach his mind. when he goes homeward from the engrossing cares of store or office. If you have done your best for the last eight or ten hours, leave your problems behind you when you take vour hat from the hook, in order that you may resume your tasks more resolutely when another morning dawns. But certain things a man is in duty bound to carry home. The good. wholesome story some one told you, the bit of valuable information gained from the day’s reading or from human intercourse—out with them at the supper table—you owe them to the wife confined all day to a narrower groove than yours. Let her also bring the harvestings of her day activities. And she better than any one else in the world can say the word and flash across the teacups the glance that shall take the furrows out of the man’s forehead and refresh his iaded spirit. No one class in society has a mo- nopoly of the great privilege inhering in the daily home- coming, It ‘belongs equally to the laborer who comes back with his emoty tin pail in his hand after ten hours’ work with a pick-ax and shovel as to the brilliant lawyer who has just presented his case to the Supreme-Court. A motorman was telling me the other day with considerable zest of his little girl's joy over his daily return, how she brings him her toys and school books and the two have a merry_frolic ere they sleep. Who can doubt that the an- ticipation of that pause in the day’s occupation cheers that man as he guides his car through crowded city streets dav by day? And to every true man the daily home-coming may be a sacrament calling forth that which is noblest in him, bringing surcease from trouble and purifying him from the crowding touch of the world, the flesh and the devil.