The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1873-10-02
A Friend with a Single Fault.

"A FRIEND with Single Fault.
3 A friend with single fault Have
you never formed one of a little com
pany all engaged in talking about Just
that one little fault of a friend? To
the rest CT us it is so apparent. If it
We're not for the solitary flaw we say,
the dear boy, the dear girl, would be
perfect. Sometimes it is fretfuIness !;
sometimes conceit; sometimes a NOR
bid reimbursement; sometimes q touch
OF selhshness; a disposition TO dwell
upon the failings of others faculty
for interference a lack of attention to
personal appearances; procrastition, or
dear knows what. Now is it not very
much like nightmare, the way we live
in the same house with these people,
year in and year out, and see the petty
fault growing bigger and bigger, and
can raise no voice against it can do
nothing but say ."f, if, if"--"alas and
alas /"
go but we do speak p
Yes, sometimes we do; and sometimes
the warning voice is enough. But the
tradegy appears in those cases where
either the warning cannot be given, or
where it is UNDECIDED. A family might
be described as a succession of eonven-
ticles, composed always of the same
members, save that at each session a
different member is absent, and is by
the others apprehended and discussed
in a way in which he can neither appre-
hepd nor discuss himself.
it has come to be considered a point
of humor to be played upon as may
happen, that we can see other peoples
faults so much better than our own.
Now while this is very true, it is also
very true that we dogeneralIy know our
own faults, have had at least side
glimpses Of them. and that they grow
upon us because we dread to apply the
knife because to be honest, we are
every one of us shirks, more or less.
In these slight etchings of character
you know I do not care to sieze upon
those patent vices, or Oct ma call them)
follies, and virtues which haunt along
the street, and with which every one is
familiar enough but rather to look up
from my desk at the ordinary man OF
woman who goes past the window on
the lawn, or comes in to dust the room,
or spend an evening with me-with his
or her ordinary failings and attain
ments. In other words, my gentle
reader, nothing would please me more
than to give you the sensation of coming
unexpectedly upon a mirror; I should
like you to be startled at seeing you1
own face look up at you from the page.
So my friend Philip hardly answers
my purpose as an exRmple-he who be-
gan by being very fine in his moral
purposes, and very clean in his person,
who gradually neglected his appearance
till he became more than untidy, and
ended in complete personal demoriliza-
ton and moral dirt I saw how it all
began he shirked his duty with regard
to soap and water. He knew he shirked
his duty; knowing it, he did not cease
TO do so, and ungodliness followed un
cleanliness in natural sequence.
One of the signs of advancing age il
our acceptance of certain foibles, o.
which our friends have told us, anC
which up to this year of grace we had
been in the habit of looking upon al
mere accidental and transient peculiar
tiles. 1t is sad day for us when We
make that acceptance. There is some
hope for us when the joke about oul
prospect of being fifteen minutes late
at the door of heaven has certain
sharp freshness but when we settle
down into the conviction that we are
likely to be lives behindhand all ou
well, perhaps the first gray hair ha,
not been discovered, perhaps the grass
hopper is not yet burden, but we arc
"ageing."
The older and wiser grow, the more
am impressed with the idea of every
mans personal responsibility. Make
what allowances you will for faint II
the blood, sordid circumstance, and all
that, believe more and more that every
soul has a chance. L doubt if there i,
any we'll deep and dark and smooth
walled enough to keep poor devil
down if he is determined to get to the
top of it. He will win out if he wants
TO hard enough. 1t is wonderful how
good-luck follows the hospitable mind
and honest endeavor.
1 wish my friend the parson would
hurry up that essay of his on How
not to go mad l'-Scribner's for Octo