The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1877-11-15
Personal Reform.
From the Western Rural.


Reform is favorite word with
Americans. We are always reforming
but never get reformed We inaugu- /
rate religious reforms, temperance re-
forms, social reforms and every other |
imaginable reform, but never accom-
plish anything-at least not in proper
ton to the magnitude Of the evil which |
we attempt to correct. We have been
fighting the liquor traffic in enc way
or another for fifty years. Everybody |
understands the WIetched harvest that |
comes from the sowing Of our rum
shops, and it is at least pleasant to be- !
lieve that the vast majority Of people !
heartily wish that the sale of intOXica- |
ting liquors could be successfully out |
lawed We have year after year been
crying for political reform, and Of
late years the cry has sWelled into a
laundering chorus, yet little is accom-
plished in this very important direc-
ton. Now what and where is the
trouble? It is with US as individuals,
and is the failure to reform ourselves.
If the men and women who are un-
mistakably in favor of making the
liquor traffic illegal would unmistal1a-
bly, array themselves with those who
publicly and unresorvedly ayoW them
selves as the UncOmpr0mising enemies
Of the business, the traffic would be
doomed. But this is not done. Th0us-
and are content to give the temperance
reform q passive sort of support,
which is little better than no support
at all. They never speak loud enough
| in denunciation of rumselling to be
heard in q rumShOp, and the words
| that do not reach there are nearly use
less. They never go TO the ballot box
with the object Of casting q ballot
against the business to which they
profess to be opposed. They have not
| yet reformed themselves. The same
is true i'll politics. We complain Of
{ the rottenneSS of politics. but make no
personal effort to reform them. We
Iseem to expect that the spring will
clean itself while we continue to emp
! ty dirt in it, and we wonder that it
does not do it. Our neighbOr enter
tains the same feeling, and does just
as we are doing. All the individuals
that go to make up society may, and
are apt to, labor under this fatal delu-
! sion. The result is that reform is
never accomplished. The trouble
seems to be that we do not appreciate
our own Importance, or else do not I'm
| derStand our own weaknesses. We
either think that the influence of one
lis inconsiderable- disastrous error,
freQuently-or we fail to be cognizant
! of our own imperfections. When, how
| ever, an entire community is influenced
| by such thoughts OF such blindness,
there can, of course, be but one result.
| Personal investigation is what most
of us need. A candid self-examina-
tiOn will often do more to remedy pub
| lie evils, and to make the world appear
| brighter than all the speeches that
were ever made or all the articles that
were ever written. If we find evil in
our own hearts and unloyely traits ip
our characters, and wrong doing in
our own conduct, and reform them,
there is SO much more purity and up
| brightness in the community and so
lmuch positive advance towards gener-
al reform We as individuals are to
blame for great deal that seems to
be the fault Of others, and for great
deal that seems to be the fault Of socie-
t y. Most of the MISUNDERSTANDING
between man and man. in families, in
church, State and society, would be
entirely avoided, if we would look in
to our own hearts, and get everything
right there. Before we complain,
therefore, of anything that seems to
need d remedy at the hands of society,
we are in duty bound to examine our
selves, and see that in us or in our
conduct there is no part of the cause
which is producing the effects COM
Iplained of. When we have done all
that in us lies to correct political and
social evils, we will have the right to
complain Of the acts of others.
E. J. S.
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