The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1884-04-24
Advice TO Q Young Man.

VI.
| 'avor; but he that seeketh mischief, it shal
| come upon him."-ProUerbs ri, q.
Tread softly. See the strong man
| bowed upon his knees. His Hallid brow
S pressed against the carpet. Ave,
humble yourself proud man. PROSTATE
yourself : the dIst. Aye, groan. /,
nay relieve your pent-up feelings, but
it will not help you to see any better.
he strong MIN rises. What is that
which he remarks? He says it is not
under the sofa. But what else did he
say? He saws if.a mans eyes stood out
On the side of his head like his ears. a
man might look behind the bureau But
| what did he say before that? Never
YOU mind what he said before that He
did not say it necessarily for publica
cation, but simply as guar
ltee that he was in dead ear
nest about it and meant what he
said. There, he has upset the rocking
chair. Now he has broken a goglet.
He stands on the back of chair to
look on the top of door frame. When
the chair falls over with him, he saws
he knew it was not there. He puts his
head out the door and shrieks down
the hall that be cannot find it. A female
voice somewhere down the hall sweetly
beseecheS him to speak more softly or
he'll sour the milk in the cellar. The
man drops on his knees and crawls
a1Out the room on all tours, holding
his head low, like Gordon setter hunt
ing a cold trail. "A bea tiful child, with
soft blue eyes and golden hair, comes
Tito the room and with a merry, silvery
laugh tries II climb on the mans back.
Now the child has gone lowing down
the hall, and voices OF lamentation and
comfort streak the pale air. The man
puts on his boots and yells out that
somebody has hid it. He trampS
across the floor. Suddenly he stops.
He stoops. He says: "Ah, there it is."'
And SO it is. 1t is a collar button. How
did he find it? He stepped upon it. 1t
is not quite so fat as postage stamp,
but it is great deal flatter than a.
wafer. Is the man glad because he
found his lost collar button? He is of
age, ask him. Did you ever hunt for
something you didn't want to find9
People frequently do. No man wants
to lind a horizontal collar button, nor
does the gentle woman, who carefully
and anxiOusly looks under the bed
every night for a man, really want to
find the man. She believes there is one
there, but she would be greatly diSap-
pointed and surprised to find him.
Never look for things you do not want
to find, my son. 1t is hard enough to
find the things you want. If you do
not want to find faults in your friends,
do not look for them and you will
never see them. If you do not
want to ind your enemies, do not hunt
for them. They will hunt for you, my
son. And what is worse, they will find
you, too.
[ have known men who passed all
their lives hunting for things which
nobody wished to have discovered and
which only made the finder miserable.
There are men who can't smell hello
trope held at their lips, but have a nose
for carrion that would be a fortune to
some poor struggling buzzard. He never
looks for good point about any man.
He finds the spots on the sun, and sees
not one ray of its brightness. A clear
running spring brook gives him the
hydrophobia, and a mud puddle is
reviving Turkish bath to his mean little
soul. If he could 90 to heaven, which,
praised be all goodness, he never can,
he would be of all men most miserable,
because he could find no mud to throw
1T the angels. And when he goes to !
he other place, which, indeed, he will, |
ne will be happy because everybody |
here will be so much better than him
;elf that he can enjoy himself trying to |
pull them down to his own level. Don't |
ook for the faults of your neighbors,
nv son. Remember, as Shakespeare /
las said:
who steals my purse steals trash.
But ne who filches my good name
RObS me of that never had:
And losing which enriches me the more
But makes him poor indeed"
IT words to that effect, be the same
more or less. Don't look for the traces
If evil, nor for any of the rest of the |
harness. Don't go up and down the
world looking for the signs of moral
eprosy. The priest shall not seek
or yellow hair"
Moreover, dearly beloved, it isn't
enough to seek. Sometimes, Though
man labors to seek it out, yet he shall
lot find it." On the Western farm,
where much of the summer time of nv
ife was passed, we had dog. There
icing two or three boys on the farm,
We had seven or eight dogs, as a matter
# fact, but there was one particular
log. with whose tail desire to point a
moral. He was a hunter. Morning
fter morning, summer and winter, he
vent forth TO hunt. Night after night
e came back home, his hair full OF
'urs, his feet covered with stone bruises
nd his ears pendent with wood ticks.
or seven long years that dog lived on
he farm. He gnawed not the
one of idleness, neither was he
rise in the conceit of the slug.
ard, be cause in 81 those seven
ears he hunted all the time, seven DAYS
week. But, alas! like the slothful, he
roasted not that be took in hunting"
P'oU. Tii., 81. Because he never
onnd anything. Not one single, lone,
Dlitary, lost thing did he find in all
nose seven years of hunting. Never
ound thing. But we kept him, be-
aISe we believed, indeed we knew,
MT the dogs intentions were good
lie meant well. Every morning as he
'ent forth. happy aud confident, he
oped to find something and to bring il
o ne w tn him Joyous aud triumphant.
ut he never did. And at last, one
cen, clear. bracing November day, he
,ent down in the ferny glens and lost
imself. We never heard that he died;
obo iy ever saw him or heard anything
him again: his bark came back no
lore; he was just lost; he had wrapped
he drapery of the unknowable about
i'm and joined the innumerable cara
an of intangible things he had been