Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1886-03-25

with which they effect their self-de-
struction. Where we have confidently
looked for the greatest financial wis
dom we find the greatest folly.
The legal counsel who influences his
clients to wise fore-thought and pre-
caution is quite as likely as the most
stupid one among them to neglect
proper provision for the future and
leave his own affairs in the most hope
less involvement. We wonder far more
at the sage counsellor than at his stupid
client. In the case of the latter it was
to be looked fOr-no more than might
have been expected. In that of the
former, it is surprise and disappoint-
ment.
We are fully prepared to find the
silly girl leaving off the warm wrap
per to which she has been accustomed,
in order to appear at party in low
necked dress. We are simply con-
temptuOus-not surprised-when she
vets her feet and ruins her boots be-
cause rubbers hide the pretty shoes and
make the feet look larger But when
woman famous for her common
sense in most of the affairs of life does
precisely the same thing, and perhaps
with even less temptation, it seems
Stiffness surprising all comprehension.
The boy who after game
of ball drinks great draughts
of ice water to cool his heated
blood, or goes into the river for the
same purpose, is checked whenever
possible and severely reprimanded at
all times. When the wise physician
shows some equally stupendous stu
pidity concerning the commonest
hygienic laws, remonstrance is para
lyzed upon our lips by an overwhelm-
ing amaZement. 1t is the same sort of
amazement which we feel when we see
a person whose name is synonym for
prudence in most matters deliberately
eat something which he knows always
INJURIES him, or trust to a trafesman
who has habitually deceived him, or
lend money to man who never pays
him, or marry woman who can never
please him.
There is no greater proof of the stu
pidity of sensible people than the mar
riages that some of them make. If love
be, as is sometimes asserted, matter
wholly of the heart, matrimony an af-
fair entirely Independent of the head,
then some of the matches made by some
gifted individuals may in a measure
be accounted for. A man with strong
domestic taste and aversion to society
marries a fashionable firt, and the
quiet fireside for which he most ardent
ly longed is the one thing he can never
hope to have. The sensitive, conscien-
tiOuS woman marries man who runs in
debt for the very ring he places On her
finger, and her life with him means one
long modification and misery.
AS frequent as fOolishness in mar
riage is foOlishness in the management
of children, such stupidity as would
brand the parents as idiots, were it not
for their sense in all other matters.
The skillful, thrifty hOusekeeper, care
fully trained herself, and appreciative
of all household excellences, allows her
daughter to dawdle through the days
ignorant of every thing that can make
her useful. or can make home COM
Portable. The hard-headed. honest, in
dustrious farmerlets his son slip away
from the farm to the city, and sends
after him supplies of money which he
is fully aware support him in idleness
and protligacy. The imbecility of Sec
Ond childhood seems to be reached and
surpassed in the dealings of some of
these sensible people with their own
children.
Who will dare to define common
sense, that least common, as we some
i,,ly nf .,11
and yet the quality most essential to
every hour of existence? Our almost
unconscious definition OF sensible per-
son is: Zone who thinks and acts as l
do But this becomes a ludicrOus
one when we reflect that according to
such definition there would be rs
many standards of sense rs there are
individuals in the community. "Or-
thOdoxy is my doXy. and heterodo1y is
every thing that differs from it" is a
statement quite as oftenhmade concern
ing our social as our religious notions
If for fear of offending we do not say
it aloud. we nevertheless live under its
conviction. and assume that those who
differ from us are in the wrong. OF
course, if we did not think So We should
agree with them.
1t is. however, fair to concede that
the sensible person is the one who in
social life is loved by his family and
friends. and respected by his neighbors;
in commercial life. one who is honest
and successful, securing the largest re-
turns from the least investment of the
money and labor: in professional life,
one punctiliOus in all engagements,
true to all trusts and obligations, clear
sighted and reliable. In all eases the
sensible person is the one who most
perfectly adapts himself to his circum-
stances and surroundings, who submits
uncomplainingly to the inevitable. who
strives at all times to do unto others as
he would have others do unto him. and,
in short. in the words of one of our
latter-day scientists, ''harmonizes with
his environments"
In every community there is always
class which illustrates these virtues
in an uncommon degree. who attract
admiring attention for their remarlla
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