Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1889-09-21
ADVICE 70 TELEMAcHUS.
BY g BOB y BURDETTE.

anu dOeSn6 agree with you. were
you neglected in the invitations
Didn't you get on any of the CON-
mi.tees! Were you overlooked in
the convention Z Hasn't the secre.
tary written, You personal letter
asking yotFadsice on the campaigng
Have you been coldly passed over
by men of less ahilitys Do you feel
that an intentional slight has been
put upon your Can you see that
everything is going wrong because
you have not been consulted? Have
you been directly snubbed by. infer
ior people? | thought as much. At
your time of life such things are
liable to occur. They used to hap
pen to me, now and then. You will
grow wiser as you grow older, unless
you take the other chute; then you
will grow more foolish, and there is
only one cure for an old fool, my
boy, that is death. Ordinary death
won't cure him, either. Though
thou should bray him in mortar
among wheat with a pestle, yet will
not his foolishness depart from him."
See how awfully dead he has to be
killed! Smashing him only makes
him worse.
But now, if any or all of these
sights have been put upon you, lis
ten to me, my tender Telemachus.
Don't show your sores. They are
not pleasant things to look at; no.
body wants to see them, and they
will heal much more rapidly and
naturally and beautifully fyou don't
expose them. Keep them covered.
Don't show them to anybody but
your surgeon. and don't show them
to him unless you have to. And
don't look at them yourself. Leave
them alone under the healing plast.
ers of time and the cooling COM
presses of forgetfulness, aud you will
be surprised some day when you
happen to think of them to find that
they have healed by the first inten-
ton without a scar. Don't tell
people when you are hurt; don't tell
anybody how keenly you feel a
slight when, perhaps, no slight was
intended. Don't get yourself snub.
bed by people who neve. see you,
and who don't know you and never
think of you. And if You really are
hit, and hit hard, it belittles your
manhood and drives away human
sympathies when you lift up your
voice and howl on the streets. Keep
quiet about it. Don't whine, don't
yell
One day at the Investment of
Vicksburg, it was on the memorable
23d of May during a lull in the de-
sultery skirmishes which preceded
the assault, while l was lying close
to the great, round ball we inhabit,
and wishing | could get little clos.
er to it, we heard a tremendous
bowling and shrieking, and down
the dusty road from the front came
a bluejacketed skirmisher on the
trot, holding one hand up in the 9th
er. and the hand he was holding up
had no thumb on it. 1t hurt like
the mischief, | have no doubt, but it
was only thumb after all, and how
the fellow was bowling about it
he was q brave man or he would
never have been where he, could have
lost that thumb. But you would
have thought that it was the only
thumb in the United States army
and that no one else on the skirmish
line had been hit that morning. So
the soldiers saw only the funny side
of the picture, and perfect chorus
OF bowls, in vociferous imitation OF
the mans own walls. went shrieking
up from the sarcastic line of men
who were waiting their turn to face
death. In a minute another soldier
came walking back from the skirm'
ish line. He was walking slowly
and steadily; never moan fell
from his compressed lips, though
they were whittier than his bronzed
face, and he held his hand against
his breast. The silence of the death
chamber fell upon the line in an in
slant, as the figure of the soldier
moved along the road with the air
of conquerer. Half dozen men
sprang to his side. Tenderly they
laid him down in the shadow of q
great oak, his lips parted to speak q
message to one a thousand miles
away, and the line was short one
man tor the coming assault. lie
died of bis hurt but he died like Q
king.
Oh, my boy, don't yell the lungs
out of you over mashed thumb
when, only three files down the line
a soldier salutes his captain before
he faces about to go to the rear with
a death bullet in his breast You
can't help getting hurt. There ISM
a safe place in the whole line. There
are cruel people in the world who
love to wound us; there are the
thoughtless, needless people who
don't think; and there are people
who don't care, and there are thick
skinned people who are not easily