The Louisiana Democrat., 1889-01-09
EXCUSE ME-"
No Excuse Is Better Than q Good
One,
Luke Sharp Gives Rising Young Man
Some Sound Advice, and Tells a
Story In Support of
His Theory.
Excuse me-"
Certainly. Pardon me. Vs.

Certainly. Pardon me.
heard the above Snatch of conver.
sation the last time ! was in New York.
1t occurred in the evening at the New
York end of brooklyn Bridge, which,
at that horr, was crowded with men
hurryinS home. The snatch of con.
ver'Ation reads rather like polite re-
rlark and rejoinder. 1t was any thing
but that. The first speaker was push
ing and elbowing his way forward
when he trod on another's corns The
second man swore and glared around,
when the first said, suavely:
Excuse me-"
The wounded man like flash struck
Out from the shoulder, knocked the
other in the middle of next week, and
replied:
Certainly. Pardon me-"
The striker rapidly disappeared into
she gathering gloom before the struck
recovered himself sufficiently to shout
''police."
The moral of the incident seemed to
me to be that in some instances ex-
cuse don't "go."
The other day a boy about fifteen
years OF age called up at my room and
said, after introducing himself, that he
wanted advice"
'E,bout what?" | asked.
"About nothing in particular" he
said. d.as he fumbled somewhat nervously
with his hat. '.You see, it's like this: ]
want to get along in the world and
would like to know what-well-1
would like some advice.
This was such an unusual request
From a modern American boy that ii
quite took my breath away. Most of
the boys who come up to see me don't
want advice-they want to know
where to get cigarette pictures or tick
cts to some game.
looked at the boy who wanted ad-
vice. He had fresh, honest face,
and felt | had no hesitation in setting
him down as q good boy who would
probably make his way in the world.
well, my boy" l said, seriously,
there is one thing I'd advise you to
quit. If | was you, I'd stop getting
drunk and raising racket on the
streets at midnight and getting run in.
That's my advice"
"lnever touched a drop of liquor in
my life, said the boy, with so panied
expression that l vas sorry l had
spoken in this way to him.
Don't smoke, | suppose?"
"No, sir"
"Chew, snuff; any thing of that
kind?n
"No, SIR"
"Read flash novelsp"
mo. sir"
''Swearpn
mo, SIR"
''Fight?"
mo, sir"
"Well," said, 'that's all very un-
fortunate for me. If you have any
vices it would help me out if you tell
me what they are. If you committed
burglary as relaxation or sand
bagged a friend occasionally it would
make my task as adviser much easier.
As you don't do any of these things
I'll think over the matter, and if you
come up tomorrow I'll, perhaps, see
my way clearer than / do now"
The boy thanked me, although 1
knew | did not deserve any thanks.
Next day he called again. In the in
terval had remembered the incident
on Brooklyn bridge. Now, the man
said Excuse me" and had been knock
ed down.
ell my boy" l began, my ad-
vice is this: Never make an eycnse
there is proverb which saws. "A
poor excuse is better than none,
That adage is as wrong as most
of them are. Even good ex-
cuse is not better. than none.
There are thousands of people in
this world, my boy, who are magnifi-
cent architects of excuses. Some of
them manage to get along pretty
we'll building up imposing excuses
and letting others do their regu-
lar work, but they never amount to
much in the long run. No one ever
depends on man who is good at ex-
cuses
When was in Chicago last summer
the city editor of one of the papers
.here told me this story, which will
snow the advantage of not having an
excuse.
eome years ago green looking fell
~" appeared in the city editors room
rom no one knew where and wanted a
wv ias city editor told him, as he