Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1891-09-17

| then kindness has not taken possession
! of your nature. You are wrecked on a
Malta where there are no oranges. You
are entertaining a guest so unlike kind
| ness that kindness will not come and
| dwell under the same roof. The most
eXhausting and unhealthy and ruinous
| feeling on earth is revengeful spirit or
retaliating spirit, as | know by expert
ence, for have tried it for five or ten
minutes at time. When some mean
thing has been done me or said about
ne, l have felt: II will pay him in his
/ own corn. I will show him up. The
migrate! The traitor! The liar! The
villan'''
But five or ten minutes of the feeling
| has been SO unnerving and exhausting l
qave abandoned it, and / cannot under
stand how people can go about torturing
themselves five or ten or twenty years,
trying to get even with somebody. The
only way you will ever triumph over
your enemies is by torgiving them and
wishing them all good and no evil. AS
malevoIence is the most uneasy and
proftless and dangerous feeling, kind
ness is the most healthful and delightful.
| And this is no abstraction. AS l have
| tried little of the retaliation, SO 1 have
| tried little Of the forgiving
| | do not want to leave this WOrld-until
I have taken vengeance upon every man
] that ever did me a wrong by doing him a
! kindness. In most of such cases | have
| already succeeded; but there are a few
malignants whom ] am yet persuing and
| shall not be content until / have in
| some wise helped them or benefited
them or blessed them. Let is pray for
this spirit of kindness. 1t will settle a
| thousand questions. 1t will change the
phase of everything 1t will mellow
through and through our entire nature.
! 1t will transform a lifetime. 1t is not a
| feeling gotten up for occasions, but per-
! cnnial.
Still further, / must speak of kindness
! of word. When you meet any one do
you say a pleasant thing or All unpleas-
ant? Do you tell him of agreeable
things you have heard about him or the
disagreeable? When he leaves You does
| he feel better or does he feel worse? Oh,
the power of the tongue for the produc-
! tIon Of happiness Or misery!
There arc those if they know good
| thing about you and a bad thing. will
mention the bad thing and act as though
they had never heard the good thing.
Now, there are two sides to almost
, every ones character, and we have the
choice of overhaulng the virtue or the
vice. We can greet Paul and the ships
crew as they come up the beach of Malta
with the words: ''What sorry look
ing set you are! How little Of nayiga-
ton you must know to run on these
rocks! Didn't you know better than to
put out on the Mediterranean this
Wintry month? 1t was not much of a
ship anyhow, or it would not have gone
to pieces so soon as that. Well, what do
you want? We have hard enough work
to make a living for ourselves without
having thrust on us 276 ragamuffins."
Not so said the Maltese. I think they
said: ''CCme in! Sit down by the fire
and warm yourselves! Glad that you all
got off with your lives. Make yourselves
at home. You are welcome to all we
have until some ship comes in sight and
! you resume your voyage. Here, let me
| put a bandage on your forehead, for that
! is an ugly cash you got from the floating
| timters, and here is man with broken
arm. We will have doctor come to at
! tend to this fracture.'' And though for
! three months the kindness went on, we
! have but little more than this brief
| record, The barbarous people showed
us no little kindness"
Oh, say the cordial thing. Say the
! useful thing! Say the hospitable thing.
Say the helpful thing. Say the Christian
thing! Say the kind thing! I admit
| that this is easier for some Compartments
| than for others. Some are born pessim-
! lists, and some are born OptimistS, and that
| demonstrates itself all through every
thing. 1t is a cloudy morning. You
meet a pessimists and you say. ''What
weather to-day?' He answers, sit is
gong to Storm" and umbrella under
arm and a waterproof overcoat show
! that he is honest in that utterance.
On the same block, a minute after,
you meet an optimist. and you say:
''What weather to-day?" ''GOod weather;
this is only fog and will soon scatter"
The absence of umbrella and absence of
waterproof show it is an honest utter
ance. On your way at noon to luncheon
you meet an optimistic merchant and
you say, what do you think Of the
commercial prOspects?' and he says:
''GlOrious. Great crops must bring
great business. We are going to have
such an autumn and winter Of prosperity
as we have never seem"
On your way back to your store you
meet pessimistic merchant. ''What do
you ask And he answers: "Well, I
don't know. So much grain will surfeit
the country. Farmers have more bushels
but less prices, and the grain gamblers
will get their fist iii. There is the Nc
Kinley bill; and the hay crop is short in
some places, and in the Southern part of
Wisconsin they had Il hailstorm and our
business is as dull as it ever was"
You Will find the same difference in
Judgment of character. A man OF good
reputation is assaulted and charged with
some evil deed. At the first story the
pessimist will believe in guilt. THE
papers said so, and that's enough. Down
with him. The optmist will say: Il
don't believe a word of it. l don't think
that man that has been as useful and
seemingly honest for twenty years could
have got off the track like that. There
are two sides to this story, and | will
wait to hear the other side before I con-
denim him.
NY hcarer if YOU are BY nature a