San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1894-08-17
ON THE LOITER.
THE FIRST IMPRESSION.

analyze human nature, and usual
ly profess to judge a person all
through life from what is termed
"first Impressions" Even men
will talk such stuff. One great
strapping fellow, possessed Of in
herent shrewdness and a good COL
lege education, who for twenty-five
years has had all manner Of ups
and downs in life and has sus-
tanned many a hard rub against
the rough, practical side of the
world, claims that first impressions
are what he goes by and what he
swears by. Judging a person from
"first impressions" has always ap-
pealed to me as bit of conceit
that bears the stamp Of imprObab-
ility upon its face. Suppose that
your judgment based upon "first
impressions" is absolutely correct,
it will not, barring rare exceptions,
hold good throughout whole life
time. The very fact that per-
sons character is not fixed but al
ways shaping itself, which process
is ever influenced by ones sur
roundings and circumstances, pre-
cludes the possibility of basing a
lasting correct judgment on "first
impressions" The safest thing one
can do from "first Impressions" is
the forming of a faint character
outline Of our new acquaintance,
and that is in need Of constant re-
vision and filling in. A lasting
opinion, formed from "tirst i'm
pressions." almost invariably, is
nothing more than prejudice, be
it favorable or otherwise. Have
not we seen friends change? Have
not we changed? To me it seems
unjust to judge a man at twenty
by the impressions gained of him
when he was boy of ten; or, to
Judge him at sober fifty by the i'm
preSsions gained of him at twenty.
But / contend that correct judg-
ments, barring, Of course, few ex-
captions, cannot be based upon
"first Impressions" for experience
has shown me that everybody,
save a blatant, soft idiot, hides his
faults as much as possible. ] have
also found that the average sensi-
BILE man will not unbosom himself,
virtues, frailities and all, at
first sight or first intro
duction. You can study mans
character for years and years,
and still every now and then,
discover some new virtue or some
grave fault to which your eyes had
not been opened in the long years
past.
THE PASSIVE HEREAFTER
"Somehow or other / fail to en-
thuse over my childhood days and
as yet cannot help sincerely
S \ ell the mighty choir's pleading
song for the restoration of that
era" said a sober-faced young fell
low to a few shallow companions
who were prating, as they had
heard their senile grandfathers
talk, about the good old days Of
marbles, mud pies, and barefeet.
"The only period, | can honestly
say" he continued, "that would be
fairly, or rather, indifferently well
come to me, would be the blank,
blank atom of eternity that was
before 1 sprung into existence as a
sane being. This is not said in the
night of a dark day Of failure
or, in the face of darker and
more terrible morrow, but in
the enjoyment of fair financial
prosperity on the eve Of the con-
summation of a long planned
event and before love or loveless
affairs have ever filled my sou
with the cross and bitter seeds OF
disconsolate discomfort"
The shallow young men gazed
in silence at the speaker. The sober
faced youth imagined that they
were interested in that line of
thought and thus he continued.
"No one has ever looked more
joyfully to the future, waited more
impatiently for the morrow, the
next day the other and so on,
than 1. Few people are more anx-
ious to i've on and on and soar
higher as they live than l. Few
men have met with as little life
embittering misfortune as L,
and yet, while 1 am ready
and willing to. battle it
out to the very last stand,
1 entertain, you would not call it
hope for, but, an Indifference to-
ward the return of the void that
seemed to have existed before |
was That is, suppose, Christian
resignation, except that l can more
nearly comprehend an eternity of
tho 1nasSiun hanninnss of blank