The Iuka vidette. (Iuka, Miss.) 1894-1912, 1895-02-07
MEAN PEOPLE.
Sam Jones Writes Of Some Des-
picable Characters He Has Met
He Tells a Story of the Mortgage Sharks
Position in Hades-A Varied Assort-
ment OF Mean Indiviriunls
Placed In Review
lCOPYRIGHT, 1851

who would rank pretty well up in the
catalogue
Men differ in meanness as much as
they differ in age, size and complexion.
A mean man, generally considered, is
man who has u preponderance of mean
traits. A fellow is esteemed a good
fellow if he has u preponderance of
good traits. A totally depraved man,
utterly without any good traits, can
not be found, | dare say, this side of
perdition. A perfectly holy man can
not be found between the gates of
heaven and the gates of hell. Men
grade up in goodness or down in bad
ness. The better we are the closer to
the gates of pearl we are; the meaner
we are the closer the gates OF hell.
In the estimation of some it is n mean
man who will drink whisky, and there
by rob his family of the comforts of
life and make himself personally dis
agreeable to wife and children. In the
estimation of some man who win not
pay his debts is a very mean man.
There are two classes of debtors-men
who can pay and won't; men who
would pay, but can't. There is no
comparison in the character of the two
men. A man who willfully neglects
debt is contemplate, dirty dog, UNI
worthy of the confidence of any man.
A man who would pay and is striving
hard to pay deserves the respect and
confidence of all men.
A Imam who occupies place OF trust
and betrays that trust and robs cor
poration or firm or individual who has
placed confidence in him is very mean
man. His friends may apologize for
him and say he didn't mean to do it, or
that his friends got him into it, but if
he willingly and willfully and knowing
ly robs or defrauds his benefactor each
stase in this union has provided peni-
tertiary for just such characters, and
the apologies we make for them but
multiply their number over our land.
think / saw a statement the other
day that the banks in New York city
alone in the last few years had been
robbed of something like twenty mil
lions of dollars by dishonest, trusted
officials. One such individual as this
came very near swapping every bank
in one of our larger southern cities
more than year ago. He is now at
tending school at Sing Sing, New York.
But how much meaner is man like
that than these old money sharks loan
ing their money at exorbitant Der cent.
to every poor fellow who has n tract of
land or house and lot, then bides his
time until opportunity affords and he
gobbles up the last dollars worth of
property owned by the poor unfortu-
nate debtor and turns him and his fam
lily out of doors.
A story heard once goes something
like this: One brother Of n church went
into a country store. The nronrietor of
the store took n MORTGAGE on everybody
and everything for everything he sold.
After cleaning up this snecial customer
and rettinp all he had. the moor fellow
went to the merchant and said: 81 want
to get few goods on credit for nv
family" Said the merchant: "You have
nothing on which YOU can give me a
mortgage. | can't let YOU have the
goods" A third party walked in and
saw the poor fellow standing there and
said to him: "Why, what is the matter,
you look very sad and downcast to-
day?" "Nothing specially" said the
poor fellow in reply, Except l had u
terrible dream last night" What was
your dream?" II dreamed last night
that our good Brother Smith who runs
this store had died and gone to hell,
preceding me few days to that world
of woe. thought when reached that
world OF everlasting fire and despair,
standing in group, some one remarked:
Wonder is wash pot turned bottom
SIDE up. wonder II there Is anything
under ltT Another replied; L believe l
VIII go ana see lie walked up to the
pot ana was IN the act OF turning 1t
over out the old devil himself haued
MIN ana SAID: Let that pot alone. L
nave Deacon smith under there' ana II
you turn INN out he VIII nave mort
gage upon all hell before next sunday
night.
The devil seems to understand human
nature pretty well. -Such characters
ougnC TO De unaer "ashpoC IA any
"orio ior 'he pro'ec'ioh Vi socie.y
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