San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1896-09-20

in his travels in Europe and America
is not only impertinent to a degree,
but il is usually the mark of a little
mind. The purely personal is the
smallest of all that concerns men.
Take any man out of community
and in twelve months his place is full
ly supplied. Only his immediate
family will miss him, and often they
will not. No man is necessary. All
have their use and all have their
place, but when the one is gone the
many forget and fill his place before
it is cold.
If individuals are of so little impor-
lance why enquire curiously into
anything that personally concerns
them and not you. You are intro
friend, to take him on trust as the
recommended of that friend without
question as far as that goes. Is it
any of your concern who his father
was or his mother or at what age he
married. or if single, HON many girls
hearts he has broken? What is it
your business if his life has been pros
porous of otherwise, or If he has a
wen on his toe or a wart on his nose
or is hot tmeperedE Have you any
right to put your nose into his pri-
vate affairs and ask questions that he
may be not inclined to answer. What
interest in the world can it be to you
to know if Betsy Jane has beau or
if William Henry went home with
Lucinda from the church social?
Only a little mind has a mind for
little things, and that mind for little
things is only advertising its little
ness when it goes about like an inter-
regation point asking questions.
There is a business man in this city
whom the Light preacher occasional
ly sees and chats with. He is
splendid fellow, in many ways, kind
is so inquisitive that he seems act
ually to live only to find what you
had for supper and whom your best
girl is. He is not that at all, for he
is a sharp and successful man of bus
mess, but he should have been in
Earl Lis suit. Now there is not the
least harm in this man, but he would
stock a ladies sewing society with
questions and have some left over for
the next quilting bee. 1t matters not
that he cannot make the least use of
the information that he uses his gimlet
for, he has the habit and it will stick
to him through life, and when he gets
up yonder he will want to know of
Peter what his keys are made of be-
fore he will enter the gate. 1t is safe
to say that this gentleman has an in
quisitive sister or two about town.
Among the latest philosophers the
idea is gaining ground that the per-
sonal is the thing to be eliminated
from human consciousness in the pro-
gress of the race. That the univer-
sal, the all, is that which is of ac-
count and that the individual will
wither and the race in time be all in
all. There will be Il great change
in the mental and social makeup of
the race before this is accomplished,
but the very fact that thought is
pointing that way is a guarantee of
the final elimination of this persona.
curiosity from the human breast
What glorious change for the bet
ter will be wrought when each man
and woman in this and in all other
cities will feel that it is an imperti-
hence to enquire into the private lives
or affairs of Othesr and that to do it
is to show oneself ill-bred and want
ing in courtesy.
Here as allwheres else the educa-
ton must begin at home around the
fireside. The little ones must be
taught what are the proper and what
the improper subjects of their en-
quiry. Educate this brainless sense
less inquisitiveness into personal af-
Americans to take fairs of the chils
fairs ont of the children of one gen
Grafton and it will appear in greatly
diminished forae in their children,
and in time it will disappear. 1t is
not wise for Americans to take their
cue from the Heather Chinee in this
thing. American civilization should
be on hoigher plane than that of the
pigtailed celestials These curious
fellows have a pigtail in their mind.
and their true elevation will never
come until it is cut off. Beloved suf-
fer the word of eXortation, and be
instructed by the example of the
Chinese Mandarin who so recently
went like yellow rocket across this
country to disappear in his native
tea garden. Ask no unnecessary
questions and above all avoid asking
questions of a purely private charac-
ter. Let the inquisition of the past
barbarism into the affairs of others
die out.