The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1896-11-19

Potter had gathered ana IaSnlOIltu
into the human form on the wheel OF
nature. How we, longed to enter this
charming arena of life that we might
champion the right, help enthrone
Justice on a pedestal of morality and
repress the wrong done our fellow
men, ever in the van ready to meet the
brunt of the charging legions of vice,
and then, conquering, pluck our share
of the virtue fruit from the tree of
fame. and rest honored in turn by the
youth of the future.
All! dear reader, the fairies of our
childhood were more real than this |
dream of youth. We enter the world,
impatient, active, eager to do and have
done. And then our dream begins to
fade. We awake to the stern realities
of life. The lessons of youth are not
laid in the mortar of truth, but little
by little the water of experience percO-
lates through the foundations of our
character: the crutch of innocence is
taken from us and humankind is found
to be dead sea fruit and life fig tree
whose every fruit carries worm in
it's core. We have heard the other
side of the story, and have seen ambi-
ton, greed, envy, hypocrisy, deceit and
evil of every conceivable form reek
from every pore of humanity.
..Vice is monster of so frightful men
AS to be hated. needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face.
We first endure. then pity. then embrace.
SO the man perceiving the falsity of
his youthful lessons becomes hypo-
critic or cynic. He, too, puts on the
garment of vice. enters Rome to do as
the Romans do. If he is successful
you see one side only of the shield,
hear only one side of the story. If he
fails then, reader, you see and hear
the other side, but mark you, tis sell
a dom you have both sides of the story
= told you. If you can pass through
o life guilty of the most despicable
crimes against your fellow man, guilty
q of breaches of honor, of friendship, OF
n virtue, of morality in it's every form:
n break every command of the decalOgue
d while at the same time assisting and
2. shielding others doing the same, and
e this without being found out so tC
t. speak, why then you will be looked
d upon and spoken of as a model OF
e virtue. For, as Hardy says, the worst
a sin is that of "being found out
e, But, while this is the worst side O.
ic the story we see, remember the othe
n side, for after all the lessons of you'll
p may be only repressed; the most des
ly picable wretch of human form ma.
rs have deep down in his heart some o
e, those qualities you sought from tn
ne world, and may possess lasting friend
It. ship whose word to another may be hi
or one code of honor and in whose hear
IS, guilt, in some of it's many forms, cal
tn never enter. We may have seen tn
RS depths of mans degradation or tn
to height of his exaltation, have despise
of the one, revered the other, and yet i
X his heart he may be Pharisee. H
ed who has fallen knows the PharaSaics
by nature of those who condemn hin
in. can see the good as well as the evil, IL
lid they are component parts of the HI
on man family. To me, the man who
Try his heart despises the one the worl
dis condemns is lower in the scale of HI
we manity than the incarcerated felo
to 1t is pleasure, however, to know th'
nm all of the human race are not the sea
ice ings of a putrescent growth; tn
the among them are those whose lOv
ow friendship and aid is never Withheld
his is not the toy of the hour, but is
ind tended freely in time of need; not tho
ere who lie in the grave with a halo
hin virtue around an unread heart, but t
of living, breathing soul whose actio
ON and words will flourish "like the hs
All! old oak when a hundred years ha
we flown"
lor, Passing through life the man
of years has sought success in some fol
lich and has found two sides to the sto
len: Ambition has been crushed, greed l
ent satisfied, honor lost, hope destroy