Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1896-03-20

Something from nothing you can't, -
she went on, as Della subsidized, and was
slipping the hot lemonade Mrs. Amiabella
had thought to offer her, as a preventa-
tive. So, Of course, you have to borrow
from the next column. And with some
folks 1t never makes any difference what
the next column stands for, whether its
comfort, or safety, or life itself. They
don { stop to see. Our own health and
other peoples comfort and peace of mind
are the things we let 60 OF easiest unless
it is good-temper and nerye-force. There S
nothing so wearing as put-up-ances.
"Then there is another sort of resources
from which many good people feel at per
feet liberty to draw, if they may only
please themselves with carrying out their
notions of economy. The people who
ride this hobby the fastest are apt to be
not so very finely constituted themselves
and are not at all sensitive to the fulfil
ment of the lesser amenities of life, either
by themselves or others A want OF grace
or graciousness, or even of courtesy or
outward responsibility itself, is to them
no grievous thing. 1t sometimes happens,
however, that they are people Of very good
intentions, and really of much nobility of
character. And for the sake of the real
good they do people feel bound to excuse
what they call their idiosyncrasies. So
family and friends bear with the constant
modification of the shabby gown and
overcoat, the outdatcd bonnet the cotton
umbrella; or try, if they are able, to make
up for it by some sacrifice of their own
in compensation. Nine -tenths of our re
formers have been and are of this class
And perhaps the work could be done, and
have its emphasis in the thought of their
contemporaries, in no other way.
But for us common mortals, whom no
such great task has claimed, there is
neither justice nor reason In such neglect
I believe as someone has said, that no
person has right to live the suru of life
that be would not be willing to see made
universal. The rule of course is gen
eral one, and to be broadly applied. But
it comes closer in its authority than som e
good people seem to think. There are
things no one has a special dispensation to
slight though some folks go about belicv-
ing that they have. The indulgences
which used to be sold, cnsuriDg the soul $
salvation while they gave the person a
right to break certain moral and spiritual
laws, are duplicated, though they DO, t
know it by some very Conscientious and
earnest people, who think, forsooth, be-
cause they have espoused some noble pur-
pose, they are released from a score of
social and personal obligations which we
lesser folk must still regard as binding.
| question the right of any man or woman
to do it, When the Lord said, IL hate
robbery for burnt Offering" l believe be
meant the petty pilfering that subtracts
from the authority Of His laws, that
drains the good nature of other people,
and takes away what is no mans to
lessen. the comfort and we'll being of
other people as we'll as the larger and OBJ
yious injustice.
And what we have no right to do in
fulfilment OF the best ends we are certain
ly not at liberty to do ont OF mere miserl-
s5s or love Of display" l added, as Mrs
PeppersqueeZer paused. And | suppose
it is because we know so little OF what
trae economy or tbrifs is, that We are so
ready to adopt the pretence or the imita-
ton f it. Most of US are made to see its
need, more or less constantly, and we have
not yet learned to discriminate. l think
the point is well taken, that our economy
is poorly planned if it add to other peo-
pies discomforfs / never could quite adj