The San Francisco call., 1896-04-05

creditors will wait for their interest and
bllIs, and l shall be happy" Then a
norther struck that part of the valley, and
blew his struggling crop all out of the
ground or covered it deep with sand, leav-
ing my farmer friend with his labor for his
pains, but, meeting him, he said: CATER
all 1t will not cost me so very much to put
in crop next fall, for there being no crop
OF stubbie in the way. l can put it in with
Randall harrows, and so long as my good
old wife does not dry up and blow away or
the mortgage blow off the ranch, defraud-
ing my creditors, shall be happy" This
man is certainly not calamity howler.
A stranger within our gates preached in
our church little while ago and I went
to hear him. He was an eloquent man
and spoke with much earnestness. but he
murdered our good American tongue more
hagrantly than is the wont with an aver
age Western Congressman, and l said to
myself: IF this man only possessed the
advantages which culture alone can confer
he would be power in the pulpit" A
week or two later another stranger came
within our gates and preached in our
church. ALI that culture could do for a
man culture had done for him. His hair
was parted in the middle and his every at
tribute was in harmony Herewith. His
grammar was faultless, his dietion ex-
celient and his enunciation SO perfect that
not single syllable was surred over. but
each sound was given its proper valuation
and that without apparent pedantry, his
manner was easy and his gestures appro-
pirate, but for the life of me can scarcely
remember what the sermon was about,
though il might appropriately have been
something about cart for Arts sake
rather than for the salvation of a human
SOUL" The perfection of manner absorbed
the attention almost to the exclusion OF
the matter of the discourse. Surely there
Is poor encouragement for preachers when
excess of culture is as destructive of re-
suits as the want of it.
A group of tourists was recently viewing
admiringly pretty winter home belong
ing to noted Eastern manufacturer of
spool cotton when one OF the group,
thrusting his thumbs into the armholes of
his vest, delivered himself as follows:
"The owner of this property is talented
and cultured fraud, and he owes the pos
session of this beautiful cottage to fraud
committed upon every seamstress and
housewife in the country. Each spool of
his thread is warranted to hold out 200
yards, but it does not. It lacks twenty
yards Of it, ana so he steals enough thread
from each ten spooIs to make an eleventh.
and the eleventh spool thus filched yields
a sufficient sum in the course of a year or
two to create this vision of beauty which
now excites our admiration and envy"
This explanation had semhlance of prob
ability, and we believed, all but one, for
there was doubling Thomas in the party
who had the curiosity to go a store, pur-
chase spool of this mans cotton thread
and measure with exactness. 1t overran
the 200 yards alleged on the end of the
spool by just thirty feet. The dapper lit
tie gentleman clad in spotless linen. gray
and aging, but alert and honest as one of
mis- own spools OF cotton, had not obtained
his fine property by the disreputable de-
vice suggested. The incident furnishes
evidence to show that the opinion that
there is nothing in the world of business
but cunning and deceit is too commonly
received and unthinkingly entertained.
p