The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1897-02-25
a SORRY STATE OF AFFAIRS.

It's sorry state Of affairs when kindly
feeling and friendship are at low eb6 IN
community; when neighbors have 6nt httie
GOOD to say Of one another; when every act'
boxeyer innocent. is liable to be mlseon-
strued and regarded with suspicion, and that
i. omen TO criticism maRni6ed until mount
aims are made of social mole hills. The man
Who makes the saloon his headquarters anu
b.. besottsd, may have quickened to tn
Mutations uf as true and warm heart a.
ever throbbed, once filed with high hopts
and noble aims. now crushed by weight OF
bitter disapp ,intment, by msn's inhu"anity
IN man. or suconmbrd to an Inheritance OF
.nnet,t- he had not m,ral strength to over
come We know Of such man in our own
neiyhborho ID, who in his sober moments l.
vet . man, aud would scorn to do what his
conscience said was wrong, Who is spurn+d
nv som- whose pIsin of morality Is beneath
b;.osu We know a man who is pointed
ont IS a natural dad beat, ~ho-e ambition
.eems TO owe everybody. with7ut means OF
having or apparently having any intent to
he honest. Yet that man few years ag"
would have passed sleepless nights at the
hare prospects Of being unabls to keep his
word Who has the right to iudgr him 'o'
his short comings, and condemn him utterly
before studying the wrongs and rrverses he
has endured in these times of almost hope
less struggle, until the condition has come
which makes it seem to him that every other
coincidence is as scared as his own! who
shall saw that the genuine hand OF friend
ship and words Of counsel rightly given
would not quicken that man 'nner'eIt ana
bring it back TO What it wss' We kno"
man who has been marked as . blsckmsll'r
and is detested and summed, who never in
hi. life has said one word Willingly OF
maliciously against his neighbor or his
neiRhbors' laudible enterprise or property
who unfortunately was born with propens'
ity for speaking slightingly or thoughtlessly
Of things; aud on one occasion having don'
this to the detriment of friend, he has be
come suspect. We know man who L
honest. kind hearted, and who is struggling
to keep up his end in the world, whose rea
nature ia hidden behind the pecularities o
a forbiddng exterior, and the habit OF bein
within himself, absorbed in thought, h
passes you day after day without recognit
ion; yet, if you we're ill or in distress h
would prove goood Samaritan, while you
faucied friends who has learned the value {
airy greetings and fattery, may in you
necessity, change places with him and pas
by. We know of neighbors who live yea
after wear almost as strangers because the
have discovered traits in each other th'
they do not admire and perhaps misunde
stood, while If between them genuine fren'
ship were cultivated they would prove OF
another worthy, and the little faul
would disappear behind noble qualities tn
needed only the hand of kindness to briI
uppermost.
Let those who are old enough look ba'
only few years; what change! People q
drawing apart, until like in old feudal day
there seems nothing but hostility beyoI
our own domain. T me was, not many yea
ago. when in communities like this neig
bors were as rule full linked in friendsh
that seemed akin to ties of blood; couhdcu
was seldom misplaced. The prospect
slept soundly, confident that in the morni
when he awoke he would find his rifles
he left them. Looking backward, one ca
not but feel that life then was worth livi
more than now. Do we not sll bear c
part in these new conditions! The div
injunction. Judge not, seems to have
come obsolete, and we live in the era
mouey thieving, depression, suspicion
classes. seemingly but to weigh those abb
as in the SC ,-s OF humanity and hnd tn
lacking. F4lings aud short c"mings we
prone to see as they are, while the wealth
gond that is oh.cur-d by them we note I
and Judge each 9th r aud pas on.
Respectfully,
V. G R