San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1897-09-12
THE OTHER FELLOW


self. in himself, by himself he is never
wrong, that is judging him by what
he says of himself.
1t is only when he is warped out of
the perfect line of his own correctness
by the other fellow, that he ever takes
a mistep. This is more fact than
fancy. State it as proposition to any
one of your friends, neighbors, or ac-
quaintances and at once they will say:
Eyes, there is Tom, Dick, or Harry,
they are always making excuses for
themselves and laying the blame on
the other fellow" but which one of
them will make the application per-
sonal to themselves, and say, Eyes, l
am too apt to do that kind of a thing
myself" 1t seems somehow to be sec
ond nature TO blame the other fell
low.
Mans conscience must be a whip
with scorpion stings, when it makes
such a coward of him. The ordinary
man has courage. He has the cour-
age of his convictions, the courage to
face the consequences of his business
indiscretionS, the courage to face his
lue W ldCc udu-
gers. the courage to face the unknown,
to face an insulted and outraged wife
at unseemly hours in the morning. but
he has not the courage to face HIM
self. He fears worse than all things
else to face his own honest opinion of
himself. Man is not so generally self
deceived as to himself as he is repre-
scented. 1t is not knowledge of him
Alo@ H. hn MI
to face the knowledge that he has.
When Burns wrote: 80! wad some
power the giftie gle us. To see our
sells as ithers see u.s." he put an eX-
cuse for all time into the lips of those
who cowardly flee from the inspection
of themselves, by themselves. The
poet may be taken as telling the truth,
with the usual poetic license, but as
q bed rock fact that sentiment of his
is off, way off. That it is so is evil
dent from the willingness that we us
ually evince in taking the evidence of
the other fellow as against ourselves.
If no man is hero to his own valet,
then more than to his own valet, to
himself, must he appear anything than
a hero The nude in art is only ac-
ceptable when it is the beautiful nude.
The unbeautiful nude is not in it.
To ourselves we are the beautiful
nude. 1t is all moonshine to try and fool
ourselves. Others we may fool, but
not our wives, or our children. or our
body servants and ourselves least of
ALL Tell me that a man or woman
cannot see the meannesS that they do.
Do not deceive yourself. You know
your own meanness better than any
other living human. To you are
known the self receptions that you
attempt and cannot cOnsumate, the
flaws in character that others do not
see or only see in part, the real defects
in temper that are hidden from the
eyes of others and only manifest them
selves in that secret chamber of the
life where you are alone with yourself.
There is where we take our liberty.
What luxury it is when one has
been in the straight jacket of the con-
yentional clothing of today to get into
our own inside sanctum, the sanctum
sanctorum. where no other ventures
and there to unrObe. What a relief
to stand or sit or lie untramelled. To
realize the freedom of limb that comes
to the children of nature. Yet there
are those so much the creatures of con-
Ventl0nalltleS mat IDey WOulu nave
their modesty shocked at finding them
selves alone with their own nudeness.
You say such person is a fool, that
no sane person ever felt that way. Do
not be too sure of that. There are
more fools of all kinds in the world
than those outside of them ever find
out
However that may be, and it is only
used as an illustration. the world is
full of men. and women, too, who I'M
der no circumstances could be per-
suaded to undress their characters
and study their fOrmities and deform-
tiles. 1t is not so much that they are
afraid of the first as of the last. the
deformities. The fables and myths of
the ancients teach us how the old
queens of beauty loved to study their
own forms in the polished silver of
their mirrors. Each line of perfect
beauty according to the standards of
the painters and sculpers Of the age,
was marked and dwelt upon and all
the labor of toilet and bath was di.
rected TO perfecting the beauty lines
and hiding all divergence therefrOm.
But where the defOrmities were SC
marked that no true approach to the
haaufv standard as IL was