The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1898-09-23


me down to the artificial lake. the
spotted trout floating in and out
among the white pillars of the pond
lilies. You take me to the stalls and
kennels where you keep your fine
stock, ard here are the Durham cattle
and the Gordon settlers; and the high
stepping steeds, 10y paving and neigh
ing, the only language they can speak
| asking Cor harness or saddle and a
short turn down the road. Then we
go back to the house, and you get me
in the right light, and show me the
| kensetts and the Bierstadts on the
wall, and take me into the music room
and show me the bird cages, the ca
naries in the bay window answering
the robins in the tree tops. Thank
you! 1 never enjoyed myself more in
the same length of time. Now, why
do we not do so with the characters OF
others, and show the bloom and the
music and the bright fountains? No
We say: Come along, and let Inc
show you that mans character. Here
is a grCen-scummed frog pond, and
there's filthy cellar, and l guess un-
der that hedge there must be black
snake. Come, and let us for an hour
or two regale ourselves with the nui-
sances."
Oh, my friends, better cover up the
faults and extol the virtues; and this
habit once established of universal
| friendiless will become as easy as it
is for a syringa to flood the air with
| sweetness, as easy as it will be fur
Their on in the season for a quail to
whistle up from the grass. When we
hear something bad about somebody
whom we always supposed to be good,
take out your lead pencil and say:
Let me see! Before accept that bale
full story against that mans character
1 will take off from it 25 per cent. for
the habit of eXaggeration which be-
| longs to the man who first told the
| story; then I will take off 25 per cent.
for the additions which the spirit of
| gossip in every community has put
upon the original story; then 1 will
| take off 25 per cent. from the fact that
| the man may have been put into cir
cumstances of overpowering tempta-
ton. So have taken off IS per cent.
Il
| story at all, and for that reason / take
off the remaining 25 per cent. Excuse
me, sir. l don't believe word of it,"
But there comes in a defective max
i'm, so often quoted: where there is
so much smoke there must be some
fire" Look at all the smoke for years
| around Jenner, tie introducer ofvacci-
| nation; and the smoke around Column
bus, the discoverer; and the smoke
around Martin Luther, and Savonaro-
la, and Galilee, and Paul, and John, and
tell me where was the fire! That is one
of the arts to make smoke without fire.
SANDER, like the world, may be made
out nothing.
Now, supposing that you have, by a
divine regeneration, got right toward
God and humanity, and you start out
to practice my text. "a man that hath
friends must show himself friendly"
Fulfill this by all forms of appropriate
salutation. Have you noticed that the
head is so poised that the easiest thing
on earth is to give a nod of recogni-
ton? To swing the head from side to
side, as when it is wagged in derision,
s unnatural and unpleasant; to throw
it back, invites vertigo; but to drop
the chin in greeting is accompanied
with so little exertion that all day
long, and every day, you might prac-
tice it without the least semblancC of
fatigue. So, also, the structure of the
hand indicates hand-shaking; the
knuckles not made so that the fingers
can turn out, but so made that the
fingers can turn in, as in Fclasping
hands; and the thumb divided from
and set aloft from the fingers, so that
while the fingers take your neighbours
hand, on one side, the thumb takes it
ON the other, and, pressed together, all
the facilities of the hand give emphasis
to the salutation. Five sermons in
every healthy hand urge us to hand
shaking.
Besides this, every day when you
start out, load youself up with kind
thoughts, kind words, kind express
sions, and kind greetings. When a man
or woman does well, tell him so, tell
her so. If you meet someone who is
improved in health, and it is demon
>trated in girth and color, say: "How
we'll you look!" But if, on the other
hand, under the wear and tear of life
he appears pale and exhausted, do not
introduce sanitary subjects or say any
thing at all about physical condition.
In the case of improved health, you
nave by your words given another i'm
pulse toward the robust and jocund;
while in the case of the failing health
you have arrested the decline by your
silence, by which he concludes: IF !
were really so badly off he would
have said something about it, We
are all, especially those of a nervous
temperament. susceptible to kind
words and discourag;ng words. Form
a conspiracy against us and let ten
men meet us at certain points on our
way over to business, and let each one
say: ''IIow sick you look!" though
we should start out well, after meet
ing the first and hearing his depress-
ing salute, we would begin TO examine
our symptoms. After meeting the sec
ond gloomy accosting we would con-
clude we did not feel quite as well as
usual. After meeting the third our
sensations would be dreadful, and af-
ter meeting the fourth, unless we sus-
pected conspiracy, we would gohome
and go to bed, and the other six pes
simists would be a useless surplus of
encouragement.
My dear sir, my dear madam, what
do you mean by going about the world
with disheartenments? Is not the sup
ply of gloom and trouble and misfor-
tune enough to meet the demand with
ont your running factory of pins and
spikes? Why should you plant black
and blue in the world when God so
seldom plants them? Plenty of scar
let colors, plenty of yellow, plenty of
green, plenty of pink, but very seldom
q nlnnt black or blue l never saw a