The Farmville herald. [volume] (Farmville, Va.) 1890-1934, 1899-10-06

l outside the church to one inside the
church, and the misbehavior Of those
who never see the inside of a church
T. so great that il is enough 60 tempt
man to become Christian 10 get out
Of their company. But in all circles,
religious and irreligious, the tendency
is 10 excuse sin in proportion as it is
mammoth. Even John Milton in his
paradise Lost" while he condemns
Satan. gives such a grand description Of
him you have hard work 10 withhold
your admiration. Oh. this sraining
out of small sins like gnais and this
gulping down great iniquiiies Ike cam
els
This subject does not give the picture
OF one or TWO persons. but is a gallery iD
which thousands Of people may see
their likeuesses. For instance. an those
people vino, while they would not rob
their neighbors of a fartning. appropri-
ate the money and the treasure of the
public. A man has a house TO sell, and
he tells his customer it is worth S20,-
600. Next day the assessor comes
around and the owner says 10 is worth
$4,000. The government OF the United
States took off the tax from personal
income. among other reasons. because
so few people would tell the truth, and
many a man with an income of hum
dreds of dollars a day made statements
which seemed TO imply be was about to
be handed over TO the ovorsecrs OF the
poor. Careful to pay their passage from
Liverpool to New York. yet smuggling
in their saratoga trunk ten silk dresses
from Paris and a half dozen watches
from Geneva. Switzerland, telling the
custom house officer on the wharf:
There is nothing In that trunk but
wearing apparel and putting a five
dollar gold piece In his hand 10 punctu-
ate the statement.
Described in the text are all those
who are particular never TO break the
law Of grammar and who want all their
language an elegant specimen of syn
tax, straining out all the inaccuracies
of speech with a fine sieve Of literary
criticism, while through their conversa-
tion 90 SANDER and innuendo and pro-
family and falsehood larger than a
whole caravan of camols. when they
might better fracture every law Of the
language and shock their intellectual
taste. and better let every verb seek IN
vain for its nOminative and every noun
for its government. and let every prepo-'
sition lose It's way in the sentence, and
adjectves and participIes and pro-
nouns get into a grand riot worthy Of
the Fourth ward of New York on cleo
tion day, than 10 commit moral inac-
curacy. Better swallow Thousand
gnats than one camel.
Such persons are also described in
the text who are very much alarmed
about the small faults Of others and
have no alarm about their own great
transgressions. There are in every com
munity and in every church watchdogs
who feel called upon 10 keep their eyes
on others and growl. They are fun Of
suspicious. They wonder If this man
is not dishonest. il that man is not un-
clean. If there Is not something wrong
about the other man. They are always
the first TO hear Of anything wrong.
Nultures are always the first 10 smell
carrion. They are self-appointed de-
tectivcs. ] lay this down as a rule with
out any exception. that those people
who have the most faults themselves
are most merciless I'm their watchings
Of others. From scalp of head to sole
of foot they are full Of jealousies and
hyporcriticisms. They spend their life
in hunting for muskrats and mud
turtles instead Of hunting for Rocky
mountain eagles, always for something
mean instead Of something grand.
They look az their neighbors' imper-
fections through a microscope and look
at their own imperfections through a
telescope upside down. Twenty faults
of their own do not hurt them so much
as one fault Of somebody else. Their
neighbors' imperfections are like gnats,
and they strain them out; their own inn
perfections are like camels, and they
swallow them.
But lest too many might think they
escape the scrutiny Of the text, / have
to tell you that we all come under the
Divine satire when we make the ques-
tions Of time more prominent than the
questions Of eternity. Come, now, let
us all go into the confessional. Are not
all tempted to make the question:
Where shall I live now? greater than
the question: Where shall ! live for
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