The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1900-07-29
SENSE OF RESPONSIBILITY.
An Able Address Recently Delivered by Mr.
Clarence Ousley


these make labor a song and success a
| benclacuon. Without tnum economy is
but stinginess and achievement is but
evarice. The passion Tor gain, for pilin z
up profits. for accommodating stores beyond
possible personal use, without family o.
friends or neighbors 10 share them, Is an
abnormal appetite, as Incorporate MS
drunkenness and as unholy as lust. Bu,
INDUCED for the sake OF others as well DIS
OF self 1t is altogether wholesome and On
nobling because ii betters the condition
of some part OF the human family.
SO with ambition for station and iniiu-
ence. The man who attains position ana
power for mere personal qualification is
a peacock strutting In the barnyard or a
King of beasts frightening the forest. You
may say that the purpose of effort, wheth-
or egoistic or altruistic. is a matter OF
motive. and that in turn Is a matter o.
breeding and character That is true in
a sense. But 1t is also true and more 10
the point that assuming responsibilities
OF family or society will quail selfish
ness. The meanest man is better m an
Tor being husband and a father 1t
iatlgues imagination 10 conceive how some
husbands could be meaner than they arr,
out having seen a great deal OF unmArs
RED men believe the rule holds good.
AS | have said, the sense of family re-
sponsiollltY is an inspiration. We never
know our resources until they are put 10
the test, and they are never fully tested
In the effort for self-sustenance We have
no true appreciation OF our relation to the
world family until helpless hands are held
up to us and domestic affection grips our
hearts. self-respect is an abstraction
until 1t is forced to keep it's place upon
the pedestal where love has placed it. We
can aHord 10 disappoint ourselves and fall
short OF our desires. because we know
that we could have done better IL we had
tried. but we can not afford to 20 home
from the days work with empty hands
We can not permit those dependent upon
us to lack the comfort our utmost effort
can provide.
During the yellow fever epidemic that
swept up the middle of the State a few
years ago, a strong man who had nursed
the sick and dressed the dead through all
the weary weeks until the p.ague had
well nigh spent itself. at last fell sick
himself. few DAYS and he faced the end
His doctor frankly told him that he cuold
not live. He wac a Cody man and had
no fear OF the future. He had dared death
In storm and battles. and he looked 1t
squarely in the eye. But as the doctor
went out he left the door aiar and the
sick man heard a sob in the other room
and know the physician was breaking the
awful news to his wife. He caught the
low murmur OF consoling words and the
smothered throb OF a breaking heart. In
the half-open doorway he saw a head of
tawny tangled hair as his 3-year-old
peeped in at papa whom she had been for
hidden to see for a whole day, aud down
the hall he heard the booted step of a
little man whom he could see in his
minds eye bending beneath the 6urden OF
the fatherless poor. sense of his re-
epons.bility came upon him as he had
never felt it before, and he gripped the
covers in his weakened hands as II TO
catch hold of life again before it slipped
away forever and he shut his lips and
teeth together as if to keep back his half =
spent breath and he said to himself:
Il can not l must not / will not de!"
And in that moment he wrought a mir
scle. by his strength Of will and the
grace CT God and in due season was him
self again
Excuse me If seem to address myself
more 10 men than to women. come to
call sinners. not the righteous to repent
ancc | concur in the sentiment of
toast proposed at a recent woman's club
dinner IA Washinston,
women. they have many faults;
Men have only two
Everything they say
And everything they do"
If can make some young man under
stand chat il is his duty to become a hus-
band and to be good husband | Will ac-
complsh more than if l attempted to i'm
press upon young women the responsible
dies peculiar to them, which ! can no more
comprehend than l can the beatitudes of
the saints, but which they know by intui-
ton and viii discharge with a idelity that
man in his most exalted state will never
match.
Everything that I have said applies to
women in way, for the principles of hui
man conduct are of a common gender. l
wish only to make 1t clear in passing that
l applaud the larger Views Of life which the
modern woman is TAXING. ] no not say
new woman" for that phrase conveys
sense Of harshness and mannlshness
which are as far from describing the eH-
banded sphere which woman is occupying
as the distorted caricatures of public men
are far from picturfng their faces and char
acters The new woman" at-the phrase
is understood, all men abhor and all other
women despise. The modern woman. who
makes her way in the world who moves
with a fixed purpose to accomplish some
thing in business or art or science. all
men respect and all women admire. he
assured that she has a keen sense OF her
responsibilities, among which is the main
as that principl. is fixed in her conscious
ness | am willing 20 trust her wherever
she may choose to go.
Departing from the congratulations which
the limitations OF a Sopular address re-
Qure ! wish to point out a particular
phrase of responsibility to self, because
il is too rarely appreciated in this section
and this State. There is a kind of hravado
in this country which throws to the wind
all personal responsibility in a morbid es-
innate of personal yalor. If one man hap
pens to offend another by act or speech. es-
pecially II he utters certain words which
are expressed in the newspapers by stars
and dashes, the insult is held to be unpar-
donable, and straightway both men arm
themselves and upon the iirst occasion each
demonstrates his courage by trying to take
the others life. The pistol habit is dis
grace to our civilization and a brand OF
cowardice upon the men who practice It.
| say 'cowardice" deliberately because It
Is no part OF courage to make widows and
orphans to prove that man is truthful OF
nobly born I have known o. and read of
many homcides. and l do not recall one
that was justihable in morals or self.d
Tense. not one THAI might not have been
averted II the parties had entertained cor
rect ideas of real bravery. II the man.
who has reason to feel that his life is in
danger from some dsperado or madman
will exercise the courage to 20 to Ithe NJ -