The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1901-09-26

! ing spirit, as | know by experience,
for have tried it for five or ten min
utes at a time. When some mean
thing has been done me or said about
me, l have felt: 81 will pay him in
| his own coin. / will show him up.
The migrate! The traitor! The liar!
The villain!" But five or ten min
utes of the feeling has been so I'M
nerving and exhausting l have aban-
doned it, and 1 cannot understand how
people can go about torturing them
selves five or ten or twenty years,
trying to get even with somebody.
The only way you will ever triumph
over your enemies is by forgiving
them and wishing them all good and
no evil. AS malevolence is the most
uneasy and profitless and dangerous
feeling, kindness is the most health
full and delightful. And this is not an
abstraction. AS 1 have tried little of
the retaliatory feeling so l have tried
little of the forgiving. I do not
want to leave this world until I have
taken vengeance upon every man that
ever did me wrong by doing him a
Kindness. In most of such cases I
have already succeeded, but there are
a few malignants whom 1 am yet pur-
suing, and I shall not be content until
have In some wise helped them or
benefited them or blessed them.
| Rare Flower from Royal Garden.
The king of Prussia had presented
to him by the empress of Russia the
root of rare flower, and it was put
in the royal gardens on an island, and
the head gardener Herr Fintleman,
was told to watch it. And one day it
put forth it's glory. Three days of
every week the people were admitted
/ 10 these gardens, and young man,
probably not realizing what wrong
thing he was doing. plucked this flow
er and put it in his buttonhole, and
the gardener arrested him as he was
crossing at the ferry and asked the
King to throw open no more his gar
dens to the public. The king replied:
Shall | deny to the thousands Of
good people of my country the privi-
lege of seeing this garden because one
visitor has done wrong? No; let them
come and see the beautiful grounds"
And when the gardener wished to
give the king the name of the offender
who had taken the royal flower he
SAID, NO my memory is very tena-
cious, and l do not want to have in
my mind the name of the offender lest
1T should hinder me granting him a
FAVOR some other time" Now, I want
you to know that kindness is a royal
Hover, and blessed be God, the king
OF mercy and grace, that by a divine
gift, and not by purloining, we may
pluck this royal flower and not wear
1t on the outside of our nature, but
wear it on our soul and wear it for
ever, it's radiance and aroma not more
wonderful for time than wonderful for
eternity
Hopeful and Cordial Words.
oh, say the cordial thing. Say the
useful thing. Say the hospitable S,ing.
Say the helpful thing. Say the christ
like thing. Say the kind thing. I adj
NIT that it is easier for some tempera-
ments than for others. Some are born
pessimists, and some are born optim-
lists. and that demonstrates itself all
through everything. 1t is a cloudy
morning. You meet pessimist and
you say, What weather today" He
answers, Its going to storm" and
umbrella under arm and waterproof
coat show that he is honest in that
utterance. On the same block, min
ute after, you meet an optimist, and
you say, What do you think of the
commercial prospects," and he says,
Glorious Crops not SO good as usual,
but foreign demand will make big
prices. We are going to have such an
autumn and winter of prosperity as we
have never SEEN" On your way back
to your store you meet a pessimist
merchant. What do you think of the
commercial prospects," you ask, and
he answers, "Well, don't know.
Wheat and corn crop blasted in Kan
sas and Missouri, and the grain gam
blers will get their fist in, and the hay
crop is short in some places, and in
the southern part of Wisconsin they
had hailstorm and our business is as
dull as it ever was" You will find the
same difference in judgment of charac-
ter. A man of good reputation is as
sailed and charged with some evil
deed. AT the first story the pessimist
will believe in guilt. "The papers said
so, and that's enough. Down with
him." The optimist will say: Il don't
believe a word of it. l don't think that
man that has been as useful and
seemingly honest for twenty years,
could have got off track like that.
There are two sides to this story, and
| will wait to hear the other side be-
fore condemn him" My hearer, if
you are by nature "a pessimist, make a
special effort by the grace of God to
extirpate the dolorous and the hyper
critical from your disposition. Be-
lieve nothing against anybody until
,toI Itch