The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1902-10-21

inst hevond us punishment. and yet
n constant menace to other rights, but
L 1T ii be so noble, generous and unset
fish, as that the law is not known to ex-
list in its application to such conduct ,and
that other lives are made broader ana
better. brighter and sweeter by It's con-
tpct or reflective influence, "Filtering,
as Walt Whitman says, Into the nation
and the race, and to give color and nore
to the youth and maturity of that age.
Yes. civic virtue requires more than
n negation That we do not violate the
law is but Ealf the discharge of duty.
There are many duties that we call little
duties which lie along LIES pathway.
Did l say little duties? There are no lit
tie duties-a duty is a duty wherever II
lies. If your judgment Is required as
teacher in Sunday school. on the school
board, as alderman, as township trustee
as juror, you will not hesitate or stop
short of a full discharge of duty because
1t be a thankless job, or is without honor.
or without pay. II friend is sick. should
not the cloud of his suffering and dis
couragement be dispelled by the sunshine
of a kindly face and the hearty offers OF
needed help? If the Angel of the Pass
over stops at your neighbours door, are
there not duties for you as important as
those on election days? II disaster and
calamity come, must we not aid and
succcr? The statute may excuse, but Will
civic virtue?
I'm the dramatization OF Goethes great
play. Margaret Is made to turn aside from
the tempter to a little chapel swelling
with sacred music. and with his lament
of Fools are my victims, naught but fools
Oh for the soul of one wise man to hold
up In triumph at the last great day. we
can but feel and know that fools are his
victims. naught but FOOLS and that
purity, virtue and faith are exemplihed
in Margaret at worship.
TOO often the grand juries OF our
counties are obliged to try to force the
information from unwilling witnesses, or
act upon information from those report
ing, not in a discharge of duty, but from
envy or malice. Is not the citizen VINO,
in his Indifference or fear to take sides,
stays away from party primaries or efec-
tions. is is silent as to violated law.
guilty of the vice of Indifference? This
is a positive age of a very practical world
we live in, There are but two issues the
goor or the bad, the right or the wrong.
We must take sides; II is our duty 10 take
sides; we always do take sides; ana we
must each be sure that Is on the right
side of every question, whether momen-
tous or unimportant. From the aggresa-
ton of little things and interests. public
opinion is moulded, and takes the form
OF express statute then administering or
abolishing the law, or inspiring a regard
or disregard of substantial public and
| private rights.
1--WE NAV then group public officials into
| classes possessing civil virtue and civic
vices: and of official vices into, % the
| fraud of indifference" and (D OF actual
| corruption. Haze you N ought what IN
difference to duty in the public official IS!
| Will the indifferent heart burn with IN
| dignation If private wrongs go uuavenged
| and public wrongs go unpunished! In
different to the sacred obligations of Of
6clal public trust! Indifferent to the SOL
emn oath taken when the responsibility
was assumed! Can true man In any
| way afford to offend his oath?
About the year 20 B. c.. the Greco
Roman historian, Diodorus Siculus OBJ
serves that the offender of his oath Is
guilty of double crime, ~ falling In
respect to the divinity. and CD In DIS
| faith towards his fellow men, The vir-
| tue of the learned Athenians In this re-
spcct Is excmpliied by tho case or Eu-
| ripides. Tins great tragic poet though "a
nous for the elevation of his thought ana
| the morality of his plays. unfortunately
| introduced a character. who. being re-
minded of an oath he had taken lightly.
replied: I swore with my mouth but
not with nv heart This improper sent
iment set the audience into an uproar.
drove his intimate friend, the learned
Socrates, with indignation from the the
alter. and such public offense was thereby
given that he was accused and brought
t. public trial as one who had suggested
an evasion of what they regarded the
most holy bound of human society.
ut Is by guarding against civic vice
that we the more appreciate and know
and attain civic virtue. Let US see that
our hearts are not scared with ambition 8
flame, that our motives are pure ard
sweet, that our strivings are stripped of
selfish dross, that our pillow OF clou'i
and fire Is the fixed purpose to reprove
chicanery in politics, that VIC I've and
do to make other lives brighter, broader
ana better and exemp,lfy in our lives
the possibilities If success by purity in
public and private life, ard a strict adj
herence to our religious beliefs May we
make Duty our Sovereign Qreen-dut;'
to self, to family and to frienGs; duty
to every social and business relation and
religious tenet; outy to our neighbor. TO
our fellow townsmen. and to our political
faith; and duty to all Of these will be
duty to the interests of the whole peo-
pie of our Safe. These thu voices, these
the watchwords whose behests we must
heed IN fighting the battle of good cit
izenship that must surely confront eacn
life.
Ard rsmeml or this that when self IL
I crest and aggrandizc r.'tnt is held above
| right ard justice, personal liberty is not
safe"