Williston graphic. (Williston, Williams County, N.D.) 1895-1919, 1902-03-13
THE LOVE OF HuMBuc.
Philosophical Renaarks ON . Curious
Trait Of Human Nature and an
Odd Character

| OWV SooEACNC1s
The late Gen. Neff seems to have
discovered early in life that the love
of humbug is innate in the race. By
listening to two children when they
think they are alone anyone may
make the discovery which finally
brought disaster to Gen. Neff: But"
the younger child will say, 'It's
not that way" Never mind" the
older one will reply, ''we'll play it's
that way" Then for the next hour
they will be happy in an enchanted
world of their own, playing that
things which are not that way are ex-
actly the way they want them. In
one way or another they are likely to
go on doing this all their ives-per-
haps at rarer and rarer intervals
after they are 40, but even then occa-
sionally. When they grow too tired
to play for themselves through the
use of their own imaginations,
they will expend from rs cents to 50
in buying work of fiction in which
some ingenious person uses his imag-
ination to do their playing for them.
says the St. Louis Globe-Democrat.
Gen. Jeff was an ingenious person
with an active Imagination, which he
put at the service of anyone who
showed the least inclination to play
that things which are not so will
turn out the way we want them. He
was tall, dignified man, with be-
nevolent countenance, gray hair, a
silk hat and kind smile. He also
had great fund of politeness and a
mildly deprecating manner, which he
reserved for emergencies. He was
passing through one of these emer-
gencies the last time he visited St.
Louis. 1t was, in fact, not only an
emergency, but crisis, for, in spite
of his benevolence, his kind smile and
his silk hat, he was being searched in
front Of the bar of the police station,
under the direction of sergeant,
on whom he was exhausting the re-
sources of his politeness and his dep
recating manner. He was just assur-
ing everyone of how much the mis-
take made in treating him with such
indignity would finally be regretted,
when from a private pocket some
where on the inside of his frock coat
the officer extracted what seemed to
be large roll of money. THAT"
said the officer, ''is his bundle"
When Gen. Neff, who used only
the choicest English, heard this
coarse expression, he was shocked
into silence. He said nothing as the
sergeant unrolled the bills and
showed that the whole interior of
what appeared to be a competence
was composed of brown paper. "Take
him down." said the sergeant. "Good-
night, gentlemen!" said Gen. Neff.
On looking into Gen. Neff's private
history, found that he had spent his
life-or at least the professional part
of tin convincing other people,
many of them entire strangers to
him, that he had been sent by Provi-
dence to reward their merits by maxi
ing all the things they had been play
ing turn out to be so in an incred-
IDLY short time. He appeared to them
as the enchanter or the good genius
appeared in the fairy tales of their
youth. In half an hour after his first
meeting with farmer who had come
to the city to economize in buying his
supplies he would show him a way to
raise his mortgage and have enough
left in the bank to build q modern
house in place OF the old farmhouse.
Many other things of this kind he
could do-so many that he came tc
be known as the most "expert conf
dence man" of his generation, man
of many names and many cities, but
always with a benevolent counte.
nance and kind smile which never
left him even when he was being
locked up.
Gen. Neff kept his mental reserva-
tons wrapped up inside the genuine
bills along with the brown paper they
concealed and so ended by becoming
q confidence man instead of really
benevolent enchanter. If a man is
really benevolent and really an en-
chanter, he may. be of great use in
the world, but the most benevolent
man ever knew stopped the attempt
at enchantment very early in life. He
also had gray hair and a kind smile, but
if had gone to him in the hope that
he would advise me in the way I
wished to be advised, knew he would
have told me ito do the thing never
liked, which is the thing I ought"
Outside of the beautiful world of the
enchanted humbug, there is another
world in which he lived for more than
half century. Perhaps it took him30
years in it to learn the kind of smile
ne had during the 20 years knew
him best, but however he got it, or
however long it took him to learn it,
he learned it by finding first, not
what was pleasant, but what was
true-not what he liked, but what he
ought. When things were not right
he did what he could to set them
right, instead of dreaming they would
come right, but think he spent most
of his life in setting himself right,
and that he acquired his kind smile IN
doing it. And so he had peace at
last"
Caulinower, Partisan Style.
Boil a goodsized caulifiower until
tender, chop it coarsely and press it
hard in a mold or bowl, so that it |
will keep it's form when turned out;
put the shape thus made upon dish
that will stand the heat and pour
over IT q tomato sauce Make this |