Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1903-01-17
By CHARLES N. SHELDON.
Author Of 4" His Step" Robert ardys Seven Day." Etc.
Copyright, 1901, by Charles NJ. Sheldon

cut across every principle of my life,
every conviction that has ever prompt
ed me to be of use in the world"
Rufus Gordon finally spoke after his
son had been silent long time.
"We've been over all this more or
less before. I hoped your trip abroad
would take some of your foolishness
out Of you. 1t seems it hasn't. Well,
what do you expect to do?''
The question was blunt It was more
it was brutal
John Gordon rose and began walk
ing up and down. His father sat look
Ing at him coldly, but curiously, as if
studying some peculiar cllara cteristic
that for the first time had begun to af.
feet him.
Father" John Gordon finally ex.
claimed, you will never understand
my choice. l wondered all the way
home whether it was worth While to
try to explain myself. But you have
right to know why refuse Your offer
and why l make choice of the career
must follow
Rufus Gordon gave no sign Of assent,
but his son went on speaking with
growing feeling that at times rose into
genuine passion; yet at no point did he
lose control of himself either in voice
or in manner.
II am not judging you, father, when
l say that life that is content to ex-
pend its greatest energies in money
making is life that has not only no
attractions for me, but it has positive
repulsion. TO spend the day in COM
petitive strife that seeks to get more
and more, largely at the expense of
!; the weak and helpless; to spend night
after night in dressing up in fine cloth
ing and being amused, to live only with
those select companions who are able
to dress and eat as we'll as we are, to
be practically ignorant Of and abso-
lutely Indifferent to the conditions Of
thousands of human beings in this
great city, to have no ideals higher
than commercial standard and no
passions beyond the physical appe-
tites-al this is a growing horror to
: me. We live in a beautiful house.
John Gordon glanced around the room.
which was furnished with elegance
j and great good taste. with only here
! and there suggestion of barbara
, lapse into the vulgarity Of over display.
''We have servants, carria ges, yachts,
; summer Observation-Disclosures of all de-
scriptions. Out of all the wealth OF
! our lives we give a fraction of income
! to so called charity. We are all three
of us church members. We pay a large
| sum nominally to church expenses.
We do not give anything of our per-
sonal lives or personal enthusiasm to
| church or Christian work. The whole
of our family life has revolved about
ourselves-our eating. dressing, enter.
tanning and money making. What
| have we ever done for this city where
we live? How much of service pre-
scnting real sacrifice have we ever
given to help solve any Of its real hui
man problems? We live from day tc
day as if there were no such thing in
America as poverty or intemperance
or injustice or inequality or greed OF
child murder. The wealth that buys
things seems to be our daily god. The
prayers we say in church have no
meaning because we do not mean
them. The very charity we dispense
is an act of proxy which represents no
| thought, no sacrifice and no human
affection. We give because it is Gus
tomary or as a means of silencing God
pity usD our waking consciences that
in spite of US sometimes remind US
that there is a human brotherhood.
| DAY after day, with monotonous
treadmill regularity, follows one func-
ton after neutrality-suspicious., teas.
theaters, concerts, gayeties, self. self.
self-while the city grows up in it's po-
litical life, rotten, vile, uncared for by
the money grubbers so long as too
much blackmail is not levied on the
business in which we are enga ged.
Prac tically we have said all these
years to this city, where our money
has been made: We care nothing for
! your real life. All that we want out Of
| you is a living for ourselves, luxuri-
GUS living. Let the preachers and the
philanthropists and the professional
reformers see to all the painful and
disagreeable details of human misery
and social wrong. We are too busy
with our money making to be dis
turbed by cries for justice or righteous
! ness Father, you know this is the
| sort of life you plan for me to perpetu-
ate. Your ambition for me is to have
! me enter the bank, to become an ex-
pert in finance, to marry and manage
| a luxurious, proud, exclusive establish
ment and train my children to follow
on in the same path, keeping the name
Of the Gordons as social and fnan-
cial word to speak in the city and in
select circles as synonym for distin-
guished wealth and high breeding. I'M
mixed with any vulgar association
with common humanity. say such q
career fills me with horror. feel as IL
all these years had been living under
the condemnation Of an angry God,
and l cannot and will not any longer
live such a life. You have NO right to
ask me to do it. I have no right to ut
tempt it. IT. -. :. - -s.@. -
L.