News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1903-01-28

~
The last one tonight. ! usually wind
it up about half past TO-"
David, have you consulted a doc
tori"
Not today"
"Any time?"
"Certaiuly."
'What does be saw"
Just what you and Harris say. Quit
work and go to Colorado | can't.
Don't bother about it. won't go,
that's all. I've begun to get attached
to the cough, it has shown such an af-
lection for me-"
He Strengthened up and laughed at
the look in his friends face. Gordon
was only partly assured.
'It will kill you"
First time anything ever did"
You have no right to neglect it."
Neglect it? Don't nurse it day and
night? No cough ever had better care
than mine. l give it the best the patent
medicine show Affords"
1T viii be the death of you"
"Ail right" Barton said cheerfulIy.
"Rather die from my cough than from
n stupid. thoughtless trolley car. BY
the way John, did you ever think of
the difference between being run over
by a horse and wagon and an auto
mohile?"
II never gave it much thought"
More people get run over by auto
mobiles than by horses, so the facts
show. You see a man can dodge a
horse because he-thr horSe-is alive.
But an automobile Let's change the
subject Give me your programme"
"NIy programme"
"NorT programme as q refOrmer.
What are you going to do? What lies
in your mind? john David Barton
swiftly changed from the careless, flip
pant manner he had assumed over his
physical condition, and John Gordon
instantly knew the friend who loved
him was talking now out Of his great
serious heart. John, if you are really
going to try to make the old world bet
ter you've held out your arm to a wres-
tier who will give you the struggle of
your life. | want to help. | don't be-
lieve it will amount to anything-the
struggle, l mean. And maybe not the
help either. But tell me your hearts
desire"
well, then" John Gordon answered,
while his whole expression gloWed
with his real deep religious enthusi-
assn and pride that swept his thought
even of Lucia Marsh out of existence,
Il have a programme First, l plan to
live at Hope House as long as | can be
of use there or as long as l can from
that place in the city learn the city. 1t
may be five years it may be ten. If
it is ten, l shall be only forty. A man
cannot do much public work worthy of
the name until he is forty"
"History and biography say other
wise but never mind" muttered Bar
ton. GO on
My plans of course do not cover
possibilities that may come into my
experience at the end of my residence
in Hope House. But l have dreamed
of many things. l don't mean book
knowledge, but live, personal knowl-
edge of people. Not the kind that
makes a man a professor of sociology
in the university, but the kind that
makes a man want to change bad laws
or make good ones; the kind of knOwl-
edge of people that Paul had when he
said, Woe is me if l preach not the
gospel the kind of knowledge of peo-
pie that compels a man to see in every
other man a universe of eternal value
and eternal happiness"
"There are mighty few people in this
city that think of ndOwn-at-the-heel
humanity after that fashion," muttered
Barton again. Then after silence he
asked:
who's against you in all this?"
Selfish greed, ecclesiastical pride in
the churches, political rottenness in the
city management, cynical Indifference
on the part of cultured men and wOm-
en-, whisky, yellow press, business in
terests wherever they touch financial
loss, if reform calls for sacrifice; for
eign born and foreign shaped classes,
but most of all the opposition of high
bred apathy which grows out of the
soil Of irreligion."
"And who is on your side?" Barton
asked almost mechanically, in a low
tone.
"God, all good men and women in the
churches, and there are many; rising
sentiment among young men against |
municipal partisanship, gradually ris-
ing journalism which in time will de-
mand the extinction of yellow journal |
ism, which is an eXcrescence that car
Fies in large measure it's own destruc-
tfon, and a rising tide Of popular pas
sion against the saloon as an institu-
ton and for more equal opportunities
in the field of struggle for human hap
piness"
"You left out the largest item in the
list of forces against reform"
"What's that?"
"The people themselves"
"Of course | realize that" John Cor
don replied slowly. But it was not |
the people that crucified Jesus. 1t was
the scribes and Pharisees."
"The people yelled, Cruelty him!"
"The rabble, you mean"
"Whats the difference"
81 don't know exactly, but the rabble |
Is not the people"
"Mighty fine distinction" Barton |
oo,,reo yc,, anp,4