The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-09-01
HEARTS STILL WARM
ACTS OF KINDNESS ARE DAILY
SEEN
The Pessimist Ought to Take His
Stand on the Corner and Watch the
Policeman-How>t the Druggist Works
Overtime for Nothing

Once in a while We meet a man who
is a thorough going pessimist. He
thinks the country is going to the dogs,
hearts are hard and nothing is right.
How any man who is observant and
keeps his eyes open as he goes about,
can take such a gloomy view of things,
is hard to understand. There is a
great deal of goodness and kindness
left in the world and if we do not find
it in our immediate surroundings, one
certainly cannot walk even three
squares down the street without
seeing some evidence of good will. If
you are inclined to take a depressing
view of things go to some prominent
street corner and take UP your stand
for an hour and see if what you OBJ
serve around you does not revive your
faith in humanity. There stands a big
policeman in the street and in him
alone you will find a great deal that is
encouraging. He is put there to pre-
serve the peace and TO save life if nee
essary. But if you stand at your post
long enough you will discover that
what he is obliged to do is about one
tenth of what he does. He will guide
timid old ladies safely across the
street. answer silly as well as sensible
questions, point the way to strangers,
and, more than that will go into the
nearest drug store and look for names
and addresses in the directory, carry
little children across, drag a small dog
from under carriage wheels, see fair
play between two -belligerent news
boys and do a thousand things which
are toe numerous to mention. Now it
must be remembered that the larger
part of what he does comes from sheer
good nature
Then if you watch the street cars
coming and going at that corner, you
VIII discover that with all the multi
tudlnous duties Of the conductor he
Will find time to help the old ladies
into the car and lift the babies down.
lie VIII answer questions, wait a long
time for a lame boy who can't get
along quickly. and find time to make
the selfish man who covers two seats
move UP and give little girl a seat.
Even the motorman will slow down to
save the life of a cat that is proceed
ing leisurely across the track.
IhlS peSSImIStlc man can see, if he
Keeps his eyes open, hurried pedes-
TRANS stop and go a square out of their
way TO show some stranger the right
street, or stop to pick up the spilled
contents of a basket some child is car
rying.
If the grumbler has not seen enough
by this time to convince him that the
well springs of kindness are not dried
up, let him enter the drug store and
watch the proprietor. One wonders If
anybody ever stops to think of what
we expect of druggist for nothing.
He stops some important work to sell
2-cent stamp, upon which he not
only makes nothing, but loses time, or
to inform some one she can use the
telephone and he waits fifteen minutes
to transact his own business while the
giggling girl asks Name" why she
hasn't been up" Then when an ac-
cident occurs in the street the injured
man is carried into the drug store and
the proprietor furnishes medicines and
bandageS, blocks his business for an
hour and all for nothing. And he does
everything with a pleasant smile. 1t is
safe to say that a druggist is one of
the most put upon men in the world.
But did you ever hear him complain?
Then if the pessimiSt takes a car
home he will see some men paying the
fare of an old woman whose transfer
is not good, and other men rising to
let tired-looking women sit down. for
there is a good deal of this sort of
thing done yet even though some men
have rebelled.
Now if that grabbed old man hasn't
a better opinion of humanity than he
had, if he does not withdraw some of
his accusations against the mass Of
people, then he must be very cross
s1g:ned Old man indeed.