Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1904-12-24

to fulfill our simple duties and exercise
elementary justice. In general. those
who lose their souls do SO not because
they fail to rise to difficult duty, but
because they neglect to perform that
which Is simple. Let us illustrate this
truth
He who tries to penetrate into the
humble underworld of society is not
slow to discover great misery, physical
and moral. And the closer he looks
the greater number OF unfortunates
does he discover, till in the end this
assembly Of the wretched appears to.
him like a great black world, in whose
presence the individual and his means
OF relief are reduced to helplessness.
1t is true that lie feels impelled to run
to the succOr of these unfOrtunates,
but at the same time he asks himself,
What is the user The case is GER
tainly heartrending. Some, in despair,
end by doing nothing. They lack
neither pity nor good intention, but
these bear no fruit. They are wrong.
Often a man has not the means to do
good on a large scale, but that is not
q reason for failing to do It at all. So
many people absolve themselves from
any action on the ground that there is
too much to do, They should be re-
called to simple duty, and this duty
In the case Of which We speak is that
each one. according to his resources,
leisure and capacity, should create re-
lations for himself among the worlds
disinherited. There are people who by
the exercise of a little good will have
succeeded I'm enrolling themselves
among the followers of ministers and
have ingratiated themselves with
princes. Why should you not succeed
in forming relations with the poor and
in making acquaintances among the
workers who lack somewhat the ne
cessities OF life? When few families
are known. with their histories, their
antecedents and their difficulties, you
may be of the greatest use TO them by
acting the part of n brother with
the moral and material aid that is
yours To give. II is true you will have
attacked only one little corner but
you will have done what you could
and perhaps have led another on to
follow you. Instead of stopping at
the knowledge that much wretched
ness. hatred. disunion and vice exist
in society you will have introduced
little good among these evils. And by
however slow degrees such kindness as
yours is emulated the good will sensi-
bly, increase and the evil diminish.
Even We're you TO remain alone in this
undertaking you would have the as
surance that in fulfilling the duty.
plain as a child's. which offered itself
you were doing the only reasonable
thing. If you have felt 1T so. you have
found out one Of the secrets OF right
living.
In its dreams mans ambition en-
braces vast limits. but il is rarely Civ
en- us to achieve great things. and even
then a quick and sure success always
rests on n groundwork of patient prep
aration. Fidelity in small things Is at
the base OF every great achievement.
We too often forget this, and yet no
truth needs more to be kept in mind,
particularly in the troubled eras of his
tory and in the crises of individual life.
In shipwreck a splintered beam, an
oar. any scrap OF wreckage, saves us.
On the tumbling waves q life. when
everything seems shattered to frag-
ments. let us not forget that single
one OF these poor bits may became our
plank Of safety. To despise the rem
nants is decentralization
You are a ruined man. or you are
stricken by a great bereavement, or,
again. you see the fruit of toilsome
years perish before your eyes You
cannot rebuild your fortune. rise the
dead. -recoYer YouI- lost toll. and in the