The Caldwell tribune., 1905-11-04

/ UtSk SlHce ADAM tried to shirk rC.
sponslbtltty for an undiscriminatinu
appetite for apples by laying the onus
or the wrong on Ewes shoulders man
mas been tempting the laughter Of the
gods by attempting the impossible in
the same way. He is always trying to
saddle blame on ''the other fellow" II
Is proclivity Of the whole race to
save their face by laying the blame
OF their failures on somebody else or
something else. It does not much mat
Ter what 1t may be. They will lay It
on anything from garden worm UP to
the Almighty, and do it with an air Of
insisting that others must believe them
and even that they believe 1t them
selves. 1t crops out in all sorts Of
plnees and ways. If you have a friend
VINO Is given to strong drink YOU can
never persuade him that he is in any
Danger, that he cannot "qutt any time
ne wants to-" and especially that it IS
MS own fault when he finds himself
mistaken in the other two particu-
lars. He will glibly lay the blame on
the dram seller, though he knows as
s"eil az he knows anything that there
would not be any dram sellers If there
We're no dram buyers. Or he will sad
die the blame on somebody who temnt-
ed him with diabolical knowledge uf
the pest moment to do so or on some
oody who angered him--his wife. very
likely. If he be one who comes to grief
In all his business ventures he can al
ways furnish a scapegoat other than
h1mself. More than likely he will lay
blame on some friend who refused to |
lend him a few dollars just when good
fortune needed only the bribe of those
collars to determine her to Jump into
MS embrace. He will never admit
that the refusal was because the friend
dld not nave the dollars, still less that
MS own deeds had justly convinced
the friend that these dollars If loaned
would follow the others into the limbo
OF ghost dollars. Men in masses are
ike individuals. When those intrust-
eel with public affairs botch them hope
lessly or, 1ntrusted with public money,
grart 1t into their own pleasures or
gains the voters always Insist that all
the blame should be laid on these
weak vessels. They will never admit
That the primary fault was their own I
n not knowing or caring enough about I
what kind of men they trusted. From
ne dawn of their schoolboy days, r
when they were forever trying to get
Ome other boy punished for thair nnis-
leeds, they display industry and tngen- I
lity In laying blame on somebody else +
nat, II expended in doing what they {
now in their hearts is duty, would a
AVE brought a fair measure of sue y
ess. When cornered beyond their in @
enuity to escape they may plead '
uilty If they think they can thereby 8
scape the penitentiary or hanging, but G
arely or never otherwise. And vet
very one of us ought to know that in q
ne last analysis no mothers son of us II
an really escape the law universal of "
ause and effect. In very truth we do v
now 1t, as men and women, as busi- h
ess men, as voters and every other
Use, and yet we are forever wasting ej
reath In trying to wriggle away from Il
lie law. II we could simply translate 81
lat knowledge into habttual action II
etter conditions would come of them n,
siVes. AS whole this may be be- tc
ond our mortal reach, but precisely in d,
roportion as we approximate it will "
e promote betterment for all. W