The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-04-27
UNCLE sILAs. HE SAYS.
You Have Got to Believe in Mankind to
Be Happy.


(By M. QUAD.
My son, let me own up at the start
that I am nothing but a crustya cid
crank, who wouldn't believe in the av-
erage man further than I could sling a
yearling calf by the tail. But if 1 had
my life to live over again would begin
by believing everything good of every
body. I'd keep on trusting human ma
ture until my last cent had gone, and I
was on my way to the poor house. YOU
have got to do it to be happy. You
have got to do it. even, to get a fair
amount of sleep and have an appetite
for corn-beef.
In my halcyon days I knew a great
man. That is, he was great for a vii
lage of four hundred people. He
bOssed the Fourth of July, Christmas
and all Sunday school picnics. He Sc
Iected the school teachers, and had a
good deal to say as to what men should
be elected to office. When he gave his
opinion on any matter it was listened
to with awe and respect, and if his pre-
dictions as to the weather didn't al
ways come true, everybody was an
xiOus to find excuses for him. I rev.
erenced that man. A pat on the
shoulder from him seemed to add two
inches to my height.
We all learned after a time@after
he had ben sent to the legislature
that he sold his vote for $500 in cash
1t wasn't so much that I lost all re-
spect for him and stoned his dog
whenever / got the chance, but I got
to believing that there wasn't an hon
est man in the whole legislature.
may have been pretty near right in my
belief, but at the same time it was a
cause of unhappiness. I'd have given
months of my life not to have heard
the story-to have gone right on think
ing that our village held George Wash
ington No. 2.
1 started out believing that all mer-
chants were honest. They sold me
half-cotton for wool; they sold me
goods that faded in the wash; they
cheated me in weighing my butter, and
cheated again in selling me tea had
to cheat in turn to get even, but felt
a degradation over It. l wanted to be
honest. but it was forced upon me that
I should always get the worst of 1t.
know that If I set out today to buy a
suit Of clothes there will be a cheat in
it somewhere and that the seller viii
expect me to work a bogus half-dollaI
off on him If I can.
I couldn't see any reason when ]
made my first horse trade why Dea-
con Sharpster shouldn't give me g
square deal. I had the next pew back
of him. had known him for years, and
was once almost engaged to his eldest
/ daughter. I had such confidence in his
/ integrity that took his word for it
and as a consequence found myself the
! owner of a blind and spawned horse
/ When spoke to the deacon about It
| thinking he must have made a mistake
lie ItptiSQ titet TX lle4u SApSCt6O me x
beat him if I could I afterward goi
a kicking COW off on him, and he had
/ his leg broken by kick. but I felt nc
satisfaction over it. I wanted to think
of him as standing up in his pew and
pitching the tune Of sRock OF Ages
and looking an honest, upright mar
clear down to his toes
I started out to believe in the light
ning-rod man. When he came along
and told me that rods on my house
barn and cider mill would make them
/ perfectly safe against lightning, I saw
truth shining in his eyes. Even after
/ lightning had knocked the stuhlng out
/ of all three buildings believed in him
l It was only when a. professor demon-
| strated that a broomstick perched aIof