Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1906-10-26


"He is not worth two plnches of salt.
can never make man out OF him.
He Is always idllng his time away with
some study. I send him down into
the fields To pillow. and as soon as din
ner time comes he opens his tin pail
and book ut the same time and then
begins to read. Then he forgets every
thing but his book. I am just as liable
to find him there reading an hour later
as not" No. farmer. you will never
make man out OF that boy IL your
definition or n man Is to be hedged In
by a cabbage patch. That boy has
higher visions OF life than planting
corn. He is dreaming. He Is looking
ahead to the time when, as a minister
OF the gospel. he shall save men for
Christ, or when as a physician he can
relieve the pain OF the fevered brow,
or when as n lawyer he can defend an
innocent man In the clutches OF the
law. Through the disorder OF corn
crib he sees the work which God Is
calling him to take up.
Not n Losfer.
"You miserable, lazy loeferw cried
the peasants angry wife TO the stran-
ger brooding ut her fireside. did I
not tell thee I would give thee thy
dinner if thou wouIdst watch that IL
did not get burned? Now by thy neg
ligence thou hast spoiled everything"
IT'S true that the man who was ait
ting BY the PEASANTS fire had neglect
ed the task the peasants wife set him
to DO, but was he lazy. contemplate
loafer? That man was the fugitive
king of the English throne. That man
was Alfred the Great. He may have
been blind to the operation of the peas
ants fire, but those smolderng embers
suggested the dream of the flame of
liberty he was soon to ignite. He was
dreaming, like Moses, of the people he
was to lead and the country he was
to rule and the mighty kingdom he
was to establish. which would be ref
uge to all the downtrodden who would
come TO its shores. Do not grumble,
. wife, because thy husbands thoughts
are sometimes winging their flight a
thousand miles away. Do not com
plain, o mother. because that daugb-
ter is neglectful of the little things
when she is reaching up for the higher.
When Cardinal Chigi told the great
Cardinal de Retz that for three years
he had done all his writing with one
pen and the pen was still as good as
new, Cardinal de Retz came TO the con-
clusion that his brother cardinal was
n man of very small mental caliber. NY
friends, In your mental life live for
something higher than the point of
frrrO cfrf
necessary, your study iato very bed
lam of confusion. BY thy upheavals
seek for a new mental cosmos. Re-
member the broad sweep of the Solo
monte proverb, Where no oxen are. the
crib is clean, but much increase Is by
the strength of the OK"
1t is only the ignorant, the stupid.
the slothful. the stagnating mind, that
Is satisfied with its present conditions.
Progress is not like swamp, with
fetid air and surface OF slime. There
everything is still and quiet. True men,
tai progress is like the commotion and
disordered waters of n brook. There
the waters are pure and sweet, because
one moment they are tumbling over a
cascade, the next they are being dash
ed into foam against some bowlder
and the next they are as waterfall
leaping over some cliff. They are never
still. They are always moving, always
readjusting themselves to new condi-
tons.
AS note the restless councillors of
the individual mind, so / note also The
restless conditions OF the social world
and the conflict of the classes against
the masses. The socalistlc upheavals
or the present time are not n sign that
our present governmental life is to be
destroyed. They are n sign. aud a sure
sign, that out OF these upheavals there
shall come forth better truth. a bet.
ter honesty. n purer social life. How
many wrongs there are to be righted
on both sides! Capital. with its vast
resources and machinery. frequently
has more mercy upon its iron and steel
bars and its leather bands and its huge
pile drivers than upon the bone and
sinew and muscle OF its workmen.
capital does not say TO itself, How
much can i make these goods for and
sell them at fair rate OF profit, that
the people may buy them the cheapest
and yet I get a fair return for my
money!" No. Capital does not say that.
Capital says, How can make these
goods the cheapest and sell them the
dearest? How can l decrease my ex-
penses at home and yet sell at the
maximum price the needy people will
pay! All. there is something CONNER
ciaily wrong about such a condition as
that. Capital. by her own actions.
stands as confessed usurer and extor-
toner. Her motto often is, Squeeze
the last drop OF blood out OF the people.
Do not run business for fair COM
petence. but run IT to get every cent
OF profit out OF the human race that we
cam
Sins Of Capital and Labor.
On the other hand, Labor is lust as
cruel and selfish an extortioner as Cap
ital when she gets the chance. In n IA
nous bookstore of Chicago there was
one corner which went by the name of
Saints and Sinners" Books of all
creeds were placed there side by side.
There mfidel and atheist and minister
would sometimes meet for quiet chat
in Monday symposium. But I'm the
social world. taken as a whole. there
IRE no saints" Too often we find
both Capital and Labor robed In the
black garments OF selfishness instead
)r the white robes Of altruism. Their
MOTTO becomes. not Live and let live"
but Live ourselves and get all we can
1t the other mans expense" OF course
am not now talking of the capitalist
md the laborer as individuals.
hes, Capital today cannot be proud
'f her past record. She has a heart Of