Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1907-02-20

the rich nor goin@ around with ch.ll
upon his shoulder.
And bless his simple, kindly soul,
that 10 Just what the glasses revealed
him to be, only the soul.inan that
stood out before me was simpler and
kindlier than their material expression
who lived and moved among us every
day.
was curious to see what sOrt Of q
man the postmaster really was. He
was a typical politician and an ardent
partisan, knew that much already.
put on the glasses when went to
the post Office the next morning At
first l couldn't see anything at all and
began to wonder II 1t was really true
that politicians didn't have any souls
But finally saw, away down beneath
the surface, tiny mannikip gazing In
awe at the unusual spectacle Of what
appeared to be a globe Of fire appear
ing, revolving and disappearing around
another human figure. Then 1t dawned
upon me that the phenomenon was the
sun rising and setting around the pres
ident.
Next to preacher and politician,
thought the glasses would work well
with lawyer. | tried them on the
prosecuting attorney who was just
then engaged In making fight on the
railroads in the matter of grade cross
ings and back taxes. The Hon. George
W. Martin was a mixture of both the
preacher and the politician. AS a
preacher, he acclaimed loudly against
the avarice which sacrificed human
lives to the greed for gold and COM
PEELED the laboring man to pay twice
as much in proportion on his little
home as the big corporations did on
their holdings, which had been origin
ally givtN to them by the people. The
lawyer inside the lawyer was consid-
ering an offer to become the local
counsel for the corporations he had
been fighting so hard. Through the
glasses | saw him smile and pigeon
hole the grade crossing and tax suits.
l tried the glasses on tramp ran
across and the effect was startling.
The bleared, bloated, dirty features
fell away as looked and a new man,
a wretched, unfortunate man, lay
PROSTATE under heavy load that was
holding him down, while thousand
feet were kicking him as he lay and a
thousand hands were showing him far
Their and farther into the mire The
mire was adversely and the hands and
feet belonged to the world, which is,
individually, people and, collectively
Fate!
Just for curiosity l looked at the
plumber and the iceman when they
happened to meet at my house-mis-
fortunes never come singly, you know.
| could see only shadowy shapes, with
bullying pockets at the sides and cav
ernous grins where the heads should
have been. The milkman was what he
appeared to be-a harmless, we'll
meaning chap, but he had big bunch
of water on the brain.
Finally l decided to put the glasses
to the final and crucial test. would
look at my wife through them! 1t was
a little underhanded to take such an
advantage of her but then man ought
to understand his own wife, if such
a thing was possible. He ought to
know, for her sake as much as his
own, whether she is really the fluffy,
dainty, sweet little thing she appears,
or whether she doesn't do her soul up
in curl papers when she is alone and
doesn't sometimes wear an old intel
lectual wrapper.
To my amazement, could see abso-
lutely nothing when 1 lookedf at her.
There was an utter blank. The glasses
had reached their ne plus ultra, They
refused even to consider the task
had set them.
Then for the first time l looked at
the whole matter in new light. What
had appeared to me as desideratum
of the first water became involved in =,
difficulties. What l thought would
bring clearer insight, and withEit wis
dom, degenerated into huge provoca-
tion to distruSt and engage in fist
fights. ! came to the conclusion that
1t would be mere 1atuous folly to intro
duce any such eontrivance into the
community The whole town would be
by the ears in a day. Our simple,
fairly decent little life would become
a Russian riot, FIRE at the Five
Points, Japanese treaty demonstra-
ton, a Kilkenny cat fight and a Don
neybrOok fair rolled into one: tremen-
dous, seething, snaEi8ng rough house.
My secret should pass away and |
would try to forget 1t. l would pre-
serve what was left of my own little
illusions and have compassion upon
the world. With sudden gesture /
hurled the glasses to- the floor and set |
my foot upon them.
MY wife returned home from church