Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1907-03-28

~
| tleman of the cloth. But | was from
Missouri.
l was late for the service. but no
one noticed my unobtrusive entrance
l took a seat well to the rear and
looked at the minister though my I'M
aided eyes as he stood there at the
pulpit-a fine. manly, courageous. in
| dependent sort of fellow he appeared.
When he announced his text | thought
he must intend to give somebody some
hard k&cks.
Then l slipped the glasses upon my
nose.
Heavens! Was it a new minister
who had slid into the pulpit during the
instant / was wiping the glasses? This
man bore an outward resemblance to
the Rev. DR.. p. Founder but it was
only superficial. Ii was as if an inner
man, some astral shape, was shining
through the skeleton of the man we
knew. He looked to me like a sancti-
monious politician and saw the astral
fingers reach out and touch the pulses
of the wealthy and prominent men,
bers Of the congregation. When the
pulses beat angrily, or even futtered
uneasily, he qualified his denuncia-
tons of the purse-proud and uncharita-
BILE. He gave them just about as much
as they would stand, and when they
wouldn't stand any more he shifted
easily OF to the thriftlessness and in
temperance of the poor, which were
responsible for so much of their mis-
rather than tho harA hAo
of the rich. l saw the real man who
masked in the cloth and l wondered il
all preachers were like that. did not
believe they were.
/ determined to try the glasses on
the other minister In the town that
night He was not even outwardlv so
pompous and self-important as the
Rev. DR.. Founder. He appeared to be
simple, whole-souled little fellow.
fulfilling his part in the world mod
estly and effectively, preaching with.
out fear or favor, neither fawning upon
the rich nor going around with q chip
upon his shoulder.
And bless his simple, kindly soul,
that is Just what the glasses revealed
him to be, only the soul-man that
stood out before me was simpler and
kindlier than their material expression
who lived and moved among US every
day.
I was curious to see what sort of a
man the postmaster really was. He
was typical politician and an ardent
partisan, ] knew that much already
l put on the glasses when / went to
the post Office the next morning At
first couldn't see anything at all and
| began to wonder if it was really true
that politicians didn't have any souls.
But finally / saw, away down beneath
the surface, a tiny mannikin 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 it dawned
upon me that the phenomenon was the
sun rising and setting around the pres
ident.
Next to a preacher and politician, I
thought the glasses would work well
with lawyer. / tried them on the
prosecuting attorney who was just
then engaged in making a fight on the
railroads in the matter of grade cross
ings and back taxes. The Hon. George
w. Martin was 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 given 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.
tried the glasses on a 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 a 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 1 looked at the
plumber and the iceman when they
happened to meet at my house-mis-
fortunes never come singly. you know
l 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
little underhanded to take such an