Sharp County record., 1907-03-15

him to be, only the SOul-man tLdl
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
man the postmaster really was. he
was typical politician and an ardent
partisan, l knew that much already.
I put on the glasses when | went to
the post office the next morning. Al
first couldn't see anything at all ana
; | 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,
thought the glasses would work well
with a 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 a mixture OF both the
preacher and the politician. AS a
preacher, he declaimed 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 beared, bloated, dirty features
fell away as | looked and 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
thousand hands were showing him far
ther 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 I 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
bulgng pockets at the sides and cav
ernous grins where the heads should
have been. The milkman was what he
appeared to be-a harmless, well.
meaning chap, but he had big bunch
of water on the brain,
Finally | 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
advantage Of her but then man ought
to understand his own wife, II such
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 | looked 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 | looked at
the whole matter in new light. What
had appeared to me az desideratum
Of the first water became involved In
difficulties. What thought would
bring clearer insight, and with II wis
dom, degonerated into a huge proyoca
tlon to dlstrust and engage In fist
fights, came to the conclusion that
IL would be mere fatuous folly to intro
duco any such eontrlyanee into the
community The whole town would be
by the ears In day, Our simple
fairly decent little life would become
Russian riot, fire at the Five
Points, Japanese treaty domonstra
tlon, q Kilkenny cat fight and Don
noybrook fair rolled into one tremen
dous, seething snarllng rough house,
: My secret should pass away and
would try to forget It. I would pre-
serve what was left Of my own little
illusions and have compassion upon
the world, With q sudden gesture
hurled the glasses to the floor and SET
my foot upon them
|, My wife returned homo from church
!, at that moment and gave mo the
!, laugh for falling asleep over my stupid
/, experiments and breaking my glasses
, | smiled shoepishly, ! knew ! was at.
, tempting the impossiblo know that