Danville intelligencer. [volume] (Danville, Pa.) 1859-1907, 1907-02-01
DO A LITTLE
THINKING.

The ancient admonitlon, "Think
twice before you speak once" was a
mighty good one in the good cd days
when people gave heed to it, hack
neyed and out of date though some
people of today may consider it. 1t
has lost none of its merit through dis
use and neglect. 1t does appear,
though, that in the rush and hurry of
the affairs of this day and generation,
most people have entirely lost sight of
the good advice, or if they ever gave
it ear, have allowed the scramble of
the hour for things material and i'm
material to drive it entirely out of mind
There is evidence on every hand and
to be met with every day, that not
only have many people put aside the
sage counsel of the fathers, but have
actually abandoned and forgotten the
good fashion of thinking even once,
or of thinking at all, not only before
speaking but before acting. For the
ancient and safe habit of thought,
they have substituted impulse or in
ctination, or something even worse.
Proof of this is found every day IN
the worlds current history-in af-
fairs of public importance and in
private conduct. The columns of the
newspapers are a constant record of
things done that would have been left
undone if the doers had only
THOUGHT before acting. There
are equally convincing proofs of this
new fault of not thinking to be found
IN the things left undone until it is
too late to do them, simply for the
lack of thought. There is not the
least doubt in the world that Gov.
Swettenham would not now be ''sweat-
ing blood" under the world condem-
nation if he had thought only once,
let alone twice, before he said the
things he so rashly and so brashly
said to the American naval officer
who was bending every energy to re-
lieve the sutferings and distress of the
victims of the Kingston earthquake.
There is no possible room for doubt
that Thaw would not now be on trial
for his life if he had given but half
thought to the subject before he sent
a bullet crashing into the brain of his
victim. 1t is a certainty that if Ben
Tillman had done a little honest
thinking he would not have tried to
do Il vaudeville stunt befor the august
and awful body of which he is a mem
ber, by liberation of the people of
South Carolina-who, be it said in
passing, appear to have lost the habit
Of thinking, Judging by the fact that
they keep him in the Senate. 1t is
barely possible that the people who
were so active against the institutions
for which the "people's papers"
speak, spend a good deal of time
wishing they had thought not only
twice but MANY LONG, LONG
THOUGHTS before doing the things
they did. It's thousand to-one shot
that the fraud order fanatics realize,
if they are capable of anything so
honest, that they would much better
have done some genuine thinking in
connection with their deeds and
duties" before they did so much ar
rogant talking and tyrannical acting.
And it is an equally safe bet that
they are. doing, and will do some real
downright hard thinking before they
get through with the fight they are
having with the Common" people
TO think is a start in the right
direction, and long step; and it will
not take very many such steps to turn
the people of the entire country back
to the good old fashion of THINK
ING. 1t may be necessary, to keep
up with the rush of events, to do this
thinking little quicker than in the
days of stage coaches and stogy boots,
but the thinking will be of all the
better quality for that; and the world
will be saved from half the wantOn
wickedness that is pointed to by socio-
logists as proof of the decadence of
the human race. To suit the times,
let us all try to learn to think once
while we are acting, if not twice be-
fore we speak. We will be better
men and women by so doing, and the
world will be better and not worse for
pur baiucr in II