Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-08-23
Sunday Morning Talk.


The StreakS in Human Nature.
How often when you inquire about a
man you elicit some such response as
this: HE is pretty good fellow. but
there are one or two streaks In him. =
Then you are forced to discount little
from the favorable opinion which you
might otherwise have cherished. Prob
ably we all have streaks, and the only
difference between is that some of us
have learned to conceal them or to over
lay them with virtues and graces so that
the streaks are not discernible to the
average onlooker. Now and then a GER
tain kind of a streak in a man gives
pungency to his personality and you like
him all the better for it, but. as a rule.
streaks mar the symmetry OF man S
character and impair his influence. There
is A. for example: he has streak of
vanity. He is pretty able fellow. but
he knows it and he let's other people know
that he knows it, He expects you to COM
plment him on his new clothes or his
recent athletic achievement or his last
book. He projects himself in the field OF
public vision little oftener than the
truly modest man does.
BIS streak is senstiveneSs. You can
hurt him. oh, so easily! His patient
parents and considerable friends have
learned to respect his thin skin: but IL
promscuously with the crowd and is ex-
posed to the darts and arrows that fly
about when people talk freely with one
another He winces alike under attack or
under neglect.
c is of a very different makeup. He
is not sensitive enough to the dictates of
propriety. He does not realize when he
passes the boundary line between merry
making and rostering. He is too fond
of SHADY" stories his streak is coarse
fTpnlPntIE
dent to the pain of those who like him
best.
The streak i'm ID takes the form of in
tolerance and narrowness. He Is SO set In
his own opinions-and these are often
based on a very narrow induction OF
facts-that he has small use for the man
in the other party, the other denomna-
ton, the other country. He sees truth
only from one angle. He will not give to
foreign missions because. forsOoth, he
happens to know q secretary of mis-
sionary society who lives In a handsome
house and who. he thinks, ought not to go
round pleading for funds unless he occu-
pies modest cottage In the poorer part
Of the city.
Els streak is cynicism. Bit by bit he
bites off the reputation of other people.
He puts the worst Interpretation upon
other mems motives and actions The
sky is seldom anything but gray to his
vision, and If it happens to be bright he
looks upon the day as weather breed
err a sure forerunner of a storm tomor-
row.
So we might go on to designate the
streaks that belong respectively to +, q,
II and the other people in the neighbor-
hood: but enough have been portrayed
to, make our point namely. that streaks
are, as their name implies. disfigurements
of otherwise worthy characters. Most OF
the streaked people are at heart essential
Iy sound They belong to the respectable
portion of the community. They are usu-
ally to be held in honor in spite of their
defects and we who have to deal with
''streaked'' people need to regard their
underlying stability and worth and not
rule them out of our friendship because
they seem to us lacking in this or that
desirable trait.
For what are we that we should be too
censorious. Peter Cartwright was once
asked if he were sanctified: Yes" was
his laughing reply. ''in spots" In every
one of us there are regions OF personal
life yet unconquered by noble ideals. Let
us not look upon the streaks of others SO
much as upon our own If so be we have
them, in order that discovering them we
may remove them forever from us.
THE PARSON.