Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1908-01-18

make a success. Then false mirrors
were held up TO deceive you. There
gathered about you u lot Of sycophants
and social vampires. These tOadies
praise you and fawn over you and flat
ter you. When they are away from
you they make fun Of you and talk
about your weaknesses. An old Span.
lsh proyerb says "'rhe absent are al
ways wrong" 80 you are always wrong
t. them when you are absent. But
when these hangers on are with you
they have nothing but words OF praise
for you aud your wonderful deeds
But, thank God. though there are many
who talk against you when you are abb
sent. there are n few noble friends who
will criticisc your faults to your face
They will come up ana lay their hands
lovingly on your shoulders aud say,
Charlie. would not do that" or
they say. Charlie. you have an evil
habit on you now. and 1t IS eating all
the honesty and nobility and purity
out OF your heart, and you must stop
or you will ruin yourself" You may
laugh of those warnings and forget
them or you may get angry at your
true friends. but the friends who are
lifting the looking glass before you and
showing your impcrfections nrc your
true friends VIII you heed these
warnings? Will you correct those
weaknesses Of your character Are all
the glorious opportunities of your life
TO be ruined by that one flaw IN your
nature which your friends have point
ed out. but which you neglect TO rec
tlfy?
But there is another rejecting mirror
held mp before our eyes That Is the
mirror with which our enemies delight
TO show our delinqucncics TO ourselves
and 60 the world II is a mirror into
which most OF us look with flashing
eye and flushed cheek. But It is n re
flecting mirror which ought TO be as
helpful for our moral md spiritual de-
velopment as the one which our friends
uplift This mirror has way OF mag
nifying and intensifyng our weakness
es. Like the caricaturc, it has way
nature and vet at the same time max
Ink 1t very plain for whom the portrait
was intended
Hogarth's Pen.
These enemies do with the rejecting
mirrors what William Hogarth did
with his brush and pen Have you
ever been IN the museums where they
had one room filed with concave and
convex mirrors? You stand before one
mirror, and YOU seem 10 be little
short. fat man about four feet high
and we Ching at least 400 pounds Then
Won look into another mirror. and in
stead OF being little short fat man,
now YOU will he twelve feet tall and
about as wide as n match Yet tall
and thin. short and fat. you can see
in those concave and convex mirrors
the same eyes. lips, hands and hair So
our enemies In life take us and pull us
ont or shove us III and twist us all out
Of shape In order to magnify our faults;
but, though they expose our errors with
unfalling skill. we still retain enough
Of our original selves to let the world
know who we are and what We have
done. Aud today for our own benefit
they are lifting up the rejecting mir
rors for us to have good look at our
errors and inperfectiOns
But there is still another way in
which We can see our reflections IN the
mirrors Of our imperfect lives. That
IS when we stand surrounded by the
tragedies and the misfortunes result
ant from the mistakes OF our past
These misfortunes have their stories
TO tell just the same as successes have
their stories To tell Though some men
may achieve success in spite OF glar-
ing faults in their makeup. yet few
men ever come TO failure unless that
failure Is the result OF some folly or
sin which II IL had been discerned In
time, could have been rectined. And
the man who is not willing to see his
faults by his failures Is n man who is
blind indeed and who will not be
taught by the sternest and yet best OF
all teachers.
Child Playing With Fire.
Here. for instance, Is little child.
He will persist In playing with fire
one day out IN the back yard near TO
the farm he is gathering the leaves and