The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1909-09-30
Prices At Retail
per hundred
Flour

Bread Flour ...............S7 00-7 so
Winter patent. .......... $50
WHAT WE ARE OBLIGED TO DO.
If We Would BE Successful We Must
DO Things We Are Not Compelled
to Perform.
81 never do anything which I am not
obliged to do" you tell me, with just q
hint of false pride in your tone. You
don't, Ell? Well, well, young man,
can see you, at fifty still piling brick
upon brick, or cleaning the streets,
or lifting countless crates and baskets
to waiting grocery wagons. And yes
terday, Mr.. So-and-So, whose name
spells success, and who employs any
numo er of men under him, walked
through your place, seeking a strap
ping young man about your size to fill
a particularly desirable vacancy on his
staff. Your appearance made a most
favorable impression but the fates
would have it that just as he gained
hearing distance, you were heard to
mutter behind your employers back,
that you'd be hanged if you'd do such
any such thing. You weren't hired
to do the errand boy trick" and your
attitude expressed manifest unwilling
ness. Your employer-that-mig
been passed on and out of your vision,
hand in hand with one of those golden
opportunities which you are forever
seeking and which your friends seem
to have great luck in finding. Strange,
wasn't it?
But, you're not alone in your atti-
tude, youngster, if that's any consola-
ton. Old men and maidens, young
men and children, in countless num-
bers, tell us constantly that they will
not stoop to do this nor go out of their
way to accomplish that. They are not
obliged to, if you please. But when
you stop and think of the numberless
things which you and l and the rest of
the world do which we are not actl-
ally called upon to carry through, you
ought to be able to see in what pret-
ty fix this old planet would be, if each
of us decided this very minute to do
and act, in future, which our contract
did not call for, specifically.
The baggageman and the railroad
official, the hackman and the ticket
agent would terrorize us benighted
| travellers into varying states of palpi-
tation. No one would meet us half
way in the exchange of courtesies of
the road. No one would so regulate
his path that it would not become a
STUMP ling block to other travellers.
There would be no smiles, because
there would be no opening greeting.
There would be no thank yous' be-
cause no favors would be done. Home
would be breakfastless, fireless,
cherries place, strewn with undarned
socks and threadbare clothes. Your
employer would show you no consid-
Grafton and no holidays and your work
would be doubled constantly by his
frequent vacation sojourns The
clergyman would pay no calls when
he didn't wish to pay and the sick men
might die for all that his non-visiting
friends seemed to care, and the poor
would be unaided and the inspirtion
of those little nameless acts" would
be lacking.
Why, this old world spins merrily
along on the strength of that spirit of
| courageous, unselfish, brotherly love
that prompts many of us to wander
from the straight path of manifest
duty into the bypaths and sequestered
lanes on either side, there to speak
the cheering word or to do the kindl =
deed that we know. deep down in our
hears, is a plainly our duty as any
task pointed out to us by worldly fin
gers.
What matter if you soil your clean
hands, and ''muss" your clothes, suf-
fer few bruises to that false pride
of yours and take fall or two in I'M
adulterated mud if the still, small
voice" tells you that you are taking
the right stand? And the still small
voice, is to be depended upon in all
cases.
IL you're a man or woman In any
walk of life, who does only that duty
which is absolutely required, and VINO
does that duty with one eye upon the
clock and the other upon the rules and
regulations that govern your case, if
you render no service that would nee
essitate one step more than the afore-
said rules decree that you must travel !;
If you say no word beyond that which
you must speak; in other words, yours
is selfish one-man, one-woman ex-
istence-if, l say, these conditions
were true conditions and l might be
your judge, | should decree that the
Saturday night envelope should con-
tain not one penny more than you
really earned and that, when your case
came up for trial, not one ounce OF
mercy should be tempered with justice
For, just as 1t is not obligatory that
you should deal kindly with your fell
lows, neither is 1t necessary that kind.
Illness should be shown you. Are you
meeting your obligations sQuarely and