The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1909-12-23
SOME SELFISH MEN.
Crouch Makes Some Observations
and Relieves His Mind a Little.

Do you know Oliver, that this
world is full of mighty selfish peo-
pie? There are whole lot of folks
In this town who would go long
ways out of their way to do them
selves a favor. / know an old fellow
who lives neighbor to me. down in
my part of town, who always made it
rule to shovel the snow off his side
walk just as soon as the feathery
flakes quit falling. He didn't do
this from any love of his fellowmen,
but simply because he wanted to
crow over the neighborhood and
pose as an enterprising citizen.
always got mad when saw how self
ish this old scoundrel was, but of
course the rest of the neighbors had
to get busy too, for none of us want
ed to have 1t said that we were not
good citizens, so we dug the snow
and ice loose, and cussed, while that
selfish old reprobate, who set the
example for US, smiled and beamed
egotistically through his specs. It
makes me sick yet when l remember
how the public gave this old white
haired sepulchre credit for his good
deeds, when, in truth, he had only
superlatively selfish motive behind it
all, viz: to stand we'll with the public.
Only last Saturday / met another.
example of selfshness, all the more
devilish because the acts were dis
guised by the mantle of charity and
to the unthinking world seemed like
the real thing. An old farmer friend
of mine, and a bachelor, too. at that,
was surreptitiousiy buying Christ
mas presents for an unfortunate fam,
lily in his neighborhood. He did this
because he enjoyed the act of giving.
He wanted to experience this pleas
ure, and chose this method of min
istering to his own selfish desires.
AS he bought a pair of small shoes
for one Of the unfortunate little ones
In the poor family, he laughed 9
fiendish laugh, and his face was
wrinkled by deep lines about his
mouth. Unobserving people would
smile, but your Uncle Crouch knew
that selfish motives were concealed
beneath the seemingly generous acts
of this acme of seltishness. Another
thing which he did was to tell the
groceryman to send a sack of -four
to another poor neighbor, and as he
oald ~ huSW luaI ulS Ouly IedSOu lOI
committing this piece of folly was
that he wanted to feel a warm sensa-
tion about the region Of his heart.
In other words he was pandering to
his own selfish pleasure 1t tickled
him to do generous thing, and he
was selfish enough to revel in the
pleasure he derived from doing it.
Disgraceful, wasn't it? AS / saw
this grizzly ord fraud loading his bob
sled with toys, books, and bundles of
gifts of various kinds, all the while
smiling diabolically, felt like shout
ing mis- name to the heavens. He will
probably be mean enough, too, to
peek in and see the kids laugh when
they open up the unexpected toys,
and don't you reckon that sack of
-four Will afford him much selfish
satisfaction when he observes the JOY
GUS thankfulness of the recipient?
Oh, it's shame how some men
deceive their fellows. They give,
and give, because they enjoy giving.
Because they are getting selfish
pleasure from the giving. Don't you
see how hypocritically wrong such
actions are? l enjoy giving. but
don't do It. because l am no hypo-
critic. Crouch.