Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1909-05-12
BE NEIGHBoRLY. SPARE THE BEASTS
Give More Than Half the Road" is a
Thoughtful Sermon

Great events sometimes hinge on the
merest trifies- In poor Richards AL
manac we are told battle was lost re-
cause OF horse shoe nail. 1t is of the
hundreds of little decencies between
man and man IN every day life that we
love our fellows ard by which we are
made ~ontent and happicr. Take care
OF the pennies and the dollars will take
! care of themselves. Re kind to one
another in the small every day matters
OF life and the world would have no use
for big guns and battleships Give half
the Travelled road when you meet a COM
ing team, give it cheerfully, and your
title as good man is clear and undis-
puted. | have often wondered that the
decalogue did not have an eleventh
commandment reading like this: Bless
ed be the man who cheerfulIy gives
more than half the road, of such are
the kingdom of heaven. The omission
J IS due to the fact, no doubt, that there
were no highway fences in those elder
days and all creation was a common
thoroughfare. Here are two teams ap-
preaching from opposite directions.
! The thought occurs at once to the mind
of each driver, how much or how little
must | give of the road? If the meet
ing occurs on a hill, this question be-
comes acute. The horses coming up
are pulling hard, loaded or not; the
team going down hill is not pulling,
loaded or not. The man going down
hill, knows it is not right, but he holds
his half of the road and the man whose
team is coming up and pulling for all
/ it is worth hates that fellow forever
after. There once lived man in this
county; he is dead now-peace to his
ashes who forced noe as a boy some
40 years ago to give him all the road
when | was climbing a hard hill and he
was going down, and although by some
inscrutable reason he afterwards be-
came a great man and held county
office, | never loved him to the day of
death. | have reverence for the script
ural injunction which bids one love
those who despitefully use you, but
have always doubted if the sacred
scribe who wrote Tins command had
ever been bullied ont of his just rights
| by some bigger fellow on the public
highway. If you would be respected
and thought kindly of and followed to
the cemetery, be just and fair to those
whom you meet on public highway.
Don't be selfish, be better than the
law. You may keep within the law
and yet be mean, 0, so mean. A square
deal on the public highway to all men
costs you nothing and it means a great
deal to you. Just think how good a
man the world will judge you, without
any cost to you, if you are only fair.
/ The finest attribute in human nature is
a character void of selfshness. Be un-
selfish on the public highway. Under
no condition ask man to divide the
road when he is coming up hill, it is a
cruelty to his horses, it is shame upon
you. You cannot like your neighbor if
he drives you out of the road at such a
time, he cannot like you if you keep
the road at such time. Remember
that horses have souls and if the man
who holds the lines be careless, the
horse that is pulling his life out COM
ing up hill, if he be forced to give the
road, his ghost viii cry out against you
in that awful day of judgment. Give
the road and give it cheerfully and
better than the prophets of old, you
will have honor in your own country
The act of giving the public highway
freely carries a double blessing, it
! blesses him that gives and him that
receives. Could have but nine words
written upon ny tombstone, verify l
think would Choose these words: He
gave cheerfully more than half the pub
lie highway. OBSERVER.