Norwich bulletin., 1909-07-03

- Poor human nature." Did you sv- | CT notice how much of the evil and unhappiness of the world is charged up to 1t? Does a neighbor do mean or stupid thing? If you are unusual 1 ly charitable that morning and not in- elined to denounce him in one-syllahie adjectives to the grunting universe of him. But sposs it,s tut human greedy, you try to tgloss over ths shortcoming by laying 1t Co human nature' If another Is careless and reckless, it's human nature again that get sthe blame. Even shiftless- ness and improvidence are credited to it.
 I sometimes wonder if we all ap- nreeiate the sheer cowardiee of trying to foist our own sins of on the shad- owy shoulders of an impersonal and unpunishable aabstraction called "hu- man nature" At the same time any man who has lived sixty years must recognize that there are certain ten- dencies and habitudes in general hu- manity which need some such phrase to describe them. That they are often discreditable and unworthy does not alter the fact. If the theory of evo- luticn is correct, 1t may be that they can be explained by referring them back to the lower and more animal like existence of our prehistoric pro- genitors: hereditary taints allying us long ere this. Whatever they are, and however they may be explained, there they are, and they must be reckoned with
 One of the Queerest phases of this human nature" to me, as I study It's development among my fellow farmers. is the curious unwillingness of many to be impartial and fair in their own interests. Does that sound a little vague? I mean that lots of my neigh bors don't seem willing to see things as they are, but insist upon seeing what they have previously determined or imagined they ought to see or were going to see. Can I make my mean Ing still clearer by an illustration? Nsiohbor HosIkins has been for if. teen years trying to raise early peas in his garden on stable manure. He's an "old fashioned farmer" who long ago made up his mind that the use of fertilizers-chemicals mean-was all a fad and solely useful to fill the pockets of the chemical dealers. Sta ble manure was good enough for him. He also finds no use for the profess 8OI1 W1O LEY LO JCA bAA0S RC1AoB being Ieguuinous. furnish their own nitrogen in ordinary cases. Good manure'll do anything good" he main- tains. So for fifteen years he's plow- ed and manured and sowed and culti- yated and bushed--just to raise pea vines from six to ten feet nigh, with out any peas to speak of, and those few late. And every year he ascribes his failure to poor seed or bad sea- son. He doesn't learn simply because he won't learn. He sees what he has determined he ought to see, not what actually is. Nor is he a fool. By no means. He's just a lot of human nature"-a rather unusually big lot of it.
 Take another Illustration. Neighbor Sherman's wife sent him to the mill once to get sack of flour. She had always used Smiths Best" But the dealer had only Jones Bests' that day. So Sherman brought back a bag of 1t. The housewife shifted at sight of the brand. Cant make decent bread with that stuff," she confded to the school ma'am, who was "boardin' round" and happened to be at the Sherman's that week. And she didn't. She tried one batch O dough-" and got a loaf which might have been fired through a brick wall without scratching the crust. So Jabez had to take the flour back. The dealer was still out of the other make, but he had some sacks with Smiths Best" printed on them. So he just dumped the Jones Best" out of the returned bag into one of these and sent Jabez home with it. There was no further trouble with the bread. Later the dealer told Jabez what he had done. But Jabez hasn't told Mrs. Sher- man. And, having knowledge of his usual good judgment, don't think he ever will