Arizona republican., 1910-09-17
Current Comment
A WORD FOR THE WORLD.
Those Who Believe in Universal De-
cadence Are Mistaken.

In a note to her mother written to
explain an attempt to take her life. a
young Oakland girl who had failed
of literary success in New York eX-
pressed herself in the way: Il hate
the insincerity, the sordidness and
and she added: 1T is really deplora-
bic that a girl can not get along
honorably in New York
The Oakland girl is wrong. The
world is not insincere, sordid, and
filled with establishment. And it
is wholly possible for a girl, or a
man, to get along honOrably in New
York or any other place. 1t all de-
ponds on the girl or the man. Temp
tatiOns there are a-plenty every
where, but these are the fire in
which the metal of an individual is
tested.
The girl who attempted suicide
complained of her adversities, forget
full of the fact that il is occasions
of adversely which best discover how
great virtue or strength each one
has. For occasions do not make a
person fail but show what he is.
The world, it is true, might be
vastly improved. but to say that it is
mostly bad is the shallowest kind OF
false philosophy. We may be pretty
certain that persons whom all the
world treats i'll deserve the treat
ment they get. For a time adversely
may, and often does, dog the heels
of the most deserving. but as there
is no lane which has not either a
turn or an end, so that honest and
Industrious person may be pretty
certain of some time receiving the
recognition which his acts merit.
The best of men may at times be
angry with the world, at times
grieved for it, but no man was ever
permanently disconnected with the
world who did his duty in it.
That leveI-headed philosopher, Mr..
Dooley, taking issue one time with
his friend Hennessey, who was be-
moaning the wickedness of the world.
declared warmly: "Hinnessay. wan
of the first things l can reminder is
me father sayin' that the country
was goin' to the divil." The same
pessimistic forebodings have marked
the reasonings of many tedious per-
ons from the days of King Solomon
to those of Hennessey. None of them
has been fulfilled, and the world to-
day is a better place to live in than
it ever has been before.
a good deal of the abuse to which
the world nowadays is subjected by
persons who think in narrow chan
nels is due to the wide publicity
which all sorts of crimes are given
through the medium of the telegraph.
In the good old times" which were
not nearly so good as the present,
only the doings of ones immediate
neighborhOod were known to the
mass of the people. Now the deeds
of the whole world are spread out at
every breakfast table. and people for
get that if the misdeeds are given
the greater prominence it is because
the good deeds are the normal deeds
and the misdeeds the abnormal, the
unusual.
Murders, suicides, stealings, lying.
and slandering the records of the di-
vorce courts and other evidences of
human frailties. very properly shock
the honest reader. The cumulative
effect of the recital of the catalogue
Of humanitys doings is. no doubt,
severe strain on the earnest Optimist.
But, out of the whole sad tangle,
will be found to emerge this fact,
that the good in the world predomi
mates. All that is necessary to prove
this is to keep the items in their
proper place in the columns and to
look calmly at the respective foot
ings
La ROchefOucauld had a very good
idea of things when he said: ITO
understand the world is better than
to condemn it. To study the world
is better than to shun it. To use
the world is nobler than to abuse it.
To make the world better, nobler
and happier. is the noblest work of
man or woman"
Part of the world may very pro-
perly be despised, but to despise
means that the world despises him.
the whole of it is a reflection upon
the man who does So It probably