The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-05-19
EVENING CHAT
By RUTH CAMERON.

To err is human; to admit ones err
rors to ones self. not divine. but at
least one rung Up the ladder between
man and divinity.
Which is by way of introducing a
few words on the weakness of self
justification.
Suppose you have done an unkind or
thoughtless or selfish thing, and you
are taxed with it, you defend yourself
to your accuser of course That's as
much a natural instinct as it is to
put I'D your arm to ward off a blow.
The are men who have the courage
and control and highmindedness to
conquer this instinct. and to review an
accusation of themselves as calmly and
pass upon it as fairly, as they would
upon another mans sin or mistake.
But these are rare men.
We can't all do that.
But there is one thing We can all do,
and that is not be the kind of towards
who will never admit their own faults
and mistakes even to themselves.
The other day you lost your temper
and said lot of harsh and undeserved
things to your very good friend. He
stood it for awhile and then he lost
his, and told you what an i'll tempered
brute you were, and you asserted that
you were nothing of the sort, and told
him all the reasons you had for losing
your temper and what a wonder it
was you were able to keep it at all,
with anyone as exasperating as he was
around.
And now you are alone and are
thinking over that explosion of yours,
you can do one of two things
You can wallow in the mire of self
justification and say, HE shouldn't
have said what he did about my work. "
''He is too quick to go off the handle"
and have told him to go as far as
he liked" HE hasn't been treating
me squarely lately. anyway"
Or can you face your fault fairly
and squarely and say:
81 don't wonder he called me an
i'll tempered brute 1 was. I've got
the worst temper this side of the
Mississippi"
Tell me which of these two you do
and will tell you whether you are the
kind of man who grows in character
with the years or not.
The basis of all development is the
admission of faults and mistakes.
The man who continually rears a
screen of cowardly Standardization be-
tween himself and his faults can't de-
velop any more than a plant can de-
velop screened from the sun
Next time you have committed a
fault or mistake and you are reviewing
it in your mind, why DOM you try a
as justly as if you were thinking of the
| case of third person.
n X X
If you want to be the kind of girl men
lke-if for no other reason-avofd
sophistication as you would the
plague.
Young girls sometimes get the idea
| that men like girls who know all
about the ways of the world and who
are quick to catch the meaning of an
| i'll allusfon. but a matter of fact
that's just the kind they don't like
at least not for very long.
Men always love innocence in a
woman.
And not only good men but men of
the world. men whose own morals are
| none too straight-perhap these
| more than any others.
| A woman who is a remarkable
! Judge of human nature once said to
me-
'I would feel full as safe if not safer
| in the power of bad men who knew /
was a good woman as 1 would with
good men, for the worse the man the
more he reverences goodness in a
woman"
/ A man of the world, a man whom
no one would ever think of calling a
prig. asked me the other day what had
happened to so change a little girl we
| both knew.
"She used to be such a nice little
girl he said, "but now she has a
| hard, worldly wise air and is always
| the first to catch and laugh at any
double meaning. I'm sorry. She was
| always such a nice girl
| And that girl doubtless fancied she
was far more attractive to men in her
| sophisticated state.
| There are some of the unpleasant
facts of life that all girls should know
| for their own safety These are the
rocks that lie in the common channel