The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-03-07

$3.50 'A@s - II bIOuDltSs not yours.
or the worlds. and 1 do net parade
them back and forth. catch pennies
Tor the sympathy Of my friends, but
Keep them locked up IN my Skeleton
closet. And then God didn't send
them just to bruiSe me, for He has
neeh very tender, and has given me
the sweet air and the sunshine and
the flowers and the birds and health
and a home: and love and friends
and He the best friend of all. That
is why 1 do not feel half a hundred
years Old" Patent. brave little
Aunt Emily"
she sat knitting somewhat nsr-
IHousiE' with quite a flush on her
cneek. somehow, she was u~nwonted-
fiy moved that a~fternoo... and then
safe continued: When I was a girl
L heard a veyy bright public man,
a close friend of my father, max a
rS1nark which l have thought CT a
nundred times since. This public
man was a good deal of a cynic. and
used to walk up and down that par
Tor yonder, hurting phillip cs at the
world IN general. One day. at the
end of one of his TRADES he ex-
claimed: God Almighty has a heap
more trouble with the fool than the
rascals in his world Wasn't that
Ian epigram? And what a crushing,
summing up Of the %sinfulness of folly.
Carrying out that idea somewhat more
m Idly, 1 believe, for my part, that
there is more harm wrought in this
world by talking tina by doing
Why, Aun Emily Is 1t more
harm to talk about murder than to do
murder? Talking how, do you
mean"
Well. in the first place, talking
idly and irreverently, as you did just
now, whereby you foster discomfort
in your own heart. and set the bad
example to others. Then talking
scandal (oh! what a mean, vile sin,}
numbering regulations, blasting char
~Iacters and sowing discord in happy
thomes. Then talking about many
other things; religion, for example,"
Religion! ! didn't know that one
could talk too much religion; that is
what the preachers teach. us, at any
lrate.''
ooh, yes, you can. the preachers to
the contrary Notwithstanding. I do
mot say that you ought to keep you
rel gion shut up all the week in its
go-to-peeting clothes. to be brought
tout for an airing only on Sunday; but
ones religion ought to be a very
sacred thing, not to be Haunted at all
times and in all places like a fad "
Here Aunt Emily paused a mo-
ment and looked up at me a
fully, as if expecting to find me
shocked at her heretical views. Then
as II assured by my face, she went
ON: Suppose a nan We're SO deeply
religious that he felt like pray ne
at all times Of the day. For all that
wouldn't he be a nuisance in an!
community if he went about corners
And wouldn't his neighbors profess
Iagainst his '1opping,' just as Jerry
tCruncher protested against his wife
Topping in The Tale of Two Cit es
by Dickens? I am a little ashamed
to say hat I. always did sympathize
with Jerry" said the little lady
Laughing with charming naivete.
That's what I mean by talking re-
lligion. Do you remember the
preacher who stopped at the judges
ranch in Owen Wister's The Vir-
lginian?' Well do YOU know THAT
think that splendid y3ung Morse
giant, the Virginian, treated him JUS
fright. And such insufferable CT ntins
apostles as the oily Chadband II
Dickens Bleak House'-do you sup
pose that God approves Of such re
Iligion takers as those? They noel
and discredit HIS holy cause as mucf
as Mr. Ho~neythunder in Edwin
brood did the cause Of true philan'
thropy. Why, even the old Cameron
ian Covenanter, Donce' David Deans
in SCOTS Heart Of Mid-hothian,' hon
est, upright man though he was, be
labored the sides Of religion till they
fairly ached, With MS 3 Die ak, lr
season and out of season, and he nus
have been woefully tiresome to hi:
daughter. Jeanne. and his son-in-law
IReben Butler. humble Christians a.
lthev were. I am much afraid tina
david Deans. with his own creed. hi:
imorose, ars1ere Christianity, and hi:
scant flow of the m Tx of human
Kindness had much to do with the
ltransgressions of his hapless, errins
syounoeSt Eftle.'
why, Aunt Emily YOU are &C,
Itually a. Latitudinarian.h "Oh, tina,
Indeed I am not!' exclaimed the
little lady throw ng up her hands il
dismay. my creed rs strict enough
I assure YOU" why you believe il
dancing" That [ do, and have go
HOLY Writ's warrant for IT. "YOI
Ebelieve in a little good wine for thu
tstomach's sake, for you have some il
Luour celIar-of which have afora: