The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-11-09
a sATI7RDAy sERNfON.

/ N
| He that diligently seeketh good pro-
cureth favor: but he that seeketh mis-
chief, it shall come unto him. Proverbs
! XI q.
| How true it is that the person who
goes on a hunt for trouble is sure to
find it and become a trouble-maker.
i He always brings in full bag. FIRE.
quentIy he gets more than he bargained
for And never are the results worth
the effort regardless of temporary sue
cess with their large or small material
gains.
Mischief always springs from per-
versity or folly. Therefore to get into
mischief of one sort or another is the
easiest thing in the world. Not only
does it Turk on every hand and in in
Vulnerable varieties, but the rank and
file of mankind are also obsessed with
much perversitv and folly. The people
who are perverse, who willfully err, are
not SO numerous, perhaps, as are those
who do wrong foolishly. There are a
great plenty of them, however. They
infest all branches of society. You can
find them in the market-place as well
as in the drawing-room; in the church
and in the school. No avenue of human
endeavor is free from their presence. 1t
is their wrong-doing, their mischief,
which creates the vexed problems, So
Geological, economic and political. which
are so difficult of solution. Their king
is chaos. They are the cause of bloody
revolutions. They are the obstacles in
the way of perpetual peace. They keep
the lawmakers busy and the court
buster. Nor do some of them hesitate
to tamper with justice.
To bring the mischief who
become the Observation-Disclosures, to a
realization of the error of their ways
is the constant and important duty and
work of a progressive civilization. And
it is only going to be brought to a sue
cessful elimination by appealing to
their inherent sense of decency in all
things; by awakening that sense to the !
real duties of man to man; by impress |
ing upon all men the need of the APP |
plication of ethics in the handling and
solution of all questions. No matter |
how stringent the laws may be made, |
and regardless of their purport, per-
verse people will find a way to wiggle
around them.
Some folk have little faith in the eff
ficacy of moral suasion. But 1t is &C
tualIv the great power that has moved
humanity onward and upward. And
there is need for more of it in the world
today than ever before.
For the mischief hunters and makers
who are led on their way by folly there
can only be pity and sympathy, even
If their acts often work quite as much
hardship as does the mischief done by
those of perverse hearts. The mischief
made through folly is the more easily
handled and corrected. Generally, the
experiences of the people
ed into mischief by this route are suf-
'icient as a correctionary. Then safe
guards can be thrown around society
1y prohibitory laws of one sort and
mother, including those that hinder the
operations of crooks and knaves-which
will not permit people to give their folly
rec rein.
But the greatest enemy of mischief
# all kinds, as is suggested in the
words of Solomon quoted above, is a
liligent searching for good on the part
# everyone. The rewards of virtue are
# such wonderful proportions that it's ;
peculiar more persons are not con-
inually striving for them.