The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1913-05-01
TERMs:l 6 NJ onths Fifty Cts.

gle good friend you would be poor in
deed.
The richest man today is the one who
has the greatest number of faithful, loyal,
loving friends. He may be man with
out fame or fortune or be in the same or
friends to cheer him in dependency, to
aid him in adversity and to trust and be-
leve in him, he is the most powerful and
happy of us all. Money doesn't make
can call a whole flock of companions
around one but they are not friends. In
this speak from experience.
The purpose of frienship, as the ancients
understood it, particularly the Greeks who
were especially rich in friendships, was to
have one dearer to you than yourself and
for the saving of whose life, reputation or
happiness, you would gladly give your
own, taking with you the consciousness
that he would do the same for you. 9th
ers are mere companions.
A few years ago letter introducing you
to another as friend of the writer en-
titled you to all the privileges he would
enjoy, and called upon all his friends to do
as much for you as they would for him,
and to question your honor or credit while
you were friend of his would be to
question his. Very few such letters are
written now. If the word friend as COM
monty used meant anything today one
would shudder at the thought of who
might be applying it to him.
How many of ones companions who call
themselves ones friends would sustain
friendships testse Not going so far as to
give their life perhaps but with their ac-
knowledged> esteem, respect and affection
and by such acts or sacrifices as would-nec-
cessitate discomforture, pain or disgrace if
needs be to them. In friendship there
must be no reserve-as much deliberation
as you please before the bargain is made
but no doubtings or jealousies after. 1t re-
quires time to consider friendship but the
resolution once taken entities him to your
very heart. When you say "my friend
Brown or ''Brown is good friend of
mine," you are not understood to mean
that Brown would give his life to save
yours or that you have chosen him after
much deliberation or that you have chosen
him at all to be your friend. You may
mean that you and he came over on the
same steamer or that you met him at the
club and that he has not yet swindled
you.
To my idea the word friendship can be
: we'll expressed in the. word confidence. -
Without confidence you cannot have
friends. Confidence demands respect, and
esteem and is the foundation of affection
and love. If by your actions or through
combination of circumstances you lose
the confidence of your business associates
you inevitably lose their business friend
ship, without which you cannot do busi-
ness. When the confidence between two
men in any walk of life is shaken, dis
;. trust is born, and the bonds of friendship
are strained and broken and friendship is
destroyed. This nation is founded on re-
, , spect and confidence by its friendly re-
lations with other powers which is deter
: mined by the respect it commands, by our
;. friendship, esteem and confidence in its
elected officers and by our respect of its
" laws -
" The institution of marriage is based on
;. friendship, confidence and respect, which
n leads to what the poets and dreamers call
e love, and when one of the contracting
J. parties from any reason lose the confidence
and respect of the other, love dies and the
e purpose of marriage is defeated and the
d only remedy is restoration of that conf
l. dence or the divorce court. Divorce sta
e tistics will support my statement that lack
l. of confidence is the root of many domestic
/ troubles. Drink, poverty and unhtness
le may claim part, but evil and false stories,
doubts, indiscretions or pride which pre-
is vents explanation, breeds the distrust
1t which destroys confidence, kills love and
re wrecks homes.
" A mothers love for her children, ne
:" matter how low they may have fallen, is
le founded on conhdence-conhde tha
al they will reform and it is an established
es fact that such love and confidence neve
ds falters while life lasts. and many maj
VS. and woman owe their reformation ant
" happiness to the power of their mother
is confidence, love and prayers.
n- Continued ON 9rd page