The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1913-01-12
CHOOSING YOUR PAST

My Dear Sir Fortune" said a
| friend TO me, "a know"
| expect you yourself are acqunint-
| ed with people like that. They place
terrible emphasis on the "I' when
| they say Il know and they mean
| that you don't know
had been trying (quite Intellectual
| ly, as You will understand), TO i'm
| press upon him that there were thou
sands of girls who have married poor
men in preference TO rich ones~-girls
who We're quite Indifferent to wealth
| n love affairs. He insisted that wo-
men are always merceuary creatures.
and when began TO give him in
stances of women who had VIGOROUSLY
preferred the poor sutton to the rich
/ one he retorted with that Il know"
He Is man who has had an ex-
| perience"--or thinks he has.
! Twelve years ago he was deeply in
! love with very charming young lady.
| He had not exactly proposed TO her.
! but the thing seemed settled Of
| course she would marry him. Then
she married someone elsa wealthy
/ young feIlow-and Jones has been
/ convinced ever since that money Is all
q girl has heart for. Women have
sunk 10 zero in his estimation. He
| reads all the cases in the newspapers
/ N which extravagant ladies figure. and
eXclaims: Just like EN-"
/ have another friend OF the II
know kind. He thinks as badly of his
| own sex. All they care for is what
| they can get" He was converted 10
/ that view years ago when he was swim
/ died out OF $4,000 by man he trust
| ed, He never means to trust anyone
| again farther than | can see them. "
/ We shall always be children" said
/ John Moely. IF We don't examine our
! past experience to teach us with re-
gard to the future"
+ These two Il knows" / have de-
/ scribed imagine they have learnt an
enormous lot from the past They
/ speak Of those lamentahle instances in
/ their lives as 1.-THE teaching of expert
enee, But what has Il taught them !?
Jones, the man who irnagines the
| girl threw him over so cruelty for
wealth, has really no reas for think
( ing as he does. OF course. one can
not exactly point 1t out TO him, but
can imag CINE young lady preferring
considerable number of young gem
tiemen to Jones for a husband. He is
not a particularly Fascinating indiVid
ual, and IT'S my honest belief that
there are a good many girls who would
not have him with mill!on a year
As 10 the other. 81 know" he put his
| S2,500 into gamble that was TO bring
! him in a huge fortune and lost IT. Amy
nerSon with business knowledge could
have told him the thing was a swim
die Each thinks he has had an ex-
perience that has taught him a lot,
and each, as matter of fact, is
bigger idiot than he was before. Lock-
ing back at the past is all right IL IL
Is done in the right way. 1t is ahso-
lutely harmful II one ia going to draw
wrong conclusions from It.
Mssis Twain knew n man who psad
TO indulge in retrospect. He. had D
memory for disasters that bad hap
pened to -ilim--and for nothing else
Twain christened him THE T.ightning
Disaster Artist" The amount of rum
SEGMENT DESPAIR was wonderful
''Yew guess yew air unluekv,' he
"orld eyclaim to scr'e grumhler
well yew don't know annvthn
about II. I'll tell vew what 1t is to he
real rnluc'rv It all started with the
tornadv sixty wears since when I was
SIX months cid and made me an or
phan AS I run rare with Bill Jones
"A mile " was-an' beat I'm aod thet
skunk Crimson run away with the
Tt"kes and the iettin' money And
then ! went TO goa an was thrown.
"rvav on an uninhah.ted isinnd for
three years, and was iust 'aprilv mar
r'@1 wen q feNew run away with nv
wife. Wot followed D'vin' or VICE.
con 'arbor, I " nv 'ead aotn rock
MS admit hin thar For forty wears and
sneak took n Thousand dollar hill
out OF my pocket an 7 wos dra cred
out OF the store when II ketcted Ere
~en~ burnt 20 n ct~eer~ nnd wes walk
in~ homo when Fire Pete stuck three