Daily Kennebec journal., 1913-08-13
Oldfish on Kind Words.

4
marked Dr. oldfsh, breaking into his
| weekly monolosue with an abfuptheSs
quite out of character with his usual
| - e introanetian "Fine
| words butter no parsnips." repeated the
doctor, has a bluff candor about II t'l"t
| reminds one of that honest maker OF
maxims. Benjamin Franklin.
/ while not over-partial to pafshlps'
| no matter how they may be served
| like that maxim for its homety, ffacu
! cal integrity. How much better II 10
| than the sentiment swelled with eahtihs
hypocrisy about kind words costing noun
| ing, and, therefore, one need never spare
| to use them, an admirable suggestion To
| the niserIy one whose mintage of kina
words need never be stinted for upon le
| no seigniorage will ever tie co"eete~.
"There are many Benevolent Casbys
TODAY. successors to the landlord of
! Bleeding Heart Yard-for which see Lit
tie Dorrit'-who seem to beam With be-
nightly and yet never give up cent in
real money-.that keep the word OF
promise to our ear and break ii to our
hope There are the beginnings Of these
| counterfeit philanthropists in boys OF the
| IA grade of our. public schools, but let
| us hope not many of them-younSsters
who will welcome a hungry wandering
| dog upon the street, win his confidence
by patting him upon the head, induce
Carlo TO follow them home in the nope
of getting something to eat, and at the
gate turn him away, fed with nothing
more satisfying to an empty stomach
than kind words, the fine words that
| butter no parsnips.
When the youthful Gasby comes to
manhood and so on to the very verge
of the churchyard mold his ministra-
tions to those of human k...d are like
| unto the favors bestowed on poor Carlo.
As he grows older he becomes more and
more unctuous until he arrives III that
! period when, as our grandmothers used
to say, butter would not melt IN his
mouth. He prides himself on his oili-
ness of speech, which those who know
him but superficially take as the true
coin of kindness. each word being rolled
in fat like mash ready for the frying
pan.
1.-The rosy-cheeked hopeful young fell
low who calls upon Casby at his counting
room is received with an oily heaftiness
that raises his expectations to hight
from which he can see the promised land
"a situation, employment. And the in
quiries that are made by Mr.. Casby, the
sympathetic interest the young fellow
seems to have aroused, are but prepara-
| ton for the fulfillment of his hopes.
When he is dismissed with an impers-
4 sive pressure from that fiabby hand he
/ wanders away in a chaotic elysium, from
which he energies to find that he has
not arrived anywhere, that he Is still
bobbing up and down in the same old
sea of discouragement.
II have often thought that the news
paper obituary is sadly lacking in va
riety When the leading citizen dies next
week the obituary will be cut out of the
same sugared dough with the same cake
cutter that was used for the leading citi-
zen who died last week or the week be-
before All is Sc hastily done that the
same need of praise is given to the
Benevolent Casby as to the more de-
scarcely the change of a semicolon.
1.-THE deserving one may even fall by
neglect of his heirs and assigns to
achieve Immortality through the medium
of commercial volume of biography in
which everything is written to the same
of. John Doe would fit Richard Roe with
scarcely thee hange of a semicolon.
THAT sentiment in Grays eiegy-'no
longer seek his virtues to disclose, nor
draw his frailties from their dread
. ! abode'-is we'll enough for most of us,
but there are few. some even in the
more modest walks of life, who deserve
to be remembered by something more
substantial than mere tradition. You
and | recall some of these with delight
that sends the blood tingling through
5 our veins in a way that almost makes
us young again
! From out the dim past there rises be-
fore me the round, red face of an East
New York street grocer. l see lin
standing in his door, beside which are a
dozen beautiful Jackson county water
melons. He goes in behind the counter
to wait upon a customer. AT that auspi-
cious moment nearly a dozen boys OF
\ the neighborhood swoop down upon the
: juicy spheroids, lift them with the east
of the blue bonnets that came over the
border and away to the fastness of the
McOuat haymow. And what did that
fine old grocery gentleman do when ht
a discovered his loss? Did he raise hue
l and cry and call the police to the NORTH
: cation of all the mothers and fathers il
u the neighborhood? Not bit of IT, III
went back to his day book and thers
> noted down to the account of each of
: fender. Mr.. -, to one watermelon By
Johnny, 10 cents and his only comment
, on this foray was, Veil poys Will pa
poys; amt it?' But the town was
{ smaller then and this benevolent methoo
of treating petty theft might be misti
. today.
at should not be omitted from this
veracious history that after the account
with the grocer was settled the parents
recalled the injunction of Solomon ant
did not spare the rod. There was a va.
ration. however. In the case of the
shoemaker. He demonstrated to his er
; ring boy that there was nothing like
I leather" er."-Indianapplis News.
p