Norwich bulletin., 1914-09-26
THE MAN WHO TALKS

It seems good to know there is plenty of pie ahead, for in all the world there is nobody who appreciates pie like New
 Englanders. It is a fruit year and it is claimed there are sixty million bar rels of apples in sight; enough placed end to end to reach around the earth a. dozen times, or to make a pyramid 5ao miles high. It is three barrels of ap- ples for every family, in the United States-raw material for pie and pan dowdy enough to feed the armies of Europe for months. One great Ameri- can state has ten million apple trees, and this little state of Connecticut has one man who in their season can pick a million peaches day, nearly two peaches apiece daily for every resi- dent of the state. Since New England grows the finest of fruit. if is not strange we have a great mouth for pie, or that we are known as the pie eaters of America. The pie belt starts
 with New England and ends in Oregon it is three thousand miles long. Sugar is dear. but apples ought to be cheap.
 ask myself occasionally, how much farther advanced rehgionists of today
 be who believe God, orders afidictfons for his children than the men were in the So-called dark ages. There was a time when Christians believed all good
 things were from God. and all evil
 things from the devil. It was evil spirits who afflicted. the people with sickness, and they were driven away
 by charms, 1ncantatlons and a deposit of money or provender with the priests for the Lord. A written prayer bound upon an ahscess or sore of any kind drove away the tormentor, or evil spirit, and the patient was healed The war upon Satan was: incessant, and if %I- Is because he didn't enjoy the favor of the Lord-was too wicked to be saved. But since Satan as a direct enemy of man has faded away and doctors instead of the Lerd are de- pended upon to make men immune from disease, some people have con- ceived the idea God himself orders disease of which they by their. habits are the cause. This doesn't look like progress to me. s< 5-rrr e.- .
 lt is not safe to dsscuss the merits
 Of the European war in mixed com pany even in America, but when the
 horrors of it are talked over all men alike stand aghast. It is usually ad-
 mitted that the age has been reached
 set 16.000,000 men of Christendom on
 campaigns of murder and pillage If
 twentieth century men are so intelli- gent and Christianized as we pretend they be, they should be allowed to pass upon the importance and. right
 eousness of the issue and whether it is to be settled by arbitration. or. by arms. The divine right method of ruling sensible and sane men smells toe
 much of the musty and mythical past to be even tolerated The interests of
 the many are of more importance than
 the, power and fame of the few A half million dead and a third as many
 widows and three times as many fa-
 tnerless children is too high a price to
 pay for anything the present conflict
 promises the world.
 am more or less interested in the boys on the street corner, because I used to be a. boy on the corner my self; but I never loitered long with the lad who talks loud and tells "what my old man says" and "my old wo- man thinks!" Father and mother have cherished them because they embody all of love and kindness and inspiration. The lad who says: My old mani" and My old swomani"f is g. disgrace to the mother who bore him, and a poor companion for any corrective value of the lash. but a live iy application of the strap is what such thoughtlessness and debasement deserves. If the boy who talks about his old man. should hear once how | it sounds to others he would cut ii out. His own speech is his constant condemnation.
 There are. many people who talk that would treInble were they obliged to take their own advice. There is the
 hangman. for instance. who eounsels | the convict not to be nervous in his
 last moments. but to take, it coolly; and the lawyer who invites you to put your bankbooks in his possession be- cause they will be safer there than in your own and the clergyman who
 advises you to make your peace with | God before you have learned to make your peace with your fellownan:' and l the editor who advises you to vote as he advocates instead of as you think you should: and the employer who
 advises you to be content when he
 knows your earnings are not sufficient
 vice when 1t is sifted? Shakespeare
 says: T can easier teach twenty what
 were good. to be. done than to be one of twenty to follow mine own teach l ing" Advice is the one thing never
 welcome and given away without
 stint. ~--.- 1 The maid who marries a man fol l his money seldom gets it, but she is
 usually astounded at what she, has witt
 it, while the girl who weds a mar | for himself is frequently surprised by
 his power to acquire all that IS neces-
 sary for the comfort and pleasure o.
 both. Things done from purely sel- l fish motives in this world do not pro. duce the most admirable results. Hon. or and honesty still continue to bs tgood travelling companions and they
 direct one along inviting paths. Con
 spiracies, whatever their object, art
 base because they abound in decei
 and false pretense. To marry for any thing except true love is of courss l immoral. A bride or a groom mone,
 buys is not worth having. The hear
 cannot be ignored in natrimony i
 peace and pleasure are going to re
 suit .-