The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1915-08-14
LEISURE HOUR REFLECTIONS
FROM A QUIET CORNER.

do not know what it is to praise those
around us as a concession to the pro-
prietles, because as a rule the voice
of jealousy is whispering all sorts of
unkind criticisms. Again, there are
some of us who would be offended if
we were called ungenerous.' and who
do not know what it is to speak in
praise of others without mental con-
tradiction.
We should learn in our own thought
to do justice to others, to our COM
petitors and rivals. as well as our
friends. Before we take words of
praise on our lips, we should feel them
in our hearts.
We are always ready and willing
to advance the theory of give and
take" of live and let live" but there
are times when we are toe inconstant
when considering the feelings and
welfare of others.
There are many times when the CIV
ing of announcement, and a little
praise whether merited or not, has had
a tendency to inspire the recipient t.
higher things in life; We cannot af-
ford to condemn the person that
makes mistakes once in awhile, but
We should always be c~onsiderate, be-
cause in all probability if we were
placed in a similar ~predicament, We
would be less endurable.
While we should not tolerate the
p%rotraction of error and wrong do
ing around us, we should bear in mind
that f~orbearance is one of our chief
and that more men and women
are lifted up each year, and started
on the right way through the medium
of kind words than any other means.
For fear we may not pass this way
again, let us scatter seeds of kind
ness as we are passing which may be
the means of giving strength to some
weary traveller, who might perchance
be following in our footsteps.
Vacation time is a period that is
more profitable to the average person
than they are able to understand, or
to admit, and in many in
proves more beneficial both in
The way of business and pleasure than
The working season.
In many of the quiet hooks and corn
ers that we stumble upon in our ram
Oles through the forests. and from
natures great library we are able to
CLEAN many thoughts and valuable les
sons that may serve us well in after
life.
And why should we not?
When we look around us and see the
systematic arrangement of the handi-
work of nature, together with the
yranduer of forests, the fields and the
streams, We are readily convinced that
our earth is a schoolroom, and that
summer session the busiest of the
year.
What science is not taught in the
luiet resort among the hills or by the
sea? In the little brook that turns
mill wheel a mile down stream, is
material for solving the profoundest
problems in physics. Greek and
are not included in this curricu-
UNI of this summer school, but any
number of modern languages may be
bird tongues, the language
the vegetable world, the voices of
the meadow and of the forest, while
he hieroglyphics of the pyramids are
not so well worth solving as those
craven on the rocks.
There are night as well as day ses-
in this greatest of schools. And
when the sun goes down, the lessons
astronomy begins. While some To-
are more favorable than 9TH
ers for such schools, there is no place
without a branch school, and no one
is too poor, or in too humble circum-
stances to be enrolled as a student.
The good loser brings before us
face in which determination and
c~heerfulness are written. 1t suggests
a man who can go back after losing,
eat a good meal, talk CHEEKY with the
family, and next day start all over
again.
There are so many who are not
good losers" There is the loser who
is sure that his failure is the fault
of some m else, and is resentful and
bitter because of an imaginary injury.
There is the loser who gets cold
feet after he lost once, and never
means to try again. He is done with
swimming. Hereafter ne will drift
with the current.
Out of all these losers there is only
n worth while, and the rest will
remain losers to the end. But the
good loser is the potential winner.
To win by surrendering your princi.
pies, by compromise with what you
despise, is the most overwhelming
form of defeat. And to lose because
you will not be false in the least de,
gree to the faith that is in you is the
victory that counts. Some of the
greatest of all victories are won by
losing.
Dennis S. Thompson.
THE FRUIT OF HARMONY.