El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1915-04-16

ard. And It isn't because I have low
1 cred my ideals. It is simply because /
have come to have broader sympathies
! and TO estimate values more Justly.
! There's little Fifine, frivolous and
I brainless as butterfly, TO whom the
: most important thing in the world is
: 10 have the very latest cut in a gown
and the EXTREMIST hat from Paris.
I Fifine never had a serious thought in
I her life. She's iudiscreet. She neg
( lects her husband and her children and
I her home.
How / should once have condemned
| her. But 1 don't now, because I have
found out that there was never a warmer
: or more generous heart than beats
under the imported gown that she's
I gone in debt for. II want help, quick
/ ~ and surely, for any needy person, the
one I call on first is Fifine, and 1 never
( call in vain
And there's John. who has made his
money IN questionable ways, and who
. doesn't even understand what the word
honesty means in the sense that I IN
derstand it. He's man who has driven
close bargains, who has taken all the
short cuts TO wealth. 8 hard, sordid
money grabber that I should have once
desptsed from the bottom Of my heart
But don't now, because have seen
him IN his home as tender, and as pa
tient, to a querulous invalid wife as an
angel could be. I know OF the long
nights that he sits by her bed minister
ing to her, and that because he will not
trust her care to hired hands he denies
himself every particle OF recreation. He
never even so much as goes to the the
alter or for an automobile ride or a game
Of golf
8Iean Traits Can Be Overlooked.
"He spends his life vibrating between
a sick room and the factory where he
tolls like a fiend- know that the
money that he wrests from others
often unfairly, he pours OFT like water
on his wife. and because his soul is lit
by a great love that has been capable
Of making a great sacrifice, can over
look what is mean in him.
And there's sara, grabbed and, cross
grained, whose tongue drops vitrioL
sara is malice and uncharitableness
persOnified- She knows the worst OF
everybOdy-and tells il. She turns on
those who try to help her, and stabs
them to the heart with cruel speeches,
born OF envy
Il am one Of the very few friends she
has in the world, and time and again
she says things to me that In other
days would have made me drop her But
I don't even get angry with her now
when she makes one Of her csustic
speeches that turns a searchlight upon
one OF my pet weaknesses, for I know
that Sara's life has been one long sac
rifice on the altar Of her family.
she gave I'D the man she was TO
have married in her youth in order to
support GeE OlQ ldLutE ana luuLleTs ana
TO give the younger children IN the
family a chance in life she never had
And since then there has always been
horde Of hungry mouths TO feed, I
nepheWs and nieces, always new babies /
being born to incompetents who couldn't I
support them, and the burden OF it all |
falling on Sara's thin little shoulders.
When I think of all that she has done, ]
I don't see her as the terma gnaut, the /
woman with the serpents tongue. I J
see her as an uncrowned saint and (
martyr.
And there's Charlie. handsome, deb I
OMAR. mercurial fascinating. a reed for I
every wind of passion 10 blow. Charlie I
married as nice little woman as ever &
lived, and had three OF the prettiest +
little children. and then, for no reason 0
al all except his own wandering fancy,
he deserted his wife and children and
decamped with another woman.
Age Clears Our Eyes.
Weak and unmauly. and recreant TO
duty, ] grant you; but Charlie had his
hour when he was a man, when
gacht on which there was a gay and
lalf drunken pleasure party struck the I
'Ocks, and seven times he Went out to
What seemed certain death TO rescue
hose on board.
"And so it goes through a long list
" people / know, each one with some
edeeminE trait, no matter how bad the
est Of him or her is; and / get such
Oy and gladness out of them. because
se has taught me how to mine for
he gold and throw aside the dross.
Youth is color blind 1t sees only
lack and white. But age clears our
yes so we behold all of the delicate :
astel shades in humanity. An that's .
What reconciles one to growing old"