The Washington herald., 1916-10-16
Patience
By JOHN ID. BAHRY.


| Every now and then we come upon
what we believe TO be a new truth. We
are delighted, perhaps thrilled. we realize
| that the truth was not new, at all II
was, In fact, so old that II had imbedded
itself in a proverb.
Sometimes It seems 10 me as II
progress were merely an illusion, a.
II 1t consisted OF realization. forgetting
and remembering. So much OF what
we believe to be new truth IL restate-
ment Of fresh emphasis.
Meanwhile, the old truth, the etsr-
nal truth, keeps its place In the Ian
guage. From much repeating we often
forget its meaning.
On the other hand, there are I'm
bedded in proverbs, or what we believe
to be truths, that may woefuIy mislesd
And they may mislead all the more be-
cause, though fundamentally sound, they
| In the lack Of Qualification the cpl
grammatic form which the proverb
always takes finds both its weakness
and its strength.
| Consider, for example. the proverh.
Patience is a virture." Whenever We
think Of It or hear It quoted we reaf-
firm its truth. And yet on all sioes
/
| inflicting suffering on others through
this very quality OF patience.
We have sometimes tempted 70 think
| that II we could all be patient under
trials much Of the hardship Of living
would disappear. Incidentally, we forget
that, instead of always being virtue
patience. under some circumstances. may
become weakness. a menace, discredit
| even a shame.
1 hrouEnt TO
sudden realization Of this common
place fact In a talk before an audi
ence, consisting largely Of Socialists l
made the mistake Of advising patience.
What I meant was that II the Social
lists would rely less on the expression
/ Of ill-feeling and more on good-tem-
pered and sympathetic presentation Of
their principles they would have a far
better chance Of achieving economic jus
tice.
But I forgot that many Of the peo-
/ pie IN that audience were il-clad and
lnsufhciently nourished. that many were
in constant fear that they could not
meet the demands Of each day for food
and shelter. both for themselves and fo-
their wives and children, and IN soma
cases, for their old folks disabled and
cripped by long years OF ton.
| One fiery Socialist rose and bitterly
denounced me for preaching patience"
l can still hear the scorn in his voice
as he echoed and re-echoed the word.
Perhaps the sight Of so much patience
about him had driven that young fellow
to fury. Perhaps he unconsciously ex-
pressed one Of the dangers Of patience.
After enduring too much patience hu-
man being sometimes explode.
| I wonder II the French revolution might
not be traced to centuries Of patience
finally breaking into fury.
When I first went 70 England q good
many years ago was greatly taken
with the quaint and pretty manners Of
the poor OFTEN, when the carriage Of
some local parsonage would drive by,
whether they were or were not acquaint-
ed with the people inside, the women
would curtsey and offer respectful greet
ings. The men we're less polite; but
some Of them would grsvely. evenly rev
erently, take on their hats.
these greetings, owners Of vast tracts
Of land. would respond IN q very kind
/ and courteous way
Altogether those little exhibitions were
charming.
The more 1 thought about them. how
ever, the more plain It became that I
cid not understand them in their true
signihcance-
I thought they represented mere polite
ness. But they represented much more.
They represented sublime patience on
the part OF the poor. the people showed
! on to odds and ends Of the earth by those
who had possessed themselves Of those
vast tracts Of land and passed those
tracts Of land down to their children
and their children's children
/ In thinking Of those English peasants
and Of those lords and ladies have lately
asked myself where the real difference
! lay between them.
Did it not lie in the patience Of the
poor?
For the patience Of the por led them
to accept conditions that were not only
unfair but almost intolerable.
These conditions gave the bounty Of
the earth to one class, and the drudEery
and the penury Of the earth to the other
class
After generations It made one class so
different from the other class in appear
ance, in speech and in attitude toward
life, that 1t hardly seemed as II the two
classes could belong to the same human
race
In fact, one class regarded the other
class as of different clay"
In & sense, that opinion was Just
The differences between humanity,
after all, are almost wholly a difference
of clay.
And when people, that is, when the mil
lions Of the disinherited, realize the
I senselessness of their patience and wake
up to the obvious truth that there should
be no difference in clay, what a readjust-
ment there will be, what a realization Of
the folly Of human inequality the un-
necessary suffering, the waste