The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1916-07-27

Dut Ollc was OuC VII tllC Hills away,
Far off from the gates of gold.
And though the way be rough and
steep,
7 go to the desert to find my Sheep"
For centuries weak-minded men and
silly sentimental women have wept
many a lacrymose weep and mourned
with heart-breaking grief over the
poor, storm bedraggled sheep "out in
the desert wild and bare"
These benighted sympathizers new
er stopped to think that his poor un-
fortunate sheep was not in the desert
because he was unjustly driven forth
from the flock, but was there from
his own choice and volition; that he
thought his remarkable abilities and
capabilities were not properly recog
nized by those who were running the
fold; that the Shepherd was a "Boss;"
that the sheep dogs who nipped him
into line were depriving him of his
rights; that the regulations governing
the fold were tyrannical and unjust,
so he concluded he would leave the
flock where his talents were not ap-
preciated and hike out into the des-
ert, find himself an oasis and start
little, independent fold of his own,
where there was no shepherd to prod
him with his hook, no sheep dogs to
compel him to be decent and respect
the rights of others and no authorities
to interfere with his didos.
And these same sentimentalists
have extolled to the skies, the foolish,
brave, gentle hearted Shepherd who
was silly enough to leave the ninety
and nine valuable sheep, who had
sense enough to behave themselves
and respect his authority, unmatched
and unprotected, and calling his dogs
and picking up his crook and array
ing himself in his plaid, he gallantly
went out into the night storm and
risked his valuable life in hunting
down the recreant one and laboriously
tcted him home on his stalwart Shout
ders, never making any effort to find
out whether he wanted to return to
the fold or not.
These loving and misguided people
never stopped to think that in all
probability the wandering one was
cantankerous old buck and that the
decent members of the flock fired him
out from their midst for their own
peace and comfort, because he was al
ways trying to butt his fellows away
from the choice bits of heritage so he
could eat them all by himself, or,
wearied from his eternal bleatings of
complaint, expelled him from the pas
ture for the mutual benefit of the
flock.
They left out of their calculations
the fact that if he had been left alone,
in all probability he would have come
back of his own accord when the dark
Eess gathered, his stomach became
empty and the wolves began to howl.
That if he jumped into the Demo-
cratic fold he would be liability in
stead of an asset to that flock and #
the PopuEist wolves devoured him or
he was drowned in the cold lake cf
it would only mean the
loss Of one sheep and not very val
liable one at that.
These soft hearted mourners for The
lost sheep fail to remember that he
was on the rampage so much that he
had, no time to grow wool OF take on
faE;: that he worried the decent sheep
SO much by his outrageous conduct
that the ewes dried up and the lambs
sickened and died.
These mourners over the stray and
rej0icers over his compulsory return,
never paused to consider that il the
shepherd had spent one half the time
he wasted cruising around in The des-
ert, barking his shins on the rocks ard
filling his feet with cactus thorns, in
the condition of the ninety
and nine he would have had ten times
as much to- show for his labor:
These soft-brained, soft-hearted in
ulNheluS1ISr VIII are always CdoIi1S OOC
their hearts with worry and anxiety
over these troublesome sheep that are
forever straying off and getting lost,
ought to know that as soon as the rem
egade had become rested up he would
at once proceed to lose himself again.
IF there is anything that an onery,
ugly black sheep enjoys more than
getting lost, it is being hunted for,
worried over, cried over, and in being
coaxed, cajoled and even forced to re-
turn where he belongs, and the shouts
Of rejoicing over his reclamation a,e
the sweetest music in his ears and he
never misses an opportunity of get
ting lost so as to give the shepherd
chance to reclaim him. In fact he
makes speciality Of wandering away,
being reclaimed and then wandering
away again and being reclaimed some
more.
This sheep incident that has been
made so much Of, is but a replica of
the social, moral, religious and poliT-
ical phases of human life.