The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1916-09-28
MANS HUMANITY TO MAN.
The story runs like this:

MS business, pTOSpeTeu anu Woh
friends. He did not talk of his past,
and no questions were asked him. He
conducted himself we'll and was &C
cepted on his merits, after the frank |
breezy fashion of the west.
Two years went by, and then there
came to the same town two other men
who talked frankly of their old homes.
In the social and business life of the
town they soon met the first conner.
A whole tragedy lay behind that meet
ing, for the new arrivals had known
the other man back in the home town
of Minnesota, but known him by diff
Iferent name The Everett of Califor-
mia had been the Cowle of Minnesota,
and he was burying himself from the
lcrucifying consequences of misstep
in the honor paths Of life. The new
corners knew the facts, but never re-
vealed them.
Year by year, for % years, the three
met face to face, mingled in the same
company, became prominent figures in
the town life, and not one Of them
ever referred to the fact that Everett
had been known to the other two
ANYWHERE else. They found him re-
spected by his neighbors, and they
held their peace And he, standing
squarely on the grave of old life, with
a new standard and new name, ac-
Icepted their silence, and held his own
tongue.
Here is a situation with which a
Sardou might conjure. Between the
lines we read the mans fear at first,
with a passionate resentment Of a
coming revelation of his dual person
atty. There were at stake the good
will of his fellow townsmen and the
love of the woman he had just mar
ried. Farther on we read, still writ
ten between the lines, the almost dare
devil courage with which he faced his
. former acquaintances and silently de
MED old afflliations, and practically
defied accusations. Then we catcl
1.-THE ever-increasing relief that came o
, their silence, and finally the grateful
) acceptance of that silence as sigl
lof forgiveness and encouragement.
Twenty-eight years Of his life wen
by; then a few months ago Everett
2 died. Those two men who could hav
4 struck him to earth with shame an
! degradation let him live out his ne,
life in honor and peace.
= Was ever finer story told of man
= humanity to man?
: And then, with swift transition, tn
;. thought comes:
s Suppose the offender had been
r woman; how would she have Jared &
. the hands of the knowing ones? Woul
:, they have been animated by the sam
fine sense of justice, the same bea1
0 SplIII VI CHARITY AS u
J. ten as not the woman, in story lik
g this, is innocent, but is victimized /
II circumstances, but in the gener
" trampling and condemnation nobod
70 stops to consider this.
q Those two men in that Californ
lie town have administered startling r
u proof to the evil-tongued gossips
10 the continent. 1t was not throuf
: them that Everett's old life was la
~ bare to the world and to the aged W
" man who had believed herself to
IS his wife for more than quarter Of
1t century The insurance compan
III oontesting his policy because he 'h
u wife back in Minnesota" laid op
90 the ugly facts. In death the gr
be Ishadow of his early mistake ere
IN back upon him. But those two m
err who kept his secret must have Ike
sense of personal satisfaction in tn