The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-06-18
CRITICISM
By HARRY H. GARRETT

We were speaking of young man who is well known in this city. It is true that he is not the success that he might have been: but nevertheless he is a hard-working man and doing his best to support his family. He owns com fortable home in one of the suburbs and is held in high esteem by all his friends. That fellow could have amounted to a great deal more than he has, if he had not been so lazy and thriftless," said my friend in woe-begone voice. He seems to be doing very well, now" I replied.
 Yes" continued my friend in a cyni- cal voice, but if it hadn't been for the
 pull which he received through MT. A.
 he would have been beggar; and"
 q understand he is a very capable
 man and Is we'll thought of by his em-
 ployer You know he has a great many things to fight against in his life" "Humph!"
 "He deserves great deal of credit for the way that he has lived down his past; it has been a hard battle for
 him. but he has come out triumphant"
 "Yes, I know all about his past and it
 is blessed thing for him that it can
 not come to life; for I fear if it did, there
 would be great many things that he
 would not be so anxious for his friends to know. Why, about five years ago
 when he lived in the country, he was accused of defaulting in one of the banks
 and then you know he was suspected"
 "Oh, let the poor fellows past alone"
 I answered in a discourteous manner,
 why bring up all of these things
 against him, when he Is trying to live an honest life? I will venture to say that there are very few people who would care for their whole past to be written in crimson letters and held up for the
 world to read. If you were writing an autobiography of your life, would there not be something in your past that you would care to let a drop of ink conceal from the public?"
 "Humph," my friend looked about him in an uncomfortable manner.
 Do you really think that you de-
 serve laurel crown for your goodness and piety?" I continued. Well, first become paragon of perfection then l-perhaps-you will have the right to criticise others.''
 He plunged his hands into his pockets and gave me a ferocious frown;-and- walked away.
 To criticise is only habit, just a ] plain, ordinary habit.
 1 We often hear people say that it is a habit with So and So to always find the beautiful in everything and every body; so with criticism. The contrast l is too great to describe; we have to | give 1t only half a chance and it will entwine us with a hoop of steel which we shall never be able to cast off. l I know of an old lady who thinks it | is her binding duty to sit by her ri~e and criticise. There Is no one who comes under her observation lnat sue does not say something mean about.
 First, she passes her Judgement on the world in general; everything in it J is on its way to the lower regions; next President Wilson gets his medicine, poor fellow! she gives him dose worse than l half a dozen bottles of castor oil--the genuine stuff of course; then the popu- | lace comes in for it's share of comment, l everybody has lost his mind there were never such horrible times-the middle ages included and the people in l the neighborhood!-why Mrs. Jones will | soon make a bankrupt or her husband
 and he is not a bit better than his wife;
 he should never have painted his house
 that glaring shade of yellow! and Mrs. | Roberts, why she never knows where
 her children are from morning until 1 night; that boy of hers takes the streets.
 Never mind she will realize that it was
 her fault, when he grows up to be a
 criminal and that Terry girl that has 1 just returned from college! she is a
 terror to the neighborhood why she even went so far as to go driving in that automobile of hers on Sunday. Hor- TOTS! Horrors!
 l When this old lady finishes her oration you feel as though you had attended a feather pulling, for everyone that she has
 mentioned she has picked to pieces" | Then (oh there are so many different l types of crtics), there is class of people
 on whose lips has grown the phrases, Tt
 would be all right if "I like him very we'll, but-'
 | Let us stop critcsing the world and the