The Covington leader. (Covington, Tenn.) 18??-current, 1917-08-02
THE AVERAGE MAN

I ALL n V AAAAEAOE MAN
Who is the average man? What
does he look like? How much money
has he?
! DR.. VIM e. Barton has drawn a
sketch of the average man, in which
he compares him to the biblical char
acter who had the two talents given
to him:
There is nothing very interesting
about the man with the two talents
He was merely an average man. Two
talents were what most of his neigh
bors had, so he was neither better nor
worse off than they. There was moth
ing conspicuous about him, so he es-
capped attention in the crowd. When
the time came for the extra dividing
of the talents, he was neither great
enough nor good enough to share in
it. He kept the talents that were Civ
en- to him and earned more in proper
ton, and had his modest reward. And
then the world proceeded to forget
all about him. That is the way the
world has always done, but the man
with the two talents is an important
though neglected man.
In the first place he bears heavier
burdens than justly belong to him. He
is not poor enough to escape from
taxes under the exemption law, and he
is not rich enough to become sue
cessful tax dodger, and so he pays
taxes out Of proportion to his real
wealth.
He is not poor enough to have his
children brought up in an orphan asy-
lum, nor rich enough to send them to
private schools; so he has the joy and
the burden Of bringing up his usually
large family, while his neighbor with
great deal more wealth has fewer
children and grumbles about paying
taxes for the support of the schools.
If he has a surgical operation he is
never poor enough to get it done in a
free clinic, nor rich enough to pay for
it without feeling the strain. The
doctor charges him 500 when
he would charge a millionaire $500,
or do it for poor man for nothing;
but the 500 he pays is one hundred
times as much in proportion to his
means as the $500 paid by the rich
man.
Upon the average mantle man
with the two talents-falls heavily
the burden of supporting the church
and the state. His taxes make up the
great body of the income Of village,
state and nation. His free contribu-
tions sustain the church and provide
for its benevolence; but people forget
his $40 in their excessive gratitude
for the subscription Of 500 from the
man who has ten talents.
The average man is never Of inter-
est to the reformer; he is always look
ing out for the man who is down and
out. He seldom gets on the front
page of the paper either for doing any
good thing or any bad thing. He is the
husband of one wife and the father Of
half dozen healthy, happy children.
The average man is a member of the
church, but he gets little credit for
his conversion. He has no great re-
ligious experience to record. He can
not tell how he wandered into terrible
and well-advertised sin; he can only
say that in his humble way he has
always tried to be a Christian man.
He doesn't know when he began to
love God any more than he knows
when he began to love his mother
There is no demonstration made over
him such as is made over the return
ing prodigal There is nothing to be
said about him except that he did his
duty.
The worlds wealth is safe in the
hands Of the average man. Forgotten
as he is, he is the resource of his
country in time of war or time of
peace. The farmer, the small dealer,
the mechanic, who never get on the
front page of the paper are worth
more to society than all the million
aires, The man who makes two blades
Of grass grow where formerly there
was but one, is now, as ever, a bene-
factor, even though the world has so
much grass that it never distinguishes
the blade in the meadow, or knows
what man sowed the seed, or dug out
a stone or weed to make room for it.
The average man is neither the
hero or the william in the play; neither
is he supernumerary. If he has a
speaking part at all, it is short one,
and his principal business is to give
cue to someone else who is later
called before the curtain for the ap-
plause Of the multitude. Neverthe-
less, the play could not go on with
out him.