The daily commonwealth. (Greenwood, Leflore Co., Miss.) 1916-1919, 1917-02-16
THE LITTLE THINGS OF LIFE.

Reader, if you were asked to name the most
popular man in town, whom would you designate?
| Perhaps you think, on the spur of the moment
you would indicate some great lawyer, or some
~favorite minister, or perhaps some old family
doctor, or any one of a dozen or more notable
Ipersonages in the community.
But on second thought you are not so sure,
and after mature reflection you are ready to dis
card them all.
Then you begin to cast about among the less
notable ones. Now you are getting warm" as the
children say.
Now you have located him, and you are sur
prised, because he is never associated in your mind
with the great, or even the near great, neverthe-
less, as you study him, his popularity and the
reasons therefor are brought forcibly to your at
t~tention.
In the first place you study him as he comes
down town in the morning.. His progress is slow
as he seems to be stopped by every person he
meets, and he has a warm handshake and a cheer
full GOOD Morning" for all. You follow him to his
place of business and see him radiating the same
sunshine and cheerful greeting, and you find he is
known to every employee on the place as "Uncle."
Watch him, if he is a merchant, as the store
begins to fill with customers. Each receives the
same cordial welcome. To the ladies he is es-
pecially courteous, and you are surprised to see
that courtesy mistaken even when confronted
by one whom you by no stretch of the magma
ton could term a lady. He sees your surprise
and-"for the sake of the sex" he smiles.
Now watch him as he starts for home toward
nightfall. School is out and the children are on
the streets. Here he must stop to shoot a marble
with a crowd of urchins, and they hail his coming
with shouts of glee. Another must persuade him
to have a try at his top. On account of his
avordupoise he has to draw the line at the hoop
which another offers him. But he starts it off
for the youngsters to pursue.
A little further on he is accosted by a bevy of
small girls, who are in their element as they swarm
around him, clamoring for a story, teasing him to
jump rope, or even rifing his pockets for sus-
pected sweets.
You see him as he reaches his home, when
the good wife meets him at the gate. She has a
sad tale for his ear. Sorrow has entered a neigh
boris home. At once he is all sympathy, and with
out waiting to enter his own door he passes on to
the house of sorrow. Perhaps he can offer nought
but sympathy, but this comes so plainly from the
heart and is accompanied by such a warm clasp
of the hand, that it carries it's blessed message
of comfort and sympathy.
Now you are beginning to appreciate the true
reason for his popularity. He is a man of in
Vulnerable small deeds Of kindness, but those
deeds are such as touch the heartstrings of the
people about him. He, himself, has never aspired
to great things, being content to occupy himself
with the small affairs of life, knowing full we'll,
wise man that he is, that of such is human life
composed. He would smile with incredulity were
you to hint to him Of his great popularity, be.
cause he is essentially one of the humble ones of
earth.
And his great OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES comes it
In his heart he has caught and held the echo
of a voice from the far off %past-"and the seconc
is like unto this: thou shalt love thy neighbo1
as myself"