The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-11-23

am at the moment travelling. On the
deck below a party of gypsies were
group. So 1 threw down to one of
the women bag of sweetmeats, since
children are children the world
around. The woman grabbed the gift,
and straightway the others were upon
her, fighting for possession. Not once
did she look up to say thank you,"
but as soon as another passenger, in
terested in the scramble, threw down a
piece of candy, the crowd of gypsies
were alert and eager suppliants for
more. even tho all their hands and
mouths were at the moment shame
lessly full The picture was so much
like portrait of my own soul, with
relation to the Giver of really good
gifts, that shrank from it in disgust.
little later, while stopped at a
wharf, blind soldier sang and prayed
for aims. In response to a gift the
wife looked up with eyes more ex-
pressive of gratitude than words, or
than the crossing of themselves, which
is the Russian mendicant's way of
returning thanks. Somehow, of all
that crowded, curious scene at this
landing, the one picture that remains
is of the blind mans wife, and her
simple. dignified acknowledgment of
a favor conferred.
Something is wrong with the soul
that is not grateful. It has lost its
nobility, and has become beggared,
like the professional gypsy mendi-
can't Almost the first lesson in de-
pertinent given a child is this final
teaching of life-how to say thank
you" 1t is of passing note that those
who receive least are the most CRATE
full That blind mans wife showed
more gratitude than most of US who
were taking this wonderful trip down
the Volga have felt. They who have
assume that they are entitled to re-
ceive more. The art of saying THANK
you' to God in our spirits, like the
good old fashion of grace before meat,
seems to be dying out. Certainly
grace is oftener said over porridge in
a cottage than over feasts on Broad
way. Stevenson caught the spirit of
true gratitude in his familiar lines:
'If have faltered more or less
In my great task of happiness:
If ] have moved among my race
And shown no glorious morning face;
If beams from happy human eyes
Have moved me not. if morning skies,
Books. my food, and summer rain
Knocked on my sullen heart in vain =
Lord, thy most pointed pleasure take
And stab my spirit broad awake"
One of the commonest. as it is one
of the stupidest, blunders made by
most of us is to assume that there is
some virtue in the art of fault-find
ing. We take it for granted that abil
ity to criticise, somehow or other i'm
parts to us the virtue whose lack we
have noted in another. AS a matter
of fact, the meaneSt person may criti-
else the greatest. The reason that no
man is a hero to his valet is that his
valet is not hero. Carping criticism
is essentially small-minded. But to
perceive greatness and goodness, and
to be quick and generous in acknowl-
edging benefits, that isaa sign of mag
nanimity and nobility. The great are
always grateful -
Now we are called upon to study
the subject of Thanksgiving, in time
when the world is smitten with sor-
row and woe and privation and sep
aration and many-shaped sorrow. Is
it possible that we are to be thankful
for what these days are bringing us?
Here IS a real test. This will search
out our spirits. and find what is fun
damental in our gratitude. If we have
only a. bread-and-butter thankful
ness, an appreciation of the sort of
material prosperity that we can re-
port to the tax-collector, then we may
rail at the world and time in which
we live, For none of US may credita-
bly, be having that kind of prosperity
at the present time.
Real gratitude, however, goes deep
er than all that. 1t has its springs in
profounder sources. Nobody with
eyes can look abroad in these days
without being aware that the world
has discovered new mines of human
resources, common to all; a new spirit
of mutual helpfulness; a new mood
of good will among men; new eff
cheney in organized society; a new
conception of popular government: a
political liberty established beyond
the power of anarchy or autocracy to
overturn; universal freedom to wor-
ship God; clear advance in all the
great human ideals. It is the traveller
who best understands what North
AnnariHa a of
praise.
There is no need to blink the facts
of life in order to be grateful 1t is
only required that we see things in
proportion, reckoning into the ac-
counting that which is unseen and
spiritual and eternal. Despite all that
this war means-and 1 who write
these lines am in Europe and have
seen more of the victims of war than
a stay-at-home person can even i'm
agine--in the way of waste and suf-
fering, it is nevertheless and unde-
niably the great awakening of human
ity to a sense of the things that are
worth while. There never before was
so much real higher education crowd
ed into three years.
The Singer Who Knew Real Life.
There is a class of writers and
speakers, happily diminishing in num-
Der, who are mere echoes of echoes;
they do not know life, and their work
of unreality. Within the sphere of re-
igion such persons have given US cant
and Journalism and pharisaism. 1t was
of a preacher of this type that his
son said, Father, are you just preach
ing, or do you really meant it?'' Not
of such was the great writer whose
song of thankfulness is the theme for
the study of the Sunday schools of
the world this week. David had
sounded the whole gamut of life's ex-
periences. He had been low and he
has been high. He had been hunted
Ike a wild beast, and he had ruled
from a throne in regal splendor. His
son had been false to him. and his
friends. yet he had also known and
sung the loyal love of a faithful
friend. He had assembled the heights
of ecstatic religion, and he had also
been in the depths of contrftion for
conscious sin. Not To rnanv man has