Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1917-11-15

it had something of that effect)
startled the entire assembly in cast
ing SLY glances at each other and
evoking, at is would seem, the query
of "Is it 1? Is it II" For TO exalt
ones self as patrician of the "di-
vine right type, in these trouble
some times, will assuredly meet with
many well-deserved rebuffs.
In the early days of our great re-
public a good many unsavory deeds
were perpetrated in the commercial
world Of which men, let us hope,
would now recoil with the utmost dis
dain and righteous indignation. A
story quite ancient, perhaps, In its
make-up) is told of a Connecticut
merchant who made a good round
sum by exporting WOODEN nutmegs
instead Of the genuine article, to
England. The transaction was strict
ly cash BEFORE delivery, and the
New Englander pocketed the money
with no contrition of spirit. But
there remains the story that the de-
ception, once discovered shut out all
future bartering. Now this, at first
or any other view, is not case of
the nicely of personal character for
greed, but the want of it, and it may
be stated, without any sort of mental
reservation, that mentality, push and
energy are nothing worth while so
long as our daily lives are wanting
in that integrity and true manliness
which the laws of God and a Just
treatment Of our fellow man impose,
without respect to person, upon us
all.
Now what is this thing we call
character. II can be wildly illus
trated from any sources-past and
present. What could be more touch
ing, from Biblical lore, than the story
about the man who went down from
Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among
thieves, to illustrate true character?
Neither the priest nor the Levite
were touched by the poor mans suf-
ferings, but Samaritan who passed
that way" was so sensible Of the dire
trouble that had overwhelmed the
wayfarer that, at both trouble and
expense, he sat the afflicted one on
his own beast, took him to an inn
and made himself personally re-
sponsible for all the costs that might
be incurred, and all this in face Of
the fact that the Jews had no deal
ings with the Samaritans."
It will at once be conceded that all
this shows true character, and l pur-
pose illustrating 1t further by refer
ence to a particular individual now
much in the public eye in the person
of David Lloyd George, now prime
minister of England and head Of the
great British empire, with a popula-
tion all told of upwards of 500 mil
lion souls. This David Lloyd George
was fatherless and motherless at an
early age and was adopted and
brought up land we'll brought up)
by an uncle who occupied the hum
BILE station in life of being what is
called country cobbler" He was,
it is proper to remark, no slouch Of
a cobbler, and in relation to the two
Georges he reared and educated them
with a generosity and devotion which
all the world has admired. The once
welsh pettifogger Of lawyer" un-
der the tender-hearted but resolute
uncle, soon came to the fore in spite
of difficulties such as our own great
Abraham Lincoln surmounted, in a
career that ended in his proving him
self to be one Of the greatest Ameri-
cans. The foster father of David
Lloyd George died not long since and
left the distinguished British states
man Gas his share) some $1,250-
sum which he had saved after many
years of strenuous country cobbling
in small community, the name Of
which few people can pronounce cor
rectly.
David Lloyd George is not only
mentally great, but he possesses and
exercises a morality so kindly opera
tive in the social and economic af-
fairs of life as to make his very ex-
istence charm to the world at large.
Character building should, indeed,
be the business of every good Ameri-
can, and l conclude my fourth public
appearance as an exhorter and op-
timist in the Sweet bye and bye"
by a reference to two great literary
characters-a Scotchman (Sir Wal
ter Scott) and the other a down east
Yankee in the person of Mark Twain
(although California claims him as
- !
II Il