The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1918-03-02
DOMAIN OF TEMPERANCE
"THE MlRRoR.'

L II mere 10 OIC I1uA ~ t1SSAOI Oh liz
municipal bench at Chicago who has
| learned enough philosophy and open
| ed his heart sufficiently to the call of
| the human to make him worthy to
| be a Judge, Scion was no wiser.
! A recent dispatch from Chicago, says
| that when, one day last week, Robert
T.. Atkins, an accountant, was arrest
ed in state of intoxication, and later
brought before Judge Hopkins, the
penalty imposed upon him-and. mark
you, the only penalty-was that he
should look at himself in a looking
glass.
| "Bailiff,' the justice is reported to
| have said, "get a mirror and make
this man take good look at him
SELF"
And the Chicago wire" goes on to
affirm that the prisoner, having look
ed, begged to be allowed to go to a
| Turkish bath.
Now, do not, of course, know that
Judge Hopkins is disciple of Walt
| Whitman, or even if he is a reader of
| Whitman, but certain it is that he
absorbed from life something of the
same sagacity, discernment and illu-
mination which are so marked fea-
turc of the message of the great poet
He has learned, as Whitman learned,
that there is no punishment at once
so salutary or so efficacious as just to
set the soul face to face with itself.
If only we can be gotten to raise our
eyes and look, the probabilities are
we are saved. The trouble is to &C
complish that one clear, honest look.
For of wells there are many.
In the mirror which this wise judge
caused to be held up before a weak
ened, and it may we'll be, diseased
man, the man saw not only his bloated
and blotched skin, his distorted fea-
lures, his hanging mouth, his blood
shot eyes and the general repulSiye-
ness and disorder of his person. He
saw, also, deep into his loathsome' ap-
petite; and he realized as never be-
fore, perhaps, the vileness Of the habit
which appetite INDUCED, has fastened
upon him. The fact came to him
strongly, | have not a doubt, that he
was sick man-for indulgence of ap-
petite is sickness-and that he must
set to work to find for himself cure
But even deeper and clearer still,
can imagine that just as drowning
man is said to review on an instant
the whole of his life, right back to
!, infancy, this man, looking into that
mirror at the outward semblance of
himself, saw back, back to days of
innocence and joy, and to face now
> different.
> And thus seeing, is it not likely
that a trembling horror would sweep
: over him for the thing he had be-.
! come?
Listen, now, to what Whitman says
of just such a looking:
Hold it up sternly! See this it
Z sends back!
(Who is it? Is it you?)
Outside fair costume-Within ashes
and filth,
No more a flashing eye; no more a
sonorous voice or sprightly step;
Now some slaves eye, voice, hands,
step.
A drunkards breath, unwIlolesOme
caters face, venerealees flesh.
. Lungs rotting away piecemeal, stom-
ach sour and CankerOus.
: Joints rheumatic, bowel clogged with
abomination.
Blood circulating dark and poisonous
streams,
Words babble, hearing and touch cal
f lous,
S No brain, no heart left-no magnetism
G of sex;
e Such, from one look in this looking
n glass ere you go hence,
0 Such result SO soon-and from such
c a beginning!
And Judge Hopkins said further,
! to the bailiff: Hang that mirror to
:, the wall back Of the radiator and let it
v stay there. 1 want every man like
n this to be compelled to look at him
e self when he is brought to the bar of
r this court" -
# A Daniel come 20 judgment!
K London Free Press