Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1918-04-04
~AND VERIFY THOU
SHALT BE FED"

most penurious men in New York.
My friend said to me: ibid you ever
stop to analyze avarice-to discover
what it is that makes men hard and
grasping?
"It's fear" he continued.
"Men are afraid of being hungry;
afraid of being cold; afraid of losing
their money and having to start all
over again.
SIN all the world there is nothing
more tragic than the withered soul
of man who has little money, and
having to start all over again.
an all the world there is nothing
more tragic than the withered soul of
man who has little money, and
lies down and gets up in terror lest it
should somehow be taken from him.
Then he went on tell me about his
father, came out of the Civil War
penniless and built UP a fortune.
Gle lost every cent of it in the
panic of 1878" he said. "And in ten
years he had made it again.
"Then came the awful year of1S92-
3. Banks failed. And right in the
midst of it, when it was impossible to
borrow dollar anywhere, certain
men attempted to force proposition
on my father by which he could have
saved his business at the expense of
his business honor
"IIe called them into his Office
/ was just old enough to remember
| it,---and there he stood, man of
more than fifty, gray-haired, facing
financial ruin.
Gentlemen he said, you have
been doing business with me for
good many years: you know ! am
square and reasonable. And now,
when my back is against the wall, you
want me to compromise my principles,
and threaten to destroy me If don't.
"He looked them squarely in the
eye:
i want to tell you little story,
he continued quietly. I was just a
boy in the Civil War; and after the
battle Of Charlottesville was cold
and hungry, and there was nothing to
eat.
Walking across the battlefield,
! found the body of dead soldier
He was not pretty sight, but clutch
ed in his hand was half loaf Of
moldy bread. And took my ram
rod and hshed it out Of his hand, and
for two days | lived on that moldy
crust
You think you can frighten me
by threatening to put me out Of bust.
mes p he cried. Let me ask you a
question first. Have you ever lived
on a dry crust for two days? No?
Well, I have; and, what's more, | can
DO it again: and if you can't you'd
better not 90 to war with me.
That's all"
have read somewhere that fear
is the first instinct to reveal itself
in infancy. Humor and love and faith
and hope all come later: but the evil
dence Of fear may be noted in the
very first weeks Of a newborn life.
And all the rest Of our lives we
battle, some mere, some less success
fully, against that bad inheritance.
Men who supposed that they had
! conquered fear are shivering agar
under it's influence today. / meet
: them everywhere in business.
| They talk in whispers Of the Boil
! sheviki. We shall have our own Boil
t sheviki movement, they say. Their
e will be a social revolution. Stock
r and bonds may become merely scrap
: of paper
Such conversation wearies me.
: do not expect any Of these dread
ed things to happen. But my respec
: is for the man who, like my father
: friend, can face the possibility Of theil
happening and still stand unafraid.
4 Who says to himself: "Whatevel
2 Fate may threaten, am still strong
and we'll: my purposes in the worlc
, are right: and / can make a living
somewhere, come what may"
! Who believes that, through storm
} and revolution, somehow God still
works to make world more just and
decent for the great body of His
people.
Who, conscious that he seeks no I'M
righteous advantage for himself,
nails to his masthead the greatest
promissory note IN the world:
Trust in the Lord, and do good:
so shalt thou dwell in the land, and
verify thou shalt be fed
! And in that faith goes forward
Bruce Barton, Editor Of Every Week.