The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1919-12-24


years or more of age. Most of the
yet not well enough. and have 'got on
each others nerves.
Once upon time we lived in lit
tie town which had just been cut with
ak and saw out of the pinywoods wild
erpess. No more trees had been cut
down than necessary and many homes
stood in the shadow of the primeval
forest. There were about 1900 people
there, and they came from almost eve
ry state in the Union. Until they
reached the town. few had ever seen
each other before. They were of all
churches and all parties. yet they all
took to each other and got along fam
ously. True. they had their little diff
ferences. Two of them would swindle
each other in a horse trade in the
morning and publicly SANDER each
other all the afternoon. But in the
evening they would meet with others
in the town hall or some other public
place to discuss some matter of inter-
est to the community. and if there was
any difference between them it was to
see which could do the most. And
what they decided TO do was generally
paid for cut of their own pockets, too.
Or they would 60 to one of those
homemade socials, which for pure en-
joyment have fashionable receptions
beaten to death, and like each other
so we'll they would offer to swap back.
For most of the time since we have
been here, there has been split in our
city council-one side pulling one way
and one side the other, for nothing
more than personal or factional de-
light. Yet our councils have always
been made up of good citizens.
If our board of trade meets, and
after long discussion some policy or
enterprise is decided on, as soon as
the meeting adjourns. and the men,
bers are out on the streets, some of
them will gather in small knots and
proceed to knock the matter agreed
upon, and their indifference or oppo-
sition is enough to kill it. even tho it
has a majority of the board and public
opinion with it. So have died many
good enterprises, which would have
been a benefit to the town had they
been carried out.
Our old friend Rooney. who tried to
reconcile opposing factions, once gave
what he called a getting together ban
quet. He had quite a nice spread in
one of the restaurants and some forty
of our leading citizens present. In the
middle of the table was big urn filled
with sand. on top of which was small
hammer and toy Ratchet, which rep
resented knocking and dissension. Aft
Ell a good supper, with a bottle OF
beer apieee-how peaceful bottle OF
real beer would make any one of US
now-Mr. Rooney rose and made g
very good talk in the interest of har.
mony. Then he solemnly and sincere
ly "buried the Ratchet" and the ham
mer in the sand. 1t was a good Object
!, lesson, and might have done some
good if among those present gooC
many hadn't each had Ratchet in hi!
pocket.
fractional dissent and personal dis
like made all the trouble about oul
light and water plant, and caused thu
, loss to the city of over a hundred
thousand dollars-all regarding mat
tiers that could have been settled by
> little forbearance and common sense.
! A newspaper man is like barkeep
err, or rather like barkeeper used t.
> be when there were barkeepers
! Neither newspaper men nor barkeep
= ers are loaded down with virtue, but
r doesn't take them long to learn the
q must keep condolences or have thei
, heads punched. Consequently they ar
told many things other people do no
4 hear of. We have had in one day MI
. A tell us Mr.. B was crook, and Nj
+ 3 tell us Mr.. A was crook, and the
q in course of casual conversation ha
O Mr.. G tell US that both Messrs. A an
: B were crooks. And then. if we pun
sued the subject further we learne
v in the course of few days that bot
A and B considered G crook. An
so on thru the alphabet. And yet W
have known A, B and G and the Other
all the way to z from ten to twent!
4 five years apiece and know nearly a
of them to be good citizens; and
knows he couldn't go on the whine:
stand and give the court satisfaction
reason for calling any other letter {
the twenty-six crook; and all IL
others know the same of him.
nj Otter strangers come here with Il
tention of making investments. Som
times such stranger is on the poil
Of making deal that will benefit hi
ana the community. but will me
some citizen who will knock the me
he is about to deal with, and it's a
off, and the stranger will 90 els
where How often this has happene
it would surprise the people in gener
to know-and every time it harper
it hurts the town. Strangers don
care for our petty quarrels-what the
want is to make friends and do bus
ness with everybody.
A very experienced old lady wi
had buried four husbands gave Il
lfollowing disinterested advice to
stepson of her second marriage and
stepdaughter of her third, who hadr
known each other long enough to kec
from falling in love and were going
be married. Said the old lady: "Chi
dren, you are sure to quarrel. But
4 when you have difference, each
| you tries to make excuses for Il
other instead of for him or herself. Il