Roanoke Rapids herald. [volume] (Roanoke Rapids, N.C.) 1914-192?, 1920-11-05
OUR TONGUE WICWACCINC
SYSTEM

Doubtless you have heard thu
story about the two black cats
surrounding a black lot, which
belongs to a black man, residing
in a black neighborhood. If you
have never heard it, the story is
this: Whole lot Of noise, don't
amount to much, soon over and
forgotten But, did you ever heal
the story about two people in
two yards talking over two
fences, about other people. II you
have never heard it, the story is
this: Started innocently, required
but a few moments to tell, lasted
longer than the world and did
more damage than a car load Of
dynamite.
1t is all we'll enough for US to
have large police forces in large
cities to keep the people straight,
and a good detective force twice
as large as the police force to
keep the police straight, but a
more important thing than both
of these is for US to be born with
heads large enough, in order that
they can hold brains enough to
give us sense enough to keep our
tongues straight.
The trouble with all of us is
that we are so" good ourselves
and the other person is so" bad
that his badness makes him loom
up like a mountain along side of
our little" mole hill.
Just a few days ago we had the
privilege of hearing a person
telling some friends that he had
been so good along a certain line
in life, and delighted in patting
himself on the back for his great
ness and condemning others for
their shortcomings along the
same line. This was very good
and we really felt thankful that
we were in company with such
a good person, but before many
hours had passed this same per-
son was engaged in one of the
greatest mud-slinging campaigns
that you would ever listen to,
against some former friends. It's
the same old story" "one thing
thou lackest. +"
People are inclined to talk.
That's alright. That is what our
tongues were made for, but it is
a mighty good thing that the
Creator made our tongues out of
a material that does not wear
out with use, otherwise ninety
nine and nine-tenths of the
population of every town, village
and city would be tongueless be-
fore they were old enough to join
the church choir, become a men,
ber of the community sewing
circle, or take the stump for
woman suffrage.
Listen. Do you know what the
trouble is? If you don't, will you
forgive US if we tell you. There
are two things the trouble with
the majority of us. First, we
have no object in life, not work.
ing to accomplish anything,
simply staying around to give
someone the pleasure of keeping
trouble or out of it-just
killing time, waiting for the hour
to come for some of our relatives
to call the undertaken. This being
the case, our brain does not have
anything to do, consequently it
starts up our wigwagging system
known, as a rule, in every To-
cality the world over where two
or more persons reside, and if you
can find a locality where there
are only three persons and they
live ten miles apart, we venture
to say two of them will be on the
telephone talking about the third
one.
The second trouble is: Our eyes
ears, mind and tongue are inclin-
ed to work harmoniously together
to be perfectly frank, they are
about the biggest liars you can
find. The eyes see something,
the ears hear something, and in
stead of them conveying the truth
to the mind, they force it to ac-
cept the untruth, and then the