The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-11-26
Advice to the Lovelorn

Why shouldn't we all get into the habit of giving other folks the beneht Of the doubt? Which of us has not been in a situation which might look peculiar or even all wrong to some one who didn't know all the facts in the >ase?
 There probably never was a ques ton that didn't have at least two n sides to it. This applies to politics as well as to life. And to fail to recog- nize that the merits of a case aren't stated until it has been reviewed from minimum of two angles is 10 act as if there were no mercy in the scheme of things.
 Most of us have in ourselves at least two viewpoints and two sets of motives in full working order. Don't we often want to please ourselves and yet not to surt parents whose views may be directly the opposite of our own? Don't we struggle between the ival desires to get on in the world and the longing to- have the pleasure of the moment t
 Knowing the complicated fabric of our own natures, it is surprising that we can't allow more generously TOT the same thing in others. Knowing how often we intend exactly the op- posite effect from the result we get, 1t seems odd that we can't be more tolerant or at least less cocksure about other folks and their meanings.
 great poet and philosopher once suggested that it was a good idea to judge men by their inten to Judge men by their, intentions. For though the bright moment of promising De but a moment said he, it indicates clearly what is in the soul of the man who glimpses the best in himself.
 Now Pm a firm believer in the tol- erance which is capable of recognlZ- ing that other folks beside ones own self may mean well and still manage to go very much astray.
 To condemn any one unheard IS to show ones self as much in need of condemnation as the victim or one's judgment Black is not always of equal density and what looks white in some lights may be revealed in cellar enough sunlight as gray.
 Particularly do 1 want to plead now for a second chance for any one who has blundered and is trying to come back We salvage so many things m this world-why not human wreck age We rebuild lawns which nav been destroyed. We mend broken pottery And when a. human who has gone on the rocks and who is smash ed up a bit shows signs of wanting to pick him or herself up again and to make something worth while or what's left of the misadventure why should we try to shove a )felloW-belng back where he came from and doesn want to stay?
 Most folks can come pack ana fnake good without a bit of help from any one else. They can't do it against me handicap of steady and cruel hln- drance, however.
 By our judgments of others we in dicate pretty clearly what we our. selves are. If you can't believe Una. Betty James has any decent motlves, isn't it because in Betty's place YOO would be cheating and lying and do- ing unworthy things, Don't you snow clearly what you are by the way you insist on what someone else IS? IT I in a given situation you yourseH would play fair, why can't you allow that someone else is doing the same?
 To go up to a mountain top ana look steadily down one side at the forests, refusing to turn around anu raa inc lakes in the other middle distance" would be absurd, wouldn it?
 well-aren't human beings and hu- man motives as important as any We'll -rsvertised and beautiful view?