The Breckenridge news. (Cloverport, Ky.) 1876-1955, 1921-05-11
RESPECT the BURDEN


il was. 1t happened at St Helena. A
porter was toiling up steep stair
and a social great dame was block
ing the way. As the social superior
of the porter il was not her part to
make way for him. Napoleon took
! her by the arm, drew her to one side
and said curtly:
Madame. respect the burden"
This injunction is the whole law
and gospel of courtesy. 1t is more II
is. in three words, a complete state
ment of the principle of human rights.
| The burden-bearers, whoever they are
and whatever they are, are entitled
to consideration in exact proportion
to the burdens they bear.
Ostensibly our social life is organ
lied to do this. Actually it does not.
| And anyone who sets out to govern
his human relationships according to
this standard finds himself obliged
and rightly soto revalue the cur
rent valuations in many a vigorous
and startling manner. OF course any
one with an atom of sense OF the
| fitness of things. man or woman, will
| give I'D a seat in a streetcar to
woman with small child These are
| a
along il takes some imagination to
| discern the burden and some gener-
osity to respect it as it deserves. A
| little thing, but to the point, is the
| evening rush-hour when drays and
| trucks are speeding for their stables
and garages. These drivers are tired
| They have worked far longer and tar
| harder. than most of us. They are
hungry and, at the best they can do,
! they will get home to supper later
than most. Pedestrian rights or no
pedestrian rights, the handsome thing
| is to let them have the right of way
Town and country abound with
these situations. He who can discern
| the burden and respect it is gentle
man, let him wear what clothes ne
, may and use what grammar he Will.
I He who does not respect the burden
| is a boor, let him be as bowling a
social swell, as towering an intellect
as he likes. The ordinary codes OF
courtesy, useful as they are as the
small change of life, are, after all,
mere outward forms which many
| cold-hearted snob can master as an
instrument through which to sheer
and snub and wound and violate every
| common human decency. The spirit
| of courtesy is the basis of all this
coinage-the gold, and often unimit-
| ed gold And the disposition to dis
! Germ burden-bearing and to give 1t
the honor which it its due is cour-
tesv not only above all rules, but one
which frequently involves the smash
ing of established rules.
Is somebody blocking the sidewalk Z
Yes: but see what he is carrying. Is
somebody a bit irritable? Yes, but
see what he is carrying Is somebody
expressing views which sound nutty
or chestnutty? Yes, but the question
is Are these views sincere and is
there behind them an honest anxiety
to learn?
The word justice has good name.
We hear it highly spoken OF. But
without the salt of imagination to put
Yourself in the other fellows place,
Justice is sorry dish.
II is not too much to say that every
ailment which is plaguing this SICK
and sore modern world is bred OF
failure or refusal to respect the bur-
den. The central monstrosity OF 1t all
is our prevailing custom OF honoring
people not according to what they
produce, but according to what they
consume. What constitutes producing
is an excellent question on which to
sharpen the teeth of ones mind. But
the esteem in which people are held
who obviously produce nothing and
who never did produce anything, yet
who consume ostentatiously and law
ishly is at liberty to derive.
The aristocracies which we are US
ually hidden to respected social pos
ition, or birth, or wealth, or brains
are none of them in themselves
worthy of respect, though individual
members Of them often are, There is
only one genuine aristocracy and that
is the aristocracy has its badges, its
insignia, its titles, its Offices, its secret
code-language, and even its initiation
rites, and the most remarkable thing
about it is that all of these are in
visible until one has been initiated IN
! to membership.
1t is only by becoming burden
bearer that one learns how to respect
the burden.-Uncle Dudley in Bos-
] ton Globe.