Norwich bulletin., 1922-03-25
THE MAN WHO TALKS

l 1 waste we throw money, or it's equivalent, l absolutely away. Wastage creates | dead loss, just as though we threw so I much value in bank notes into the fire
 or the sea. Rich people and rich na- l tions are called upon as imperat lively to l stop the leakages as the poorer ones. 1 Every nation in the past that has gone 1 to pieces can date it's downfall to some | preceding era of reckless extravaganza 1 and inertia. Evidence of wastfulness is | ever present. Last week a society sup 1 ported by public contributions sent me | in one mail, three letters inclosing the 1 same material and three stamped return l post cards. One letter would have been l sufficient. Ten cents were spent where 1 three would have been enough. If
 that was done in every case the wasteful-
 ness was large.
 1 None of us want to be too hard on l the boys. We haven't quite forgotten I what we, ourselves were not so many | years ago. We are quite ready to ad- i init that the mistakes most boys make are due rather.to thoughtlessness than to 1 maliciousness. The boy may deem it 1 expedient to make the short cut some | times as we grownups do, but don't short i cut across valuable property like front l lawns, as I see many boys are prone to- | But the worst of 1t is bunch of boys | will cross front lawns when there are no i short cuts in view. They will alwa ys make church property a play ground. l causing not only annoyance, but expense l to church trustees who have some pride 1 in keeping their premises looking re-
 spectable. The custodians of church 1 property dislike to take legal action against the misuse of their property, but
 
 those whom they represent. They won der why it is that children who have | been kindly asked not to trespass con- | tfnue to do so.
 The mid-Lenten season in which we ] are now. naturally recalls to our minds l the changes in opinion that have come
 about as to it's observance. If ones l mind ranges over series of years it l is not too much to say that there has | been a complete reversal of opinion and practice on the part of most of the Chris | tian denominations as to the observance 1 of Lent. Up to the close of the Civil
 war. two denominations only paid any 1 special attention to the Lenten period in l this country, and they were the Episcopa- 1 Han and Roman Catholic. But as the 1 inter-church spirit began to grow, un- 1 pretudiced minds began to rsc that all i denominations had some good points that i others might well initiate The Puritans l tabooed all special days out of mortal 1 dread that they might initiate "the pa i pists." Consequently their worship was l cold, hard dry and barren. We have
 done well to enrich our service by a | larger liturgy.
 1 There is an index finger Tn piiant
 boyhood that points unmistakabIy to RI-
 | The old saying. AS the twlg is Dent the 1 tree lnclines," is 8 sound bit of moral l philosophy A decided trend in child 1 hood is apt to perdure. If that is true
 one Is forced to acc@pt the doctrine of eugenics, or the value Of being well born. That means being born with strong physical and moral trends The chi1- 1 dren of parents physically strong and mentally and morally sound have a de ! cidedly better start in life than oth- CT children. It is idle to deny this per 1 fectly obvious fact that has been scserl- 1 tifcally established. If you see a boy who delights to torture Insects and the | lower animals it Is not hard to predic1
 what sort of a husband fatA2r and cit.
 izen he is going to make. The boy whC
 will not play the game straight, or vii steal when not watched foreshadows
 ,
 is still the father of the man.
 Another Index finger is pointing witI great accuracy in another direction, an( i that is to the real accomplishment ot prohibition. When we read in the morn
 ing paper that Tomatz Woneskictz5 has been arrested for running a still II his cellar we trembIe in our shoes fol
 the safety of the Republic Let us re hay hot
 other good Americans like him. do no , represent the prohibition problem in it
 entirely. To arrive at safe conclusions
 we must base our calculations. not oI
 individual cases. but on the law O
 averages. According to statistics tn
 number of arrests in New Britain il
 1917 was 2,163, four years later in 1921
 the number of arrests was 1.745. de crease of more than 17 per cent. Fo Hartford there were 12.316 arrests il 1917; in 1921, only 7,21S. a decrease o 70 per cent. In Bridgeport 1898 ar rests in 1917, in 1921 3.360. 8 decreas of 120 per cent. In Waterbury the de crease has been 125 per cent. What ha wrought that change?
 QuaEmires! The very sound of tn word has a harsh, grating effect in ou
 ears. Even if one did not know tn
 meaning he would instinctively feel tha 1t was something dirty and mean. l
 you should call any man not familia with Tl1e English language, an "ol 5 qua grnire," he would feel like battin out your brains. The very sound of tn 2 word would put murder into his hear = Now what a cuagmire is fully justife , the sound of the word: Something sof
 sliny, nushy dirty, sticky. foul, treact
 erous and altogether useless. At leas that Is what the poor automobilist find
 who tries to make a voyage to Will 7 mantle from Norwich at the time thes I fines were written. The slime and th 7 danger of g quagrnire Ee not on tn surface. It looks hard on the surfac
 but as soon you drive on it down yo
 go clear to the hub. sometimes met r fellows who are up to their arm pits ] : the quagmire and they think I can l. see 1t on their garments. The 1eopar
 has not yet learned ito hide his spots
 Advanced civiIizstion: It doesn
 | grate quite So harshly on the ear the word "qua gmire''-that I VIII admi u but pray tell me what it is and whe1 r. can one see it? Maybe you will say.
 old England that has been toiIng up u
 hill for more than fifteen centuries. We 0 I saw a good deal of rural England .- 1895, but when I discovered strong me . trying to live and rear families on = shillings a week. I knew that the u wasn't civilization enough in those SC
 tions to shake a stick at: But you ss
 go to London. Well, I went to Londo l. for many years the largest city in Il n world. I saw White chapel and oth -e slum regions and I knew that ar ;, city that could sit 'in ease'' under su,
 conditions of vice. and squalor was T
 specializing in civilization. Shall we fl