San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-11-10
Listen, World!
Misfortune
BY Elsie Robinson

They took young Bert Healy down
to the county Jail today. Automobile
theft. Three youngsters in the gang
This is the fifth auto theft they've
tried to pull. And everyone's so sorry
for poor Mrs. Healey.
Bert is only IS. He seemed such a
fine youngster until couple of years
ago. Then he began staying out at
night, hanging around pool halls and
dance halls and going with a tough
gang. His mother was simply dis
tracted over it. She asked for pray
crs at church about it, but that didn't
seem to do any good. For last spring
Bert ran away and she never heard Of
him again until she read about his
arrest in the papers.
Yes, the neighbors are all so sorry
for poor Mrs. Healey. They go and
sit with her and cry over her and tell
her that he was a wicked boy to
break his mothers heart this way.
Mrs. Healey cries, too, but she always
ends by saying:
WELL, AT LEAST MY CON-
SCIENCE Is CLEAR. NOBODY
CAN SAY 1 DIDN'T DO MY
DUTY"
But the Visiting School Teacher,
and certain other neighbors have a
queer look in their eyes when you
speak of Poor Mrs. Healey and her
Bad Boy. They are thinking of a
woman's nagging voice that ran on
and on, day and night, and turned
what might have been a happy home
into an inferno. They are thinking of
a mother who flew into screaming
RACES if clumsy boy tracked mud
across a freshly mopped floor-of a
mother who couldn't be bothered with
a pack of noisy youngsters at night
because her head ached-of a mother
who was as loud in her prayers as in
her tempers, but who never took an
hour off to play with her boy, who
never went to a movie with him or
planned a picnic with him or tried
to win his confidence.
The Visiting School Teacher and
certain other of the neighbors think
of these things when they see peo-
pie sympathizing with Mrs. Healey,
and hear her response
WELL, AT LEAST MY con-
SCIENCE is CLEAR. NOBODY
CAN SAY I DIDN'T DO MY
DUTY"
Ruth Parsons husband has run
away with his stenographer. Ruth,
of course, is distraught, but her
conscience is also clear. The fact
that she was lazy, extravaGant, I'M
tidy and Whitney has nothing, of
course, to do with the matter. In
her eyes, and the eyes of her friends,
she was wonderful wife and, al
though Edward has broken her heart,
she at least has the comfort Of know.
ing that her conscience is clear.
The cashier of the Acme Drygood
Store has skipped with $4,000. Out
rageous proceedings! Who can a man
trust nowadays? Everyone is sympa-
thizing with his boss.
"Cheer up, old man," they say. at
was n tough deal but at least your
conscience is clear. No man on
Main street has n better record than
you. The fellows are all behind
YOU"
No one stops to remember that
this boss has two houses, three au-
tomobiles and belongs to the best
country club while the absconding
cashier was trying TO support a sick
wife and two babies on S140 per
month. Why should they remember
it? AS long as the boss's CON-
SCIENCE IS CLEAR what does a
little thing like that matter?
We've a queer idea about these
consciences Of ours. We think of
them as separate organs, spiritual
partners of our lungs and livers, de.
pendable, reliable mentors of our con-
duct. If they don't kick and squirm
there's no need to worry and we
think that Gods in his heaven and
we're in the clear.
A pretty, comforting theory, but
unfortunately. it's the bunk. Our con-
sciences AREN'T separate organs.
They WON'T work automatically.
THEY WON'T WORK AT ALL
UNLESS WE ARE INTELLIGENT
AND SENSITIVE ENOUGH TO
MAKE THEM WORK.
For they are part of our intelli-
gence-part of our social conscious
ness.
A dumbell is never troubled by a
conscience
Nor a brute, nor an idiot
But that doesn't mean that they
shouldn't be troubled. It simply
means that they haven't the where.
withal within their own skulls and
spirits to start such trouble.
So pause, my friend. before you
boast that YOUR CONSCIENCE is
CLEAR.