Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1958-03-16
SPIRES OF THE SPIRIT
Fares, Please
Across the long years lin.
BY DIR. FREDERICK BROWN HARRIS
Chaplain Of the United states Senate

Across the long years lin
gers the memory of a genial
conductor swinging back and
forth in the aisle of an old
fashioned trolley car crying
out, Fares, pleased" 1t was
not so much a stern demand
as it was a good-natured re-
minder;; lest one forget, that
the ride had a price-not
nearly so high as the fares
of today.
Out of that boyhood echo
of Fares, please" comes the
remembrance of a sermon in
a little country church. The
old preacher talked about
Jonah. However, he did not
dwell much on the whale. In
the lessons he drew from the
boat trip that ancient proph-
ct took in running away from
Gods will. his text was "He
Paid the Fare" OF course, a
part of the recreant prophets
fare" was his experience in
side the whale. But the eter-
nal truth in that sermon in
the vanished yesterdays, was
that always hfe's fare must
be paid. No one travels on a
pass. To reach any destina-
ton worth while there is al
ways an insistent demand,
Fares. please" A keen OBJ
server Of unlovely human
traits has said. ITO some peo-
pie the art of life largely con-
sists in trying to evade pay
ing the fare. On the lowest
rung of the social ladder they
are called tramps. Higher up
they are often called clever"
With no sense of obliga-
ton for the treasure which
has been poured into their
lives by the costly sacrifice
of others, how many there
are whose ruling passion as
they go through life is
merely to ride without any
thought of paying the fare
even though they eat in
vineyards they did not plant
and drink at ciSterns they
did not dig. Such parasites
take out of the common pool
much more than they put in.
They are content to be beg
garS and borrowers.
But on the other hand the
human enterprise is lifted tc
ever higher heights and to
reckoning far horizons by
the truly royal individuals
who more than pay their
fare, who carry the race
forward on their Strainine
shoulders, who instead OF
leaning, lift. Such lives who
inspire ours are lifted out OF
triviality and insignificance
by the ennobling power of a
great obligation-such as
constrained Paul the Apostle
as he exclaimed, II an
debtor"
Long ago America at its
feeble beginnings was warned
that freedom has its re-
quired fare. A heavily
freighted sentence has come
ringing down the years
Eternal vigilance is the
price of liberty" Now that
that liberty is beset as never
before by cunning foes at
home and abroad, a voice as
loud as thunder reverberateS
throughout this land of the
free. BE ready to pay the
price for your birthright
Have the coin in your CRATE
full hands. Fares, please"
This is an hour, as in all
the world freedom fights fol-
its life. for those outside the
Iron Curtain to listen as ouI
priced democracy looks every
free man straight in the eye
and asks. What do you
mean by freedom? Why dc
you want it? Are you paying
the fare for it?"
A new book is knocking at
your door. 1t is calculated to
stab complacent America
broad awake. The author is
that prince of Americans to
whom we all owe infinite
things. j. Edgar Hoover. The
volume is wildly entitled
Masters of Deceit" With
out hysteria, but with start
ling facts like searchlights,
this volume alerts citizens of
this land of the free to the
C0rnun1niet YNo,.il x,,h;oI, ,,,o,,