Life — December 4, 1897 — page 16: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Christmas. SCTE devil take the hindmost” is a good, casy maxim, but it does not lend itself veniently to a Christ- mas application. One embarrassment about it is that the devil is greedy and disposed to- ward perpetual encroach- ment, and if the hindmost are left to drop too easily into his clutches he is for- ever reaching out to get the next to the hindmost also. There is no end to what he will take if he can get it, and if any of us who flatter ourselves that we are not the hindmost leave our rear guard un- succored, there is no telling how soon he may gobble it up and overtake us, too, con- ACE and goodwill to men” is the Christmas maxim, and that is not at all consistent with the policy of let- ting the adversary have all whom he is pleased to reckon as his own. Peace is not to be had by letting things slide. It is something to be won and held by per- sistent vigilanc Goodwill, the sort that Christmas empha state of the senses resulting from a com- fortable bodily condition. It is a state of mind to be laboriously cultivated and keptalive by self-denial and good works. The eternal battle for the hindmost is the price of peace on earth. Enduring peace is not consistent with a disposition in all the comfortable people to act on the belief that the fittest will survive, and that the rear rank may as well go to the devil first as last. that is worth talking about involves ex- penditure of ene! for the general good, It involves keeping ourselves in such a condition that we may carry our own load and have some money, some thought and sympathy that will be to help our , isnot a mere some strength, available wuere'’s YER Part “HI, SONNY ! potxe Xow? “ E1GHT MoxT's.” neighbor with his load. It involves pract licitude for the spread of righteousn It means helping the feeble to keep their legs, helping the sick back to health, keeping rum out of, the drunken, teaching the thriftless to be prudent, honoring and promoting truth and justice and honesty and wis- dom, instead of buncombe and show and sharp practice and brute force and cheap success, It means having ideals and living up to them; and, of course, it means charity and patience. * * * HERE isn’t much compromise about this sort of goodwill. It involves a pretty steady preference of duty to pleasure, and going without some things that we want in order that some other folks may have things that they need. Still, it is a sentiment that it ceedingly remunerative and wholes for us to cultiv: It keeps us alive, and, without necessarily feeding our vanity, it helps our self-respect and adds immensely to our enjoyment of life. There is not much use of being alive unless one is a feeling creature, and one 1 AIN'T SEEN HIM LATELY. WHAT'S HE cannot be that without goodwill, Thou- sands of people about us have it and live up to it, not perfectly, but still honestly and as human effort g That is why life is worth living, why education goes on, why good government is not despaired of, and why the fight with the devil for the hindmost is still vigorously kept up. That, too, is the reason why -+Christmas finds us not quite yet ashamed to wel- come it, nor wholly unqualified to share its joys. E. 8S, Martin, “WELL, THE CHEEK OF SOME FOLKS!