Show howe abo about U f drinkin drinking 9 and smoking policemen sane writing by ED HOWE A A MAN of thirty five civo lately wrote me ine he drank so buchhe lo 10 lost alb job it if he could quit two weeks he ha said he could overcome his bad habit and again become a salary earner and respectable spec table citizen in my reply I 1 said if he would quit drinking and write me in six months I 1 would quit smoking a habit in which I 1 had indulged many years something I 1 wrote vote seemed to encourage him lie he replied later he had passed the critical two weeks was waa again on the pay roll and doing well he further said he too was a smoker and 1 if id quit right away he would in replying I 1 said balds another of ray my bad habits Is to put off until tomorrow that which I 1 should do today so I 1 beg you will grant the delay I 1 ask in addition I 1 suggest you do not overload yourself in good endeavor would it it not be wiser for both of us to have the solace of smoking while thinking aking of tho the great reform we have promised to accomplish in six months everyone has baa probably remarked how bold poll policemen cemen are in arresting altize citizens ris disposed to obey the law such a man I 1 learn from the associated press was lately arrested and fined three times in ten minutes the man said in court he had been a taxpayer forty years and had bad never before been arrested the judge fined him a fourth time for that the offending citizen had bad bought a pistol owing to the prevalence of burglars and was taking it home also everyone has probably remarked how slow policemen are in arresting men who not only carry concealed wea weapons Dons but machine guns or sawed oft off shot guns which cannot very well be concealed about the person I 1 am greatly interested la in a manuscript sent me lately for criticism the author says in an accompanying letter that I 1 once suggested that a writing entitled the autobiography of a failure might attract public favor that he has prepared such a writing partly while an inmate of an insane asylum where he spent ten years and partly while an inmate of a poorhouse where he la Is at present troubled with palsy rheumatism and bad eyes As to the merit of the writing I 1 will let the reader judge by giving several examples the author confesses he be may occasionally quote unconsciously from others of which the reader may also judge from the following paragraphs it Is quite a job to maintain a sane policy in an insane world he Is a prudent man who Is not only undeceived by apparent stability or instability but Is able to forecast the lines on which movements will take tabe place an optimist la Is one who believes that nothing will happen but materialization of his dreams how unanswerable history proves that nothing inspires bad faith like perfect faith 1 though I 1 would not part with such scraps of education as I 1 have learned at school I 1 do not place placa the same store by them as of certain odds and ends I 1 came by in the streets it if nobody dropped out at the rhth eighth grade who would hire the college graduates ambition beyond capacity Is the first american weakness the only semblance of equality Is fountan found an an insane asylum there all are treated RIM alike it la Is socialism in action one woman outlived three husbands each leaving her a fortune when she died her money was left to spread a screech from the grave of mans worthlessness buy at a secondhand second hand book store a few books of deep thought in which the former owner has marked numerous passages leave them lying about your room the chambermaid will see them and be awed by your learning she will tell the neighbors they will tell everybody judging a man by what he reads Is as wrong as to say he swallows all he be smells no man Is a complete failure until he delights to think hla big virtue Is what keeps him poor something I 1 once heard I 1 have carried along in my mind for years as new important and inspiring hope I 1 cannot remember whether I 1 rend read it in newspaper book or magazine or heard some one say it nor can I 1 recall the bame name of the author briefly the statement was that if a roan man practices good behavior for its own sake because it Is finally easier and more profitable than bad behavior and renders his success in life more probable such practice improves hla his intelligence strengthens and betters his brain as other organs of the body may be improved proved ln by exercise thus awell a well behaved man has a double advantage I 1 ills his good conduct pays him in increasing his bis comforts 2 ile he Is pursuing the course in life best calculated to improve hla his intelligence and his character 0 0 often writes of old country boys who have made good in the city I 1 wish lie he would reprint this case A man named roy hoy roberts roberta was born in atchison county kansas where I 1 live and made so good in the city that he became president of the gridiron club in washington the only club the members of which have the privilege of making fun of presidents to their faces and when members of the gridiron club tell presidents the truth the presidents do not no recognize it they think it a joko 6 0 1933 boll bell syndicate i K |