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Show THE DEAD ONES I RODE, not long ago, through the village near which I lived when I was a boy, and Interested myself in seeing how much was yet familiar to me. As I came Into the town It was easy still to decipher the old familiar legends the last word In advertising In the early days painted crudely upon the fences bordering the highway. high-way. "Snyder Sells Shoes," "Visit Owen's Store for Bnrgains in Dry Goods," "Sale Pays Highest Prices for Country Products." The signs, too, which still hung over the entrances to the business houses recalled old names and old memories: "C. L. Boon, Farm Loans and Insurance," Insur-ance," "Sally Shepard, Millinery," and so on as 1 went slowly down the street. But they were names only. Not one of the men or women had for years had any part In the business or social life of the town. Charlie Boon had been dead for twenty years, Sully Shepard had murrled and moved to Kansas long ago. They were all dead ones so far as the life of the town was concerned. No one bad had the energy or the Interest to paint out the legends or take down the signs. But this carrying along of useless or dead members Is not confined to my native town. I read the obituary notice no-tice last week of a man In middle life and, among other things mentioned, was the fact that he was a member of the Presbyterinn church, though he probably had not attended a church service for ten years. So far as the church was concerned, he had been a dead ore for a decade. It Is true of all organizations and communities. In church, social, civic and business organizations there are names carried on the rolls that are nothing more than names. The men hearing them have had nothing to do for years with the progress and development devel-opment and life of the organization; they are as dead as If they were lying under the ground in the cemetery. No community or organization Is free from these handicaps. Only a small percentage of men Is alive tc the responsibilities of the group or ths organization to which they are allied. Their Influence is seldom If ever vital In any way. Their absence would not be noticed They are simply deaf ones. |