Show PASSING JUDGMENT JUDGMENTS S S on others can often got us into into hot water when we wo wedo wedo do not know all the circum circum- stances I By By WINIFRED WILLARD WILLARD- 1 TAN TV Nl M AN orange and bunch of boys boyson VJ- VJ on the lower East Side of New NewYork York The man tossed the orange I to see sec the boys scramble for it il ilOne One chap about 10 10 fought like a ayoung ayoung young tiger tooth and nail eyes flashing face grim fists hitting fu furiously fu- fu all all for an orange The Theman Theman Theman man who had tossed It told his wife wile at nt home I saw the meanest boy In the world this morning Didn't I care for tor anybody or anything except to hog an orange himself Business took that man later the same day to a pitifully poor room On a cot In the corner a little girls girl's cheeks flamed with fever and her body was wasted with suffering The Thedoor Thedoor Thedoor door flew fiew open In bolted that little chap the meanest boy In the world Breathless with running he tiptoed up to his sisters sister's bed bcd and whispered excitedly Heres an or or- orange orange ange I ye Sis fought for it cause I thought like It How her eyes sparkled Tiny hands reached eagerly for It Parched little lips craved the refreshment It offered The man went home sat long slumped in his chair Then he be called his wile wife and with shame and regret struggling in his voice blurted out Youve married the meanest man that ever lived That little shaver I told you about the one I said was the meanest boy in the world fought for my ray orange to take to his sick sister and Im I'm lookin for somebody to kick me round the block He didn't know the whole story before he sat In judgment that's alL Flimsy Evidence A big bishop spoke rather caus caus- caustically caustically and disparagingly about a woman In public life who traveled the nation and who had an exceptional exceptional exceptional salary Why Thy doesn't she wear better clothes he asked same old things season in and out that hat certainly's certainty's been on the road winter and ond summer two solid years It had She knew it better than the bishop But he Just didn't know that her money was spent In in- Instead instead instead stead for nurses and comforts for her sick father whom she adored What did a new hat matter if 11 father needed what the cost of a hat could provide Just judging on flimsy evidence I IFor IFor For months two people dodged each other Each knew the other was haughty unapproachable cold and undesirable Finally they met mel Didn't want to tried to avoid it and couldn't Almost at once barriers began to fall From the dislike of misunderstanding they got proper appraisals of ol each other to their surprised satisfaction each began to enjoy then to admire the other For the first time they saw behind the scenes and found only what was good Nearly always so sol Case of the Railroad Man ManIt It seemed strange that the man who lived In Washington breakfast breakfast- breakfasted ed ungodly early walked four long Ions blocks took a street car across city then rode the tiresome train every everyday everyday everyday day to his Baltimore office We could all have told him bun how much shorter simpler and more sensible for him to step into the bus in front of his house and out at his office most anybody would know enough to do it this easier easler quicker way Then we learned that he lio is of the railroad staff and it is his professional professional responsibility to take the train Buses weren't his line Trains were We sat In judgment without knowing what we were talk talk- talking talking ing about aboul So easy to turn our imaginations loose on any pretext or person so easy to see what isn't there to misunderstand and misinterpret to see sec the little lad fighting for an or or- orange orange orange ange for his sick sister as meanest boy in the world so easy to be critical instead of kind to tangle human threads that need straight straight- straightening straightening ening not snarling and thus to spoil many a lovely pattern of life A world of saving wisdom abides In the old philosophy that reveals theres so much good in the worst of us and so much bad In the best of us that it scarcely behooves es any of us to say things against the rest of us Just another way of sug aug suggesting gesting that Its It's better all around to judge not nol It keeps things from boomeranging on us Copyright Copyright ht Service |