Show V i Tragedies of Misunderstanding I IDy o By Dy DR FRANK FRANI CRANE In the south a few years ears ago a n. toll-gate toll keeper in a lonely section load section of ot the country was awakened by bya a a. ban banging nl at athis his door late at nightA nightA nightA night A series of ot robberies had been committed near tho the place so h he shouted from ah an upstairs window Who ho is 18 there No o response The pounding at the door contin contin- Get away from that door or Ill I'll shoot he warned The pounding went on Ho fired and the the- black shape by the door fell without a n. sound Later it was learned that the man knocking at atthe atthe atthe the door was a deaf deat mute lost Jost in the woods seeking seeking seek seek- ing Ins to learn the direction to town He had h d heard and if It he had he would have hae been unable to make a n. reply In less spectacular ways WIlS tragedies In misunderstanding misunderstanding standing are enacted every da day When hen we come to cope with the needs and actions of oC others we too often onen fall taU to see the struggle or handicap that has shaped them as they are A man irritated all aU who met him by a a. supercilious supercilious super super- super super- cilious way he had of ot looking at people through his glasses It turned out th tha it was all caused bythe by bythe bythe the way his spectacles were focused An actress who had a reputation for being stuck up said it all camo about because she was near near- sighted When she passed people on the street without without with with- out speaking to them it was because she could not recognize them beyond a few t feet t. t A A. man who was thought stem stern and cold had spent most of ot his life fighting the the- bad blood of his father lie He had risen from nothing by his own efforts ef efforts ef- ef forts Torts and had lived a I Iclean clean respected life by virtue of eternal vigilance and conquest It took Iron primness primness prim prim- ness fleas to do that The more J we know of ot others the more we find to sympathize with and the less leu to criticize harshly Charles Lamb IAmb was once asked if it he didn't hate a a. certain man and he said he didn't because he knew him and you ou C cant can't hate a a. man J if you ou really know him The real reason w we e are more l lenient with our own mistakes and shortcomings than with those of or others is not because we are unfair It is because we know ourselves better than we do others and see all aU the ext extenuating circumstances It is a good thing to get into the habit of ot other- other lag Ing ourselves that Is Is' to say imagining ours ourselves to tobe tobe tobe be in the place of ot another person It Is this power of sympathetic understanding that characterizes the highest type of man It avoids much misunderstanding Copyright McClure Newspaper Syndicate Ine Inc |