Show Kathleen Norris Says Upon Shaming the Devil Bell Syndicate Feature I f l cI 4 ir irA A a iA I I I I 9 4 t A Presently the colored porter put h his head headIn In the door he was going through the cars asking Did you all lose some money By KATHLEEN NORRIS HERE IS a family m in our ourtown ourtown THERE T town that IS known for Its honesty It IS not a particularly rich handsome socIally prominent or in many any other way unusual fam family y But It IS notable for thIS one thing it is honest You can trust the The fine old man who established establIshed the family business tells the truth The matriarch who IS so happy m in her bIg kitchen lotchen with a covey of grandchIldren circling about her tells the truth The tall handsome sons the pI plain am hap hap- happy happy py wholesome daughters even the freckled youngsters who dash so busily about our streets all tell the truth It shines m in all theIr faces And strangely enough this makes the family a very exceptional one and causes the whole community to depend upon the word of the Jone smiths If property IS to be bought the buyer likes a J opinion on It If H trade IS being solicited the trade Is considered the most valuable of any Much rIcher patrons may run up much bigger bills but they remain bills Bills have no place in the code Nothing that I n t simple and square and fall fair has Honest Person Exceptional Now is it not amazing that m in inthis this day of civilization honesty should be so rare that those who live by It are marked persons Be Because Because cause of course we all mean to be behonest behonest honest we try to practice honesty ourselves and inculcate the pIes of striCt honesty among our children Yet truth remains the great rarity in human dealings This week I had a letter from a woman in Illinois who Is determined to be honest It seems to me this new light that has come to her is worth passing along These are the days writes Lou Mary Fuller in 10 which we may maywell maywell well tremble for civilization No- No Nobody Nobody body can guess what Is going to be bethe bethe the outcome of this war nobody can can say whether the men who rise to power in the making of the peace will be honest men men or whether any human being alive is competent today to decide upon settlements boundaries reprisals national obligations and national rights Much less the hundreds of ambitious blind politically minded men who will gather at the peace table for endless months perhaps years of deadlocks and disputes Not aU all of them will be honest men We can only ocly pray that there ma may be a Lincoln a Washington among them and that good will in inthe inthe the end prevail We know know-In spite of all the eloquence we we hear know that we can t Impose our way ot of doing things upon mighty na tiona like Russia and China nations which are to in the throes ot of tremendous tremendous dous social changes anyway and anything but established in their re respective respective types s of national life Ufe and law We know now that we must not if we foster any fond illusIons of establishing exacting promises of democratic action from countrIes in fa inherently and fundamentally incapable naps ble of understand ng our national ideas We know already that em empires empires pires will not be abol shed and that imperial claims are not compatible with the tour four freedoms Can Train Children Better Detter So we have to begin at the bob bot- bottom tom Instead of at the top the let let- letter letter ter goes on We have to concede that we can t change men s a hearts or count on honesty In all the men of all the nations that will meet at that peace table even if our own are But we ve CAN help to bu build d a more honest America in our boys and girls m ourselves We CAN face each one m her own heart heart her own household and kitchen and garden thIS quest on of being honest So that someday when our children take over the world v orld there will be among them not Just a few who are conspIcuous for their integrity but hundreds of trustworthy states tates statesmen men and stateswomen ready to car carry carry ry on Dishonesty In school lf ig a on for older and more re responsible es to cheat Keep your own life as honest as you can It IS hard not to tell lies in these social days lies hes telephone lies It Is hard to market honestly for if a tradesman says unexpected unexpectedly ly Iy In 10 you want a five rib nb roast or I can leave you two extra pounds of coffee It takes real courage to stiffen one s back and say Thank you no we re rn m thiS national effort to stabilIZe food distrIbution and I d rather not For the maddening thing IS that the next customer IS apt to grab the extra supplies and no questions a ked Difficult to Admit Dishonesty But remember It was just as hard for you at five to keep your small hand out of that box of candy It Itis Itis is not yours its Ifs George s your mother said firmly and I don t let George take your things you know It was just as hard to say I did when the question of who broke into the was raised It was just as hard not to look when the unknown girl next to you sur surreptitiously held out a printed pa paper paper per In the dreadful hour of blue bluebooks bluebooks books and finals It was just as ashard ashard hard not to ma mail back to Its rightful owner the ring that was lying on the public washstand But it Is because you resisted all those tunes and a thousand more resisted the easy dishonesty that you have built up a character that won t let you forge and steal and he today And it Is upon that basis that the safety of all your life 1 is noted ted and upon such a basis basil alone that the safety of the world depends today We must be honest bonest With hith other nations and With ourselves And it if we Impress nothing else upon our children s minds and ch char characters r we must impress that Some 20 years ago a woman al- al always al ways somewhat careless With mon anon money anoney ey was standing on the open opell porch of 01 an observatIon car while i 1 was in full motion She had fo four r 20 bills rolled in her hand band When she reached her drawing room the mon anon money anoney ey was gone rone The woman felt ashamed for tor in other years she had b reason to know the value alue of money and she blamed herself for carelessness and gave up the bills for lost But pres presently presently the colored porter put hIs head headIn headin In the door he was going through the cars asking everywhere Did you all lose some lome money rl fI |