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Show It H JOHN By THOMAS ARKLE CLARK Dean of Man, Univaraity of Illinois. WHEN I count up the everyday heroes whom I have known those simple, uuseltlsh souIb who meet sorrows and the sucrltlces of a life of toil uncomplainingly and well I al-wuys al-wuys think of John. tils was, Indeed, a very unherolc null nu-ll re. Lie was round-shouldered, and thin, almost to emaciation, and If the truth must be told, a little unkempt, bis thin Iron-gray hair a little rugged and uncombed. In early life he had been a farm liund; later be apprenticed himself tc a barber, and in recent years be had kept an untidy barber shop at the edge of town. Frugul wives beat him out of bis earnings by trimming the hair of their husbands and children; the work was sometimes crudely done, but a peuny saved is twopence earned, und there was no evidence of an in (luted currency In the village. lie could adapt himself to various sorts of work, lie was a host In himself at the time of spring housecleanlng, wielding the paint brush skillfully within and without the house, putting on wall paper, and acting as general carpenter and repair man. Ue had a reudy wit, a keen Insight Into the characters of men, a strangely simple accurate Judgment. He had no knowledge of literature, he was not much given to religion, be was quite Ignorant of political science, and yet the village teacher always dropped Is to see John when he struck a bar4 snug; the minister would never have got quite successfully through a revival re-vival service without consulting him and there was never a political schenn In the county carried through wlthoui his being'on the inside. He knew everyone within twentj miles, and everyone whom he knew had a good word for him. Children told him their troubles, mothers-named mothers-named their babies for him, men out of tuck and out of work came to htn. for help, and young boys asked hie advice and took It No one was too low or too Insignificant for his consld eratlon. If anyone was sick he sent for John If anyone was In trouble, it was John to whom he came for advice young girls and old women, wild boys and shrewd men, the child and the gray beard found In him an unselfish friend and a helpful adviser. No one evei beard him complain or grumble oi find fault with his humble lot When he died the village was crowded with those who came to look on bis kindly fuce and to follow him to his last resting place. They were the children with whom he had player and with whom he had walked ham! In band through the streets; they were the women whom he had helped and the men by whom he had sat when they were wracked with pain; they were the friends he had made through bis dally ministrations of toll and helpfulness. . lilt, Wwttrn Nwipp Union.) |
