- niture, and I did not know that he had gambled
it away until the chattel-mortgage man came and threatened to take the stove and furniture out of the house. I went to police headquarters and they were rude and insulting to me. But one of the officers came up to me and whispered confidentially to me that if I would go to the Juvenile Court they might help me out of my troubles."
Of course the "big business" men who commercialize political parties had little concern about their part in the ruin of that home and in the dependency and delinquency of that child. I sent for their political partner, the gambler who conducted the hell that was burning up that home. He admitted it all. I told him I would make a noise if he did not pay back that money to the poor mother. He paid it back. It would have been useless to talk about arrest and prosecution, for the public officials of that period would do neither.
(1712)
K
KEENNESS
The poets have celebrated the perfection
of the Oriental steel; and it is recognized
as the finest by Moore, Byron, Scott, Southey
and many others. I have even heard a
young advocate of the lost arts find an argument
in Byron's "Sennacherib," from the
fact that the mail of the warriors in that one
short night had rusted before the trembling
Jews stole out in the morning to behold the
terrible work of the Lord. Scott, in his
"Tales of the Crusaders,"—for Sir Walter
was curious in his love of the lost arts—describes
a meeting between Richard Coeur
de Lion and Saladin. Saladin asks Richard
to show him the wonderful strength for
which he is famous, and the Norman
monarch responds by severing a bar of iron
which lies on the floor of his tent. Saladin
says, "I can not do that"; but he takes an
eider-down pillow from the sofa, and, drawing
his keen blade across it, it falls in two
pieces. Richard says, "This is the black art;
it is magic; it is the devil; you can not cut
that which has no resistance"; and Saladin,
to show him that such is not the case, takes
a scarf from his shoulders, which is so light
that it almost floats in the air, and, tossing
it up, severs it before it can descend. George
Thompson told me he saw a man in Calcutta
throw a handful of floss-silk into the
air, and a Hindu sever it into pieces with
his saber.—Wendell Phillips.
(1713)
Keenness from Use—See Practise.
KEY-NOTE OF LIFE
In tuning a piano the artist strikes his
tuning-fork on a hard surface and holds it
to his ear while at the same time he strikes
the A key on the keyboard. Then he tightens
or loosens the string until the key and the
fork correspond. From this he proceeds to
harmonize all the other keys.
For the harmony of human life we
have One who furnishes the key-note.
When we tune our life up to His all its
chords become consonant.
(1714)
KEYS, FALSE
The notion that alcohol may do good because,
for a moment, it seems to do good,
was well answered by a physician's response
to a man who was somewhat too much given
to the pleasures of the table. This man had
said to the doctor:
"What do you think of the influence of alcohol on the digestion, doctor?"
"I think that its influence is bad," said the physician.
"But a little whisky taken just before a meal is the only key that will open my appetite, doctor."
"I don't believe in opening things with false keys, sir!" answered the other.
Nor is alcohol the only false key in
common use. Pretension, misrepresentation,
any means not adapted to the
desired end—all are false keys and
must fail.
(1715)
Kind Looks—See Face, An Inviting.
KIND WORDS, VALUE OF
The influence exercised by kind words
from certain people can not be measured. I
have in mind a retiring, modest man, sin-
