death, Curtis assumed his liabilities, amounting to $20,000, which took many years of personal deprivation for him to pay; and later, upon the failure of a firm in which he was merely a special partner for only a small amount, and having no part in the management, he refused the immunity allowed under the law, and gave up almost his entire fortune to pay the firm's indebtedness.—James T. White, "Character Lessons."
(2220)
OBLIGATION TO THE CHURCH
There are some people who seem to think
they have a through ticket on a vestibule
train for heaven. Having paid their pew-*rent,
taken a seat in the church for a pleasing
Sunday service, feeling no obligation to
do anything to move the church onward
spiritually, they consider themselves at
liberty to find fault with the minister and
the choir, just as the critical complaining
passenger, who, having paid for his ticket
and secured his berth, looks upon the train
officers and all, as bound to be simply subservient
to his individual fancy and pleasure.
Is it not time that those who are divinely
commended to work out their own salvation
with fear and trembling got rid of the
passenger notion of getting to heaven?
(Text.)—The Living Church.
(2221)
OBLIGATIONS, MEETING
No chapter in Mark Twain's life gave more
basis for the great love of his countrymen
than that of his unsuccessful business affairs,
his simple, uncomplaining facing of them,
and his honest fulfilling of his debts to the
last farthing. Coming upon him when sixty
years of age, and with disheartening completeness,
the failure of his publishing firm
might well have bowed down a stronger man;
and there can be no doubt but that his
cheerful humor saved him, in bearing up
under the disappointment, as it enabled him
to pay his obligations in a financial way.
The firm of C. L. Webster & Co. was organized in 1884, and Mark Twain became president and chief stockholder. As head of the concern his essentially literary and unbusinesslike leanings led him to oversee only the broadest lines of the publishing policy, leaving the administrative details to other hands. Owing to the character of some of the works which the company put out, its ventures were more than ordinarily large; the memoirs of Gen. Grant netted between $250,000 and $300,000 in royalties alone to the general's widow.
On April 14, 1894, after several reverses, the firm made an assignment for the benefit of its creditors. Mark Twain had already put in more than $65,000 of his own money in an attempt to save the company; he had also lost heavily in trying to develop a type-setting machine. Liquidation showed liabilities of $96,000. Sixty years old, with a wife and three daughters to provide for, Mark Twain voluntarily gave up all his personal assets as a partial satisfaction of his debts and accepted the burden of those remaining. He said, splendidly:
"The law recognizes no mortgage on a man's brain, and a merchant who has given up his all may take advantage of the law of insolvency, and start free again for himself; but I am not a business man, and honor is a harder master than the law. It can not compromise for less than one hundred cents on the dollar"—New York Evening Post.
(2222)
OBSCURANTISM
Literal fogs may be very detrimental, but it would be more valuable to clear away the fogs of ignorance and prejudice from human minds.
Fogs are not only disagreeable, but very
expensive, especially in fog-bound London,
where they are often the cause of great loss
to merchants. During the week preceding
Christmas in a recent year it is estimated
that as a result of foggy weather at least
$50,000,000 was lost in that city, business
being paralyzed for the time being. This
being the case, the invention of some means
for clearing the air of fog would mean to
the British merchant a very material increase
of prosperity. The problem is one of
such serious importance that experiments are
now being carried on with a view of finding
practical means for dispelling the dense atmospheric
conditions.—W. Raymond, The American Inventor.
(2223)
OBSCURITY, LITERARY
Thomas Scott, the Biblical Commentator,
once wrote a commentary on "The Pilgrim's
Progress." He gave a copy of it to an old
woman. Some time after he called to see
her. "Have you been reading the book I
gave you?" he asked her. "Yes, sir." "Do
you understand it?" "Well, sir," she said,
"I can understand what Mr. Bunyan wrote,
and I think that some day by the grace of
God I may be able to understand your explanation
of it."
(2224)
