If I knew a box that was large enough
To hold all the frowns I meet,
I would try to gather them, every one,
From nursery, school, and street.
Then, folding and holding, I'd pack them in,
And turn the monster key;
I'd hire a giant to drop the box
To the depths of the deep, deep sea.
(2982)
SMILING
In Brooklyn, two young women undertook
to band together a smile club. In this club's
membership may be included every one,
everywhere, who is willing to pledge as
many smiles as possible to make life generally
happier. Here are some of the things
required of members: "Radiate! Smile!
Shine like a little sun! Begin each day
anew, and begin it by smiling until you are
in a good humor. Think only of the things
you wish to possess or of what you desire
to become, for thoughts are things. Have
faith and your wishes will come true. Smile!
And keep on smiling, and you will find that
the happiness you have always been seeking
is within yourself. Express this happiness."
Surely no objection can be offered to the
organizing of clubs of this sort, tho we need
not necessarily join one to acquire and practise
the smiling habit. It may be said of
smile clubs and smiles, the more the merrier.
As a popular post-card puts it: "Smile
a while, and while you smile another smiles,
and soon there are miles and miles of smiles
because you smile." Grouches could not
exist if every one was smiling. It's worth
trying for a few days anyhow, just to see
how well it works.
(2983)
Snob versus Gentleman—See Gentility, False Standard of.
SNOBBERY
A countryman had been to the city and
went home brimful of news. "You 'member
the Smiths?" he asked his wife, "the
Silver Crik Smiths, them as got rich on
the'r gran'feyther's money." Yes, she remembered
them. "I seen 'em. They're way
up; live in a gran' house on a street they call
a thavenoo. They ride in a double kerridge,
and have no end of money." She said she
s'posed as much. "But, 'Mandy, you wouldn't
want ter change places with her; I see her a
minnit, and I didn't hev the heart to speak
t'her. She's bin humbled right down to the
dust. She's as blind as a bat." Blind! She
guessed not. "But she is. Fust, she didn't
know me, me that's rid down hill and played
tag with her when she warn't knee-high to
a turkey. Then, 'Mandy, tho her eyes was
wide open, she went right along the streets,
all drest up in her fine clothes, and a leetle
mite of a dog was leading her along. He
was tied to a streeng, and she had hold of
t'other end of the streeng. Now, 'Mandy,
how'd you like to be her?"—Detroit Free Press.
(2984)
SNOBBERY REBUKED
Social standing is not always a sign of moral worth, as the following story suggests:
"The late Francis Murphy," said a Pittsburg
man, "perhaps the greatest temperance
reformer our country has ever seen, hated
snobbishness hardly less than drunkenness.
At a dinner in Pittsburg I once heard him
rebuke, with a little anecdote, a snobbish
millionaire.
"He said there was a rich and snobbish English woman living in the country. Her husband put himself up for a political place, and in order to help his campaign along the woman gave a garden party to which every voter for miles around was invited.
"Among the humble guests was a very independent grocer. The grocer made himself quite at home. No duke's manner could have been easier and freer. Indeed, the man's total lack of subservience angered his hostess extremely, so that in the end, thinking to take him down a peg, she said to him significantly:
"'You know, Mr. Greens, in London, shopkeepers don't go into the best society.'
"The grocer looked at her, and nodded and smiled.
"They don't here, either, ma'am,' he said." (Text.)
(2985)
SOCIAL CHRISTIANITY
In other days when people did not have
matches they were sometimes obliged to go
to the neighbors for fire, if their own blaze
went out. Usually a bunch of large knots
were laid on the coals at night and then
covered over with ashes until morning. But
if the knots failed to burn, then the oldest
child was usually sent to the neighbors with
an iron kettle to borrow fire. Happy to be
of use, the child soon returned with a kettle-*ful
of bright coals and a blazing knot on
top.
No man can live at his best who leads a
