The Daily News TUESDAY, DECEMBER 22. A WORD ABOUT FORBEARANCE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 306, 22 December 1908, Page 2

The Daily News TUESDAY, DECEMBER 22. A WORD ABOUT FORBEARANCE.

If you are a decent man and pay twenty shillings in the pound and help a neighbor .s cow out of a bogliole, and all that kind of .thing, tnere will be any number of people who -will swear that you hud ulterior motives in giving A pull with the cow and that you are likely to go bankrupt, and are not the "clean potato" by a very long ''chalk/' The other day a member of a Southern loc:il body in a weak moment remarked that a contractor "would have us if he could." Me himself probably hadn't the slightest idea that the contractor would bring a;i action for damages .becau>e he had said such a thing. But the action took place just the same. J.f you want to iind out how a thoughtless word will influence others, just tell a few friends of anyone you like •to select that he "isn't quite straight." if the friends repeat I the story they won't soften it. In time the slandered person will have a worse reputation than a pickpocket. One ean ruin'a man better with one's tongue than with any other weapon. A mail may 'have a fault that yo\\ haven't got and still be a» infinitely better man than you. It is better not to mind about that one fault. Tot up the good points. It isu't the fashion, of course, but it would be an improved world were it so. Kicking a mail when he ? s down is a favorite pastime all the world over. Possibly the man down couldn't help getting down, and wouldn't stay there if he were not-held. Jle should be assisted. Perhaps you'll need a bit of a lift yourself sonio day. You may I)" strong and the whole of the people •*! earth, lmrring you, weak. You can't help being strong and they can't help being weak. (Jive them some of your strength and don't exaggerate their weaknesses, if you've got to climb tin; ladder of life over the necks of people who are not such good climbers as you, stay on the lower rungs for a bit until the necks clear away. A little misfor.tune that you can't help may put your neck on the rirng for some one else- to get foothold later on. A molehill of a mistake, if properly handled by a very good person (who has never been found out), wilt grow to a mountain of crime. The world wouldn't be any the worse if the molehill was not observed by the | passer-by. Everybody loves scandal I more or less, but the things one loves are not always the best for one. Scandal, slander, and the kick when one U prone are commoner in our country than they should be, and the. present is the season for reviewing our deficiencies in this respect and mapping out a different course for the future.