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THE FUTURE CITIZEN.
tion, wasted energy through un
natural, discordant conditions that
make us jaded and tired out. the re
sult of friction in our machinery.
If we could keep ourselves in a
happy condition all day, we should
be fresh at night. It is in keeping
ourselves in perfect harmony that
we become more efficient and get
the most out of life.—Ex.
POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE
MORALITY.
“Well, John, what can I do for
you?” Doctor Brown inquired
cordially as he came into his study
and shook hands with John Forbes.
“I am applying for a position' in
a bank, sir Some recommendations
are required, and I thought you
might be willing to give me one,”
John answered confidently.
The clergyman sat still, looking
very thoughtful.
“I certainly should like to re
commend you, John,” he said at
length, “but I have a feeling that
I ought to be truthful about what I
say in such a matter, and I am
wondering just what I can say
truthfully that will impress the
bank in your favor.”
John’s face showed surprise
“Why, I can’t think of anything
very wrong that I have done,”
he said, after a pause.
“That’s exactly as I had rated
you,” replied the rector, “and I
must admit that the rating does
not impress me very favorably.
Suppose, for instance, that you
wanted work as a porter, and the
bank wanted to know whether
you were physically strong enough
for the work? I might be able to
mention one hundred diseases you
did not have. I might make it two
hundred, or any other number, but
that would not answer the question.
The bank would not want to know
how many diseases you Didn’t
have, but how much physical
strength you Did have. You might
have no disease at all, and yet have
almost no strength.
“I’d like to believe that it was
different with you morally, but
honesty compels me to say I never
have seen an intimation of it in
your life. I never heard of your
doing anything yery wrong, but
neither have l heard of your doing
anything very good. 1 can’t sav
that you have moral character just
because you haven’t any great
vices. You haven’t been postively
vicious, as some of your friends
have, but I sometimes fear that you
have no more attained a moral
character than they; it's even
possible that some of them are
nearer to it than you.
“You have only drifted. You
have let yourself float along the
line of least resistance. You have
frittered away your time md y >ur
opportunities. You just barely es
caped failure all the way through
your high school course S > far you
have escaped doing anything very
wrong. You also have escaped do
ing anything very good. In fact,
you haven’t Done anything ;jt all.”
“I might have expected some
efficiency expert to look at things
that way, but I didn’t think a
Christian minister would!” said
John sullenly.
“That’s exactly the Christian
point of view and the Christian
teaching,” returned the doctor.
“Jesus, in one of His parables, told
of a number of people who suffered
punishment after death. It is a
striking fact that not one of them
was condemmed for wrong things
he had done, but for right tilings
he had left undone. John Forbes,
turn about and face the thing
squarely. You haven’t been a
man—you have been a kind of
jelly fish. You haven’t been any
thing positive. You have beer a
trailer, a hanger-on, a negative
weakling. Let me see you for one
week postively do something tha»
is hard to do, something you are
disinclined to try and less inclined
to stick at, and then come back and
1’llgive you the recommendation ”
“I’m pretty mad,” said John,
“but I’m going to do as you sav ’
“I want you to keep mud until
you have done it,” replied Doctor
Brown.—T. be Youth’s Companion
POOR LITTLE FELLOW!
A Canadian newspaper calls at
tention to an adverti-ement of a
nursing bottle that concludes with
the words: “When the baby is
done drinking it must be unsc.i e wed
and laid in a cool place under a tap
If the baby does not thrive on fresh
milk it should be boiled.”—Ex
Breathe Lots Of Fresh Air
Breathe all the fresh air you can
get, night and day. That’s what
fresh air is for. The fearsome le
gend about the baleful influence, of
“night air” is only another of the
carefully nursed insanitary bequests
from our ancestors, according to
Senior Surgeon Banks, of the'
United States Public Health Serv
ice.
Whence this superstition arose
may only be surmised. Perhaps it
is a survival of the primeval cult of
sun worship, which led the ancients
to fear anything outside the sphere
of solar influence. Our forebears
were wont to caution their off
spring to “be careful about the
night air” or children were order
ed to 'come in out of the night air.’
This idea is generally prevalent
and even one of our well known
flowers is loaded down with the
horrible name of “Deadly Night
shade ’ as a sort of verbal relic
of 11 is > Id notion, the lowly-
iug mist or tog that sometimes
gathers about the surface of the
earth und^r certain atmospheric
conditions after sunset , was
held—is held—to be “miasmatic”
and pregnant with lethal possi
bilities.
The night air minus the sun , is
no different from the atmosphere
of a sunless day. Tne atmospheric
envelope of the earth does not
change from benign to malign in
the twinkling of an eye ufter sun
down.
A story from the trenches in
France is that a soldier wrote home
to his wife to open her windows at
night, as he had found that the
night air “didn’t hurt one bit.”
That is the experience of all the
advocates of this sensible custom—
once tried the old custom of sealing
oneselt in an airtight bedroom is
never renewed.
Diseases which involve the lungs
can usually be traced to their be
ginning in poorly ventilated sleep
ing apartments, inside rooms that
do not have a share in the atmos
phere.
Tiiose em tncipated persons who
open their windows at night will
tell you, unanimously, that they
cannot breathe in a chamber unless
the window is raised; their sense
ot comfort and vigor demands the
life-giving qualities ot lresh air.
—New York Ame ican.
HAVE YOU A LITTLE FUTURE CITIZEN IN YOUR HOME 7-WELL. YOU SHOULD.
