When I began my studies along this line I
hesitated whether to begin war near the top with the United States
Senate or at the bottom with the poor masses in the slums. Down at the
bottom I would be more at home, for I know full well what it is to be
bleached by the blues of adversity. In saving the masses though, by a
direct appeal, I did not think I could do much to brag about down here,
for they don't understand more than half you say to them in English and
their suspicion sours the half they take in before they make any use of
it. This would have made it extra hard for me, because advice was all I
had to use in saving the country. Up in the United States Senate I used
to think I might do something, but it was such a long way up from where
I stood. They have been taking tremendous fees up there for their own
advice, generally given to other members of their distinguished body or
to members of their own State legislatures, as to how to vote wisely on
this or that piece of law ordered by their clients. Therefore, it seemed
to me it would be only reasonable for them to take my advice, as they
might be able to turn it over at a good figure a little later on when
the custom-made law business picked up again. Just now I don't suppose
they could do much with it, for most of those old codgers are as glum
as a funeral march; but, of course, I admit I am no judge of chin music
and could not understand what they said, probably, if they spoke.
I want to state right here, though, that it is a mistake for a man to
undertake to save the country and to have ideas on that subject when he
tries to help another fellow win the heart of a girl and gets mixed up
in the tangle that such interference is bound to bring on anybody who
attempts it. I didn't know, and therefore I should have thrown up the
job as soon as I began to get wound in it. You have heard that gentle
hum of the buzz-saw? You have seen how still it runs and how its
feathery edge seems calm during the lull in the sawmill? You also
noticed that no one who understands the sawmill business ever goes near
it to give it a friendly tap just when it is looking that way? It is the
same with the other fellow's love affairs. Leave them alone when all is
quiet, and when there are ructions leave them alone. They are buzz-saws
for theorists. A man with ideas on saving the country is the poorest man
in the world to undertake to help save a friend with a sick heart. The
little matter of the country is a cinch compared to that job. Why, the
little matter of stringing a few extra stars to make traveling at night
safer on the Milky Way would be an easy contract compared to that. But I
touched the saw and it certainly did cut off a lot of opinions I used to
be proud of.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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