F. L. is one of these. As child, boy and young man he was
free-hearted to an extraordinary degree. Ragamuffin, stray dog or
cat, tramp, down and outer of every kind or description, these
enlisted his sympathy and help despite the expostulation and
remonstrance of a series of conventional good people, his mother
and father, his best friends and his outraged wife. The latter
never knew, she used to say, what he would bring home for dinner.
"He always forgot to bring home the steak, but he never forgot to
lug along some derelict." More than once he was robbed, often he
was imposed upon. Once he met an interesting vagabond who spoke
several languages, quoted the Bible with ease and accuracy, and
so fired the heart of our simple man that he bought him clothes
and brought him home to stay. His wife threw up her hands in
despair. "But, my dear," said F. L., "he's a scholar who has
fallen on evil days." "Ah," she answered, "I fear it will be an
evil day for us when you took him home." She had a good chance to
say, "I told you so," when the rogue eloped with the best of
their silver.
Not only is F. L. impulsive and uninhibited in his generosity,
but his "pitch in and help" quality is about as well manifested
in other matters. If he sees a man or boy struggling with a load,
he immediately forgets that he is over fifty and well dressed and
steps right in to help. He saw an ash and garbage man--this is
his wife's star story--struggling to lift a much befouled can
into his wagon. F. L. left his wife and some friends without a
word and with a cheery word threw the can into the wagon.
Unfortunately some of the contents splashed, and F. L. suffered
both in dignity and appearance as a consequence. He had to go
home by back alleys and had to endure the mirth of his friends
for a long time. But it did not change his reactions in the
least, although he was really vexed with himself and endeavored
to be conventional and self-controlled for a while. The point is
that F. L. attempts inhibition of generous impulses and fails as
ignominiously as a drunkard struggling with the desire to drink.
Of course he is of the salt of the earth. Upon such uninhibited
fellowship feeling as his rests the ethical progress of the
world. A dozen inventors contribute less to their fellow men than
does he. For their contributions may be used to destroy or
enslave their fellows, and it is a commonplace that science has
outstripped morals. But his contributions spread kindly feeling
and the notion of the brotherhood of man.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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