Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 March 1881 — Kicking Troubles. [ARTICLE]

Kicking Troubles.

“ ’Tain’t no use to kick troubles; dat will never cl’ar yon on ’em. Bttt I used to do it in my yotlng days, and so make matters wtiss place o' "better. When I was a little chuck, down home, we lived in a poor cabin a bit Out o’ the city, and we all worked in the ’bacca factory quick’s we was big enotigh. In de yard ’hind de cabin was a big rock, and it was a mighty bother to us in our play. If we played hide-and-seek, de big boys would doge ’hind it, one way or t’other, and when we play ball we run agin it and get hnrt. “One day somethin’ go wrong, and I blame de rock fo’ it, so up I goes to it mighty bold, and I begins to kick it wid all my power! And de more 1 kicked de madder I growed, till I see de blood runnin’ down from my poor little bar* feet. Den I run to my blessed old mammy—she’s been twenty-eight year in glory—screamin’ and hollerin’ like a wild ingine. She scream, too, and ax, ‘Who done dat to my boy?’ and I say, ‘De big rock done it.’ Den I look back, and dere stood de big rock as firm as a king on his throne. He wasn’t runnin’, nor hollorin’, nor bleedin’! He didn’t mind dat ar’ kickin’ no mor’n if he hadn’t got it! He didn’t even run arter me to pay me back. “Now, since I growed to man’s ’state, I’se often called dat rock to mind, and so I never kick troubles. “Dere’s all sort o’ trials and troubles, and some’s got to be treated one way and some another. I’se had poverty; dere wasn’t no use o’ kiokin’ dat. I’se had sickness; what was de good o’ kickin’ at dat ? I’se buried my three fine boys, but I didn’t kick back at old Death! If I had he’d ha’ stood up agin me just as hard and rough and ‘cold as my old rock in Yirginny, and I’d ha’ got the wust on’t! “I knows dere’s enemies dat don’t stan’ still like de rock, but chases you, or flies at you, and tries to overcome you. Well, from all. such, whether they belong to ’arth or hell, I runs in place o’ kickin’! I runs into de strong pavilion, whar’ He bids my soul abide. “ Dere’s one kind o’trouble dat folks calls ‘wexations,’ such as boderation wid onfaithful painters and house-cleaners, dat’s de sort we’s most likely to kiok agin, like I did agin de rock; but kickin’ won’t help ’em, nor make ’em more. You jist got to bear wid ’em and go round ’em, and do de best you can wid ’em in your way. Take my word fo’ it —dat am an old man—you’ll never gain nothin’ by kickin’ rocks. Go round ’em if you kin, and if you can’t, then keep away from ’em. If your troubles is of de flyin’ or chasin’ kind, den run into de great pavilion and hide 'wav from ’em. Never kick a rock.”— Watch Tower.