Jasper County Democrat, Volume 17, Number 56, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 October 1914 — The Bitter End. [ARTICLE]

The Bitter End.

To speak unkindly isn’t wit, To say things that wound the heart Is never clever—not a bit. Though at the time you think it smart, Far better is it to remain As silent as a marble bust Than srpeak and leave a track of pain Behind a smiling, bitter thrust. The poisoned barb within a jest That leaves a fellow being hurt Is not of cleverness the test. Nor of a brain that is alert. To gibe at age or private scars, Or sacred griefs proclaima the cad And he who does it sadly mars The laughter that Should leave us glad. Unkindness isn’t wit at all, There’s little humor in a sneer. One cannot drench his speech in gall And seek to laugh away the tear. And lie who poisons thus the gay Is just as cowardly as he Who kicks a cripple’s crutch away And laughs his helplessness to see. —Detroit Free Press. 1