Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 April 1919 — PHILOSOPHY of WALT MASON [ARTICLE]

PHILOSOPHY of WALT MASON

Inspired by psalms and sermons, and good books on the shelf, I try to love the Germans as I would love myself; but when I’ve loved the critters for minutes five or ten, I need a course of bitters to tone me up again. It’s hard to Jove the people who trampled Belgium down, destroyed the church and steeple, and burned the helpless town. It’s hard to love the blighters who raise a sickly whine when whipped by allied fighters, and shooed across the Rhine. And yet 1 keep on trying to love them more or less; tne effort keeps me crying, and sweating, 1 confess; and when I’ve loved the duffers a half an hour or so, no other being suffers the agonies I know. I’m weary and exhausted, as though by mortal ills, by doctors I'® accosted, who say I'm needing pills. I feel my doom's been spoken. I'm hobbling on a crutch, I’m weak and bent and broken from loving Huns too much. A man may love the Russians nor find existence vain; but if he loves the Prussians he cannot stand the strain. And still, inspired by sermons which teach that hate’s a fake, I’ll try to love the Germans until my spare ribs break.