Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 May 1902 — Arrow Shots. [ARTICLE]

Arrow Shots.

I shot an arrow into the air, It fell id the earth; i know not where. —Longfellow. When folks say they cannot be flatI tered it is the first sign that it is beI ginning to take effort. If a man gets oft a joke you do not understand or see the point to, just laugh and you will be safe, anyway. An opera glass stick in a country opera house mevely makes folks smile. Most people have to work mighty hard to make a living and then pretend to be happy while doing it. You do not always go to a concert because you want to. Sometimes you go because you are a neighbor to some of the performers. Too many people take up your time talking nothing but “shop.” wsSome people agree with you in everything you say, and how you do hate them. A man who goes to a strange church and sleeps all through the service, pays no great compliment to the preacher. How would you like to be selling millinery if you were a man ? Every time we see a man who can do some one thing well, we are sorry that we do not amount to something, too.

When a town man makes a little garden he thinks every farmer ought to be the happiest man on earth. A man who comes out of a sick spell wherein he almost heard the angels’ wings, is as muoh a hero as a mu who has won a battle. What has become of the man who used to work “from sun to sun ?” Lots of people do not receive any favors because they are known to be ungrateful. The funniest thing we know of is to hear a story told the way a practical joker tells it, and then to hear the correct version. When we see how hard everybody has to work, we wonder what we live for, anyway. We wonder why pain was sent into the world. It is always unwelcome. Some days nothing happens but things to aggravate you. The way some men brag on their sons, it is a wonder that they themselves did not amount to more. „ We used to be young, but that does not take away the sting of growing old. Men are as bad to complain of ill health as women. One good thing about soaking corns off your feet is, you get them clean once again, anyway, if it is the first time since you were a baby. A boy never feels as important any time as when he passes as a cigar fiend the first time in his life. It is funny, but the oniy kind of a stomach worth haying is the kind you do not know you have.