Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 December 1874 — Haying Moral Courage. [ARTICLE]

Having Moral Courage.

Moral courage is a big thing. A# the good papers advise everybody to have moral courage. All the almanacs wind up with a word about moral courage. The Rev. Murray, and the Rev. Collyer, and the Rev. Spurgeon, and lots of other reverends fell their congregations to exhibit moral courage in daily life. Moral courage doesn’t cost a cent; everybody can fill up with it till he can’t eat half a dinner after going without breakfast. “ Have the courage to discharge a debt while you have the money in your pocket” is one of the “moral paragraphs.” Mr. Mower read this once, and determined to act upon, it. One day his wife handed him five dollars, which she had been two years saving, and asked him to bring her up a parasol and a pair of gaiters. On the way down he met a creditor and had the courage to pay him. Returning home his wife called him 157,000 names, such as “ fool,” “ idiot,” rite., and then struck him four times in the pit of the stomach with a flat-iron. After that he didn’t have as much moral courage as would make a leaning post for a sick grasshopper, and his wife didn’t forgive him for thirteen years. “Have the courage to tell a man why you refuse to credit him” is another paragraph. That means if you keep a store and old Mr. Putty comes in and wants a pound of tea charged you must promptly respond: “Mr. Putty, your credit at this store isn’t worth the powder to blow a mosquito over a tow-string. You are a fraud of the first water, Mr. Putty, and I wouldn’t trust you for a herring’s head if herrings were selling at a cent a box." Mr. Putty will never ask you for credit again, and you will have the consciousness of having performed your duty. “In providing an entertainment have the courage not to go beyond your means” is another paragraph. If your daughter wants a party and you are short don’t be lavish. Borrow some chairs, make a bench of a board and two pails, and some molasses and watermelon, and tell the crowd to gather around the festive board and partake. They will appreciate your moral courage if not your banquet. “ Have the courage to show your respect for honesty” is another. That is, if you hear t>f anybody who picked up a five-dollar bill and restored it to its owner, take him by the hand and say: “ Mr. Rambo, let me compliment you on being an honest man. I didn’t think it of you and I am agreeably disappointed. I always believed you were a liar, a rascal and a thief, and 1 am glad to think that you are neither—shake.” “ Have the courage to speak the truth” is a paragraph always in use. I once knew a boy named _ Peter. One day when he was loafing around he heard some men talking about old Mr. Hangmoney. Their talk made a deep impression on Peter and he spoke the truth. He said: “ Mr. Hangmoney, when I was up town to-day I heard Baker say you were a regular old hedgehog with a tin ear." “ What!” roared the old gent. “ And Clevis said that you were meaner than a dead dog rolled in tanbark,” continued the truthful lad. “You imp—you villain!” roared the old msn. *“ And King&ton said that you were a baldheaded, cross-eyed, cheating lying, stealing old skunk under the hen-coop!” added the boy. Then old Mr. Hangmoney fell upon the truthful Peter, and he mopped the floor with him, knocked his heels against the wall, tore his collar off, and put his shoulder out of joint, all because that boy had the moral courage to tell the truth. And there was young Towboy—it was the same way with him. He had the moral courage to go over to an old maid and say: . “ Miss Fallsair, father says he never savP such a withered-up old Hubbard squash as you are around frying to trap a man!” “ He did, eh?” mused the old maid, rising up from her chair. “Yes, and mother says it’s a burning shame that you call yourself twenty-four when you are forty-seven, and she says your hair-dye costs more thin our wood!” -. “ She said that, did she?” murmured the female. “Yes, and sister Jane sdys that if she had such a big mouth, such freckles," such big feet, and such silly ways she’d want the lightning to strike her!” And then the old maid picked up the rolling-pin and sought the house in which Towboy resided, and knocked down and dragged out until it was a hospital. Then Towboy’s father mauled him, his mother pounded him, and his sister de • nuded him of hair —all because he had moral courage in his daily life. — Comic Monthly. ' . . % ■*-'