The Mirror

If we don't retract, hedge, backwater, apologize or shut up, readers of THE MIRROR, i.e., those who don't know us, may take us seriously and charge some of the writers of these pages with being cranks and indulging in acrimonious language.

It is a source of much pleasure to receive letters of the average nature and it is particularly pleasing in a place of this kind, to receive a letter that strikes right from the shoulder and aims straight at the mark, like one that came to the writer the other day from a stranger in Los Angeles, California. It starts out by saying, "A personal friend, who is a member of our club, and who has a thorough knowledge of your character and ability has recommended you to us as a person possessing sterling qualities, and as being ambitious, energetic and very anxious to make a financial success. Acting upon this request, we have taken the liberty of interesting ourselves in your behalf." Now, if this gentleman will get me out of here before the expiration of my term he can have my promissory note for $500,000 and all the gold mines he wants; the only proviso being that he must not communicate my troubles to my people and certain friends.

But right there is where the "rub" comes in. Why is it that the world is so far behind the times? Why can't knowledge jump ahead a few hundred years and catch up and keep up with Father Time? While there is trouble enough for mankind to encounter in the ordinary course of events, the world is not content to take short cuts to avoid and to eliminate it, but wants to grasp it and pass it around. When one happens to be burdened with trouble, some good people will almost break their necks to learn all about his brothers, sisters, wife, cousins, and all the Smiths, Browns and Joneses, so that they can pass his troubles along to them. In this advanced age there ought to be, and there are, scientific methods by which the really progressive man may come near enough to knowing another to answer all practical purposes. Those who know the writer know that he sedulously avoids talking of his troubles, but he has feelings and thoughts as well as other people have, for he has never known a man to be in prison under more distressing circumstances. While family ties should be kept tied, and while it is a terrible thing to sever these ties or even to suspend them for a great length of time, here is one man who will continue his sleepless nights 499 years, rather than write his people from a penitentiary.