g to the concentrated
worth of the whole? If man would stand in his lot of conformity to
man, as that old colored woman stood in her lot, it would lift this
world to that height from which we could see the one interest, one
reciprocal, interdependent, together-woven, God-allied and God-saved
humanity.
But in this we fail. Several men, one of them an Irishman, were
standing on a street corner when a negro passed. The Irishman said:
"Faith, and if I had been makin' humanity for a world, I would niver
have made a nager." I suppose in return the negro would not have made
the Irishman, nor would the white man have made the Indian or
Chinaman, but God made them all and in proportion as we have the
philanthropic comprehensiveness to accept them all, and benevolently
try to serve them in their places, do we honor the place assigned us
in the world's creation. It is not for us to know why God made this or
that; He made everything for a purpose.
A father took his boy to an animal show. The lad had never seen a
monkey and as they played their pranks about the cage he said:
"Father, did God make monkeys?"
When the father replied: "Yes," the boy said: "Well, don't you guess
God laughed when he made the first monkey?"
I don't know about that, but if God made the monkey for a joke it was
certainly a success. If God had made the monkey for no other purpose
than to create laughter it wouldn't have been a mistake. The lachrymal
glands were placed in us for sorrow to play upon; we are commanded to
"weep with those who weep." In antithesis to this the risable nerves
were placed in us for mirthful music, and I pity the one who has
broken the keys and cannot laugh.
I believe we owe the Irishman a vote of thanks for the ringing laughs
he has sent around the world. An Irishman said to a rich English
land-owner:
"Me Lord, I think the world is very unaqually divided; it should be
portioned out and each one given an aqual share with ivery other one?"
The Englishman replied: "Well, Pat, if we were to divide today, in ten
years I would have ten thousand pounds and you wouldn't have a
shilling."
"Then we would divide again," said the Irishman.
On an electric car going out of New York City, a man, who occupied a
seat next to the aisle, had a pet monkey in a cage on the seat with
him, next to the window. An Irishman boarded the car and seeing all
the seats taken he remained standing, holding on to a strap, when
suddenly he spied
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