| Week-Day Religion |
Chapter 21 |
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There is still another class of blemishes for which I can find no more gentle designation than the word meannesses. No other faults detract more from the nobleness of manhood, and yet it must be confessed with shame that none are more common. A man seems to possess an excellent character as beheld from a little distance. He has many elements of power, traits of usefulness, perhaps even of greatness; but when drawn close to him into intimate personal relations, you discover evidences of meanness which you had not suspected before. As a friend he is disingenuous. Through all the guise of good profession the marks of selfishness and self seeking appear. He uses his friends to further his own personal interests, and cares not that they suffer loss provided he himself is benefited. He is not loyal to those to whom he professes such unfaltering devotion, but speaks freely in whispers to others of their faults, disclosing many a matter entrusted to him or learned by him in the sacredness of close friendship. If he wishes anything accomplished that involves risk of reputation, he puts some other one forward to do the unpleasant work, to bear the odium or take the sneers and reproach, while he quietly steps in to reap the advantage.
In business he is close and hard. He never pays a debt cheerfully, without protest or question. He treats every creditor as if he were an enemy or a conspirator and as if his bills were fraudulent or unjust. He takes every advantage in a bargain. He higgles for the lowest penny when he is to pay, and the highest when he is making the sale. He counts the fractions of cents in his own favor. To his employees he pays the minimum of wages, while he extorts from them the maximum of work. He is suspicious of the honesty of every one, quoting often the old aphorism of meanness: “Till you know that a man is honest, treat him as a rogue.” His meanness creeps out, too, in many very small things. He always pays out the most ragged bill he has or the smooth or notched coin, reserving the bright, clean notes and the new coins for himself. He accepts compliments, dinners and other favors and kindnesses, but never returns them. He borrows his neighbor’s newspaper to save the expense of buying one for himself. But to no one is he so mean as to the Lord and to his church. When the contribution box is passed, he selects the smallest bit of money in his pocket to give. When subscriptions are asked, he puts down the least amount that will be received, and then, if possible, will in the end evade payment altogether. He is a small souled, grasping, narrow spirited man. He lives only for self, and even his selfishness overreaches itself, for in the eyes of all mankind nothing is more despicable than meanness, and nothing brings back poorer and more beggarly returns.
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