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SyaS? v ' ,. n?t ONF MA M' OPTMiniSm tah who-leads a selfish life is a piker. U1NC MAIM b :UilINlUIN2 r belIeve thal yery few of the meQ BY N. D. COCHRAN A Worthless Life. Before .he kill ed himself Christian Wolf wrote a let ter in which he said: "God forgive me for this. .1 am a worthless dog. Have only thought of myself during life and God forgive me. I have spent it foolishly." Elsewhere in the letter he wrote: "To be caUed a piker and having a yellow streak as,Lhave is right. Nev er show yours, boys. I have had-one all my life. Take my worthless body to Fred Klaner's morgue. Let him have it cremated and scatter the ashes to the wind. Say, 'Here goes nobody.' " The .first sentence of the last quo tation isnl clear, but I take it that he meant tha if the statement was made that he was .a piker and had a yellow streaky tfie statenient was cor rect. The remainder of that quota tion isn't important, because it makes no difference what is done with the body; and, of course, the,tbody .is worthless, just as any other dead body ,is worthless. ,- Whether it be, buriedior cremated makes no difference. When life pass es'from the body all thatmade any body love him was gone. - The big -thing in the letter was this statement: "I am a worthless( dog. Have thought only of myself during lifeand God forgive me. I have spent It foolishly." ' Even if it were true that he spent his life foo)ishly while living, he may have spent it profitably for others by committing suicide -and Writing that letter. It will make his friends think. Perhaps some of them are thinking only of themselves and are spending their lives .foolishly. Possibly some of them are sacrificing, the A best amo tions of the. human soulTby devoting. all or tneir best energies to "making moneyl . , It's safe to assume that niost-of his frienjfs are doing just what he says hefdid leading a selfish life. And any whom the world calls successful die happy. Not many of them will as frankly admit their disappointment with themselves as Wolf did. Wolf himself wouldn't admit t while he was living and where he would have to face the ridicule of his fellows. Had he done so doubtless his busi ness associates and friends would have thought there was something -wrong with his head. Yet this letter indicates that there was a lot of good in -him, that he Tvas afraid to let ouk I think -most of us are that way. We have unselfish' thoughts, "but haven't the courage to be ourselves and give way to our emotions. . We are toa much afraid of what others will say or think; and yet they may "have the same secret thoughts we have. .All of us are cowards. If we could accurately weigh all the -good and bad in any of us "we would probably find that our secret opinion of ourselves is much the same as the opinion Chris Wolf had of himself when he wrote that letter. We find it easy enough to fool our friends, but we. can't 4obl ourselves. I might go on writing in these col umns so as to build up for myself, in. the estimation of my readers, a whol- ly fictitious character.l might make you believe that my thoughts are al ways pure, holy andt good;?: I nJght make you believe, there js no selfish nessln me and that I am entirely al truistic. ' , , -But I would know better myself. I qfiuldn'tiescape the knowledge that I haven't the courage to say all thatI really think, and that I amcweak" enough to be putting forward my best side. J j I know that when I reflect and cast un 'accounts it issmighty hard-work trying to make the good balance the bad. But-somebow-.or other it doesn t worry me to know that I am too hu man to ever have any chance of be ,iug perfect. And the days and years I have ifc& mammammmmmm