Two boys, John and William, both about the age of twelve, had a dispute over a game of ball, when John said that such action was mean and dishonest, upon which William immediately called him a liar, and they began to fight. They were not quarrelsome boys; they were serious and studious, but were boys of spirit and held high ideas of honor and uprightness. The teacher, who was a man of strong character, and a sturdy disciplinarian, came promptly upon the scene and separated the combatants, and sent both boys to their seats. The breach of school discipline had been flagrant, and all expected that severe punishment would be meted out to the boys. But nothing was said until just before school was dissmissed, when the teacher called the boys before him and said, “Do you think you did right in engaging in this fight?” To which both boys said they did, and that they would fight one another again upon the first opportunity. After some reflection, the teacher turned to John and said, “John, will you agree never to mention this subject until William mentions it first?” John replied, “Yes, but I will lick him good if he ever does.” The teacher turned to William and asked the same question, to which he replied, “I will not start it, but if John does I will lick him.” The teacher then said, “I think you are both honorable and trustworthy boys, and I am going to depend upon you to keep your word of honor, and not renew this fight until the other begins it. Now John, you take William by the hand, and tell him that you will never mention this subject unless he first speaks of it; but if he does, you will lick him.” The boys joined hands, and John told it over to William, and then William told it over to John. The solemnity with which the proceeding was conducted all the way through made a deep impression on the entire school, who felt it to be a very sacred thing between the two boys, and that it should never be even hinted at. This was a lesson in courage, self-respect, obedience, fidelity and self-control to the whole school, and it resulted in a lifelong friendship between the two boys.—James T. White, “Character Lessons.”
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HONOR, EXAMPLE OF
Horace B. Claflin, before he was twenty-one, had bought out his father’s grocery business. Intoxicating liquors were at that time considered an indispensable part of the grocery equipment; but the young merchant, as soon as he came into possession, emptied the wine-casks into the street. Later on he engaged in the dry-goods business, a large portion of which was in the slave-holding States; and when anti-slavery principles involved a business loss to Northern merchants, Claflin announced himself an uncompromising opponent of slavery. Such a stand and the Civil War coming on cut off his resources and revenues, and he was forced to suspend. He asked from his creditors an extension of time on a basis of seventy per cent of his indebtedness; but soon after resuming business Claflin paid off his extended paper long before maturity, and also the thirty per cent which had been unconditionally released, not only paying the entire amount of his indebtedness but also paying interest on the debt.—James T. White, “Character Lessons.”
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Honor in Failure—See [Obligations, Meeting].
HONOR, THE ROAD TO
In one of his great debates on American taxation, Edmund Burke once paused to say, with regard to the consequence of the course he was pursuing: “I know the map of England as well as the noble lord or any other person, and I know the road I take is not the road to preferment.” But he took it, nevertheless.
The end of the right road is never obscurity or ingratitude or obloquy. It is the smile and welcome of God. Even here on the earth, the man who does right comes to his own. Of the men of his age in England, Burke is now among the most honored and will be among the longest remembered.
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