LET US HAVE LOVE* By August Hashagen

I AM letting a man know quite well relate his most interesting experience. He is a small business man and does not by any means belong to the so-called intelligentsia, as his manner of ex- pressing himself will reveal. He was practicing Faith with Love, without even realizing that he was doing it. He is just “folks,” but he has a good bit of common sense.

This is his story. “I had build up a fine little business in the course of years, but the depression hit me and I felt myself going on the rocks. My old line was entirely out of date and the new things I tried did not work out. I was fast losing what money I had saved and after several years of this my courage was be- ginning to go with it.

“I had sense enough to understand that it would never do to let the world know of my desperate position. You know what happens to you, when they find out that things are slipping with you!

“And here was the worst of it. Everyone I met those days was sorely troubled and almost the first thing people would ask you was, ‘How is business with you? How are you doing!’ That didn’t make it any better or easier for me. It always brought the whole situation up again when I was trying my best to forget about it.

“I could not say that things were fine, for no one would have believed me, and at the same time this question could not always easily be sidestepped. So, in the end, I hit upon the plan to answer, ‘I am taken care of! Thank you.’

“That seemed to satisfy them. I had to say it a dozen times and oftener during the day, and to my surprise I found that in some way it seemed to help me. I actually began to believe it at times. The trouble was, however, that the effect did not last and after a while the same old worry over what was to come would grip me. Then came the day when I found out why this was.

Published by H. G. Fullerman, New York City. For Sale by Sun Publishing Co. $1.40 postpaid.

“Among my customers was a fellow who was a most trying man to have to deal with. He had come from eastern Europe without a cent in his pocket, but by hard work and a good bit of luck he had succeeded in his business, and this had made him what he was—a bit of an arrogant, coarse individual whom most people hated and whom everyone avoided as much as he could. In all my wide experience I had never met such an unbearable fellow as this one!

“Now, this kind of a man seems to go to pieces quicker than anyone else when things go wrong, and he was no exception. He showed it in every way, in his talk, in his manner and even in his appearance. His face had been ruddy and full, because he had been living well, but now his complexion was pasty and dull. I don’t believe anybody was particularly sorry for him. I know I wasn’t!

“It happened that one day Koch (that was the man’s name) called for me in his auto to make an estimate on a job which he had in view. We had not been riding very long when that question, of course, had to come up. ‘How is business with you? How are you doing?’

“Things were not any too bright with me and this fat fellow next to me seemed anxious to have me admit it to him. Misery loves company, they say! He wasn’t going to have my company, and so I gave him my regular answer, ‘I am taken care of, Mr. Koch! Thank you!’ In a way that made him wince in his own troubled state of mind.

“He didn’t reply and we rode quite a while in silence, when Koch suddenly pulled up to the sidewalk and called to a Western Union messenger who was passing by on a bicycle, ‘Come over here for a minute, boy!’ When the lad hesitated, Koch urged, ‘I want to tell you something!’ His voice was friendly, as I had never heard it before, and the youngster stopped his wheel and came.

“Then, to my amazement, Koch went on gently, ‘Son, put your hand on your heart and see how it beats!’ The boy did and cried, ‘Gee, it beats like a sledgehammer!’

“Koch nodded and said, ‘That’s because you’ve been riding your wheel up this steep hill! Your heart can’t stand the strain!’

← previous | The Inner Life 1938 | next →