When he told me that he had preached a sermon on the text, “Let him that stole steal no more,” I was interested.  But shortly after, he told me that he could not let go of that text.  It was a live wire.  He had expanded the sermon into a course on the different kinds of stealing.  He found few things that did not come under the category of Theft.  Spiritual goods as well as material might be stolen.  If a person possessed a cheerful disposition, you should ask, “How did he get it?”

“It seems to me,” I said, “that a cheerful disposition is one of the things where possession is nine tenths of the law.  I don’t like to think of such spiritual wealth as ill-gotten.”

“I am sorry,” said Bagster, “to see that your sympathies are with the privileged classes.”

Several weeks ago I received a letter which revealed his state of mind:—­

“I believe that you are acquainted with the Editor of the ’Atlantic Monthly.’  I suppose he means well, but persons in his situation are likely to cater to mere literature.  I hope that I am not uncharitable, but I have a suspicion that our poets yield sometimes to the desire to please.  They are perhaps unconscious of the subtle temptation.  They are not sufficiently direct and specific in their charges.  I have been reading Walt Whitman’s ‘Song of Joys.’  The subject does not attract me, but I like the way in which it is treated.  There is no beating around the bush.  The poet is perfectly fearless, and will not let any guilty man escape.

        “’O the farmer’s joys! 
  Ohioans, Illinoisans, Wisconsonese, Kanadians,
  Iowans, Kansans, Oregonese joys.’

“That is the way one should write if he expects to get results.  He should point to each individual and say, ‘Thou art the man.’

“I am no poet,—­though I am painfully conscious that I ought to be one,—­but I have written what I call, ‘The Song of Obligations.’  I think it may arouse the public.  In such matters we ought to unite as good citizens.  You might perhaps drop a postal card, just to show where you stand.”

The Song of obligations

“O the citizen’s obligations. 
The obligation of every American citizen to see that
every other American citizen does his duty, and
to be quick about it. 
The janitor’s duties, the Board of Health’s duties, the
milkman’s duties, resting upon each one of us individually
with the accumulated weight of every
cubic foot of vitiated air, and multiplied by the
number of bacteria in every cubic centimeter of
milk. 
The motorman’s duties, and the duty of every spry citizen
not to allow himself to be run over by the motorman. 
The obligation of teachers in the public schools to supply
their pupils with all the aptitudes and graces
formerly supposed to be the result of heredity and
environment. 
The duty of each teacher to consult daily a card