MY  OLD  BAILIWICK
 

THE  REQUIEM  OF THE  "HAS-BEENS"

Brother, you are gazing backward toward the scenes of your

mistakes;
You are weeping o'er your errors till your proud heart almost

breaks.
You're repenting and regretting, you are sighing, ** Oh, alas!"
And you're missing all the glories of the present as they pass.
Leave the grim and gruesome picture,—look the other way

awhile.
For the face that's toward the future is the face that wears a

smile.—S. W. Gillilan.
 

I
 

i<^F I had only known! Oh, if I had only
known! " Time and time again have I heard
this cry wrung from the breasts of men
who, according to all laws of nature, should have
been in the midst of the struggle of life, with no time
for vain regrets. The wail is pathetic and full of self-
reproach, and it excites pity, but the men who give
utterance to it are not always entirely deserving of
commiseration. They are puzzling mysteries, not
only to casual observers^ but also to the men and
women who have made this ^particular class their
life-study.

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