Right here, lest I make myself appear better than I am, I want to
say that I am not a praying man in the sense of being versed in
the language of prayer or anything of that kind. I wish I were.
So, I might have been better able to serve my unhappy friends
when they needed me. Indeed, those who have known me under strong
provocation--provocation is _very_ strong in Mulberry Street--would
scorn such an intimation, and, I am sorry to say, with cause. I
was once a deacon, but they did not often let me lead in prayer. My
supplications ordinarily take the form of putting the case plainly
to Him who is the source of all right and all justice, and leaving
it so. If I were to find that I could not do that, I should decline
to go into the fight, or, if I had to, should feel that I were to
be justly beaten. In all the years of my reporting I have never
omitted this when anything big was on foot, whether a fire, a
murder, a robbery, or whatever might come in the way of duty, and
I have never heard that my reports were any the worse for it. I
know they were better.
Pages:
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229