Cheek by Burlington Hawkeye

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Nov 30, 1882

Cheek.

By Burlington Hawkeye

No, MY son, cheek is not better than wisdom, it is not better than modesty; it is not better than anything. Don't listen to the siren who tells you to blow your horn or it will never be tooted upon. The world is not to be deceived by cheek, and it does search for merit, and when it finds it, merit is rewarded. Cheek never deceives the world, my son. It appears to do so to the cheeky man, but he is the one that is deceived. Do you know one cheeky man in all your acquaintance who is not reviled for his cheek the moment his back is turned? Is the world not continually drawing distinctions between cheek and merit? Almost everybody hates a cheeky man, my son. Society tires of the brassy glare of his face, the hollow tinkling of his cymbaline tongue, the noisy assumption of his forwardness. The triumphs of cheek are only apparent. He bores his way along through the world, and frequently people give way for him. But so they give way, my boy, for a man with a paint-pot in each hand. Not because they respect the man with the paint-pot particularly, but because they want to take care of their clothes. You sell goods without it, and your customers won't run and hide in the cellar when they see you coming.—Burlington Hawkeye.