An interesting story in regard to General Miles comes from a recent
encampment of the Grand Army at San Francisco, and is published in
_The Saturday Evening Post_. The General, while being entertained
at a club, was rallied good-humoredly by an old-time comrade for his
failure to win a laudatory “send-off” in his retirement papers.
“In reply to that,” remarked General Miles, “let me tell a
story. The application may seem a trifle egotistical, but as the
story is a good one, I’ll venture it.
“In the early days of the West an itinerant preacher, stopping
for refreshment one day at the pioneer home of one of his
parishioners, was served, among other things, with apple-pie.
It was not a good pie. The crust was heavy and sour, but the
encomiums which that preacher heaped upon it were great. The
good wife knew that she had had bad luck with the baking, and as
she was in reality an excellent cook, she determined that the
next time that preacher came her way he should have a pie that
was faultless.
“He told her when he was to return, and on that day she set
before him an apple-pie that was the real thing. He ate it, but
to her astonishment vouchsafed not a word of commendation. This
was more than the housewife would stand.
“‘Brother,’ she exclaimed, ‘when you were here last you ate an
apple-pie that wasn’t more than half-baked, and you praised it
to the skies. Now you have eaten a pie that nobody needs to be
ashamed of, but you haven’t a word to say in its favor. I can’t
understand it.’
“‘My good sister,’ replied the preacher, ‘that pie you served me
a few days ago was sadly in need of praise, and I did my full
duty in that direction; but this fine pie, bless your heart,
does not require any eulogy.’”
(2436)
=Praising Rival=--See SELF-ESTIMATE.