• Author: Unknown
• Editor: B-7413
• Newspaper: The Umpire volume V
• Page Number:
• Date: 3 20 1918
• Tags:
• poetry

THE TRUE GUIDE

You may bring to your office and put in a frame A motto as fine as its paint, But if you’re a crook when you’re playing the game That motto won’t make you a saint. You can stick up placards all over the hall, But here is the word I announce It isn’t the motto that hangs on the wall, But the motto you live that counts. If the motto says ‘‘Smile’” and you carry a frown, “Do It Now’’ and linger and wait; If the motto says ‘‘Help’’ and you trample men down, If the motto says ‘‘Love’” and you hate: You won’t get away with the motto you stall, For the truth will come forth with a bounce— It isn’t the motto that hangs on the wall, But the motto you live that counts.

— Unknown.