The Caddo Herald
October 19, 1923
The Stranger’s Opinion
To get a perfect picture of our town, to learn its good and bad qualities, we should ask the impartial stranger for his opinion concerning it; just the way it impressed him after he had had an unobstructed look into it. It is absolutely impossible for us to judge it correctly. All the good in it would flare up before us after the manner of a bon fire and the bad would be as a drop of water in the blaze. Of course this is all right, as of course it is natural for us to have good opinions of ourselves and ours, but nevertheless we should not permit our opinion of ourselves and ours to push the stranger’s opinion into complete oblivion. We should listen to him, weigh his ideas; he sees it comparatively different to the way we do. He sees things that we have perhaps overlooked and we may profit by his pointing to a few things.
A stranger’s opinion of Caddo is quoted in this manner: “Beginning where I alighted from the train and stopping at the other end of town, I noticed that your town is far behind a few other towns in weed cutting.
Another bad feature is your street crossings. It is difficult, more especially for a lady, to cross them safely.
Your school system is very good- but there is room for a bit more good in everything- as there are none perfect.
Your churches, the most important institutions in any community, are sadly neglected- neglected to a certain extent. A few of your citizens are church goers- perhaps a fourth of them; which should be four fourths. But considering other churches of the country, yours are about on average.
Your citizens: they are the average of the country, some very fine, admirable, and there are some- well, you know that some are not so good.“
It is fine to have people thus frankly express themselves. We are better enabled to see our weak and strong points. Much better would the world be if a stronger degree of communion were abroad.
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