--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 4 number: 7 published: 1901-05 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "In Lighter Mood," *Improvement Era* 4, no. 7 (May 1901): 552.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0407unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera0407unse start_page: 552 end_page: 552 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1901-05) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0407unse publication_year: 1901 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1901, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # In Lighter Mood IN LIGHTER MOOD. In some cities the policemen give an alarm by rapping on the pave- ment. When he isn't walking his beat he is beating his walk. Boston Transcript. * * * Even a lunatic may not wholly lack the power to reason. This truth appears in a story Life tells of the inspection of an asylum by the trustees. Walking through the grounds, they came upon a party of workmen who were repairing a wall. One of the harmless patients, apparently assisting in the work, was pushing a wheelbarrow along upside down. "My friend," said a kind-hearted trustee, gently, "you should turn your wheelbarrow over." "Not on your life!" replied the patient. "I turned it over yester- day, and they put bricks in it!" The Youth's Companion vouches for this story: —Few American youths have careers made for them. Those who deplore this fact and shun the stings of self-effort may find tonic in the reply of a western girl to an offer of marriage. A young man of more book-learning than force of character lost the young wife who had toiled to support him, returned to his native town for consolation, and found it.Some months later she, too, passed away, and the sad youth soon appealed to a well-known clergyman for assistance in finding a helpmate. The minister introduced him to a western girl of health and energy, who the next day received a plaintive note from the widower. He declared that the Lord had made great inroads upon his marital affec- tions, and it now seemed to be his will that she should repair the breaches of his life. The reply, which the clergyman keeps today as one of the choicest specimens of a varied collection, reads simply: "Mend your own breeches."