---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Haddock, Lon J.
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 16
number: 5
published: 1913-03
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Haddock, Lon J., "A Little Lesson. A Poem," *Improvement Era* 16, no. 5 (March 1913): 432.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1605unse
  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: improvementera1605unse
start_page: 432
end_page: 432
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1913-03)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1605unse
  publication_year: 1913
  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 1913, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# A Little Lesson. A Poem

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A Little Less-on
              A little more of kindness, a little less of self;
              A little less of blindness, a little less of pelf;
             A little more of striving to make a better plan;
             A little less conniving to "beat" the other man;
             A little less of grudging, a little squarer game,
             A little less of smudging the other fellow's name.
              A little less of shirking, a little less complaint,
              A little more of working, a little more of Saint;
              A little deeper thinking, a little keener sight;
             A little less of shrinking from what we know is Right;
             A little more decision, a little less of Fate;
             A little clearer vision, a little less of Hate;
             A little less of doubting, a little closer care;
             A little less of shouting, a little more of Prayer;
             A little less of shoving our fellow-workers, then,
             A little more of loving, and we'd all be better men.
                                                         Lon J. Haddock.
UTAH AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, LOGAN, UTAH