Floating Mines.
Do you remember the anxious time that ships' captains had—those, I mean, that were bound for China, Japan, Korea, or anywhere near—just after the Japan-Russia war? For floating mines had been strewn along those coasts with a liberal hand, and it was known that some of them—no one knew how many— had broken their moorings and were ranging the seas, portents of death for the ill-fated vessels that came in their way. It is a wonder that more great ships were not thus destroyed by accidental contact with stray mines. Doubtless someday an international arrangement will restrict or abolish this peril.
But there is another kind of floating mine that cannot be abolished so easily. Very likely you have struck many of the mines I mean in your own sailing along the ocean of life.
You will be talking innocently and gaily in a mixed assembly when suddenly a change will come over the company. Faces will look horrified. Others will look amused. Others will look sorry or angry or perplexed. All brightness has left the scene. And the transformation was instantaneous.
What have you done? You have struck a loose, floating mine.
In other words, you have hurt someone's feelings. You have stumbled upon the theme of a neighborhood quarrel, perhaps. Or, you have offended someone who is notoriously oversensitive or prejudiced on some point. Altogether unconsciously, you have "put your foot in it." And the "it" is something that should never have been in the way of your foot, or any foot.
Brethren, let us ignore these floating mines of the ocean of life. You can't ignore the Japanese kind, but these are destroyed only by disregarding them. Do not be easily offended yourself, and do not pay much attention to the super sensitiveness of others. Let a cheerful good sense free the high seas of conversation from these explosive and mischievous traps.