Don"t worry or criticize this book. Take my suggestions in the spirit offered.
PESSIMISTS
Give Them the Cold Shoulder
The calamity howler is found in the midst of peace and plenty. This pessimist sows seeds of discord, plants envy, generates the anarchist spirit, and is an all-around nuisance.
A man may spend years erecting a building; a fiend can demolish it in a minute with a stick of dynamite.
The calamity howler is a destroyer; he doesn"t think, he spurts out words. His words and arguments are simply parrot mimicry and void of intellectual impulse, as are the movements of an angle worm.
These peace destroyers talk of their rights and they expect and demand the same privileges and benefits that are earned by the man who uses his head.
These ghouls are born without heads; they just have necks that grow up and are covered with hair. These brainless mollusks are now telling the people that the Sultan of Sulu is to capture Texas and that j.a.pan is to invade Indianapolis; Germany is to capture Quebec, and France is to siege Milwaukee.
The howlers spread talk of yellow peril and black plague to follow. They spread doubt and fear; they tell you the capitalists are awake nights trying to starve you and that they employ inventors to discover new methods of torture for the poor working man.
They accuse business men of grinding down the farmer, forming pools, establishing starvation prices, and ruining agriculture. Yet, as I write these lines, fat beef cattle sell for $10.00 a hundred on the hoof, wheat is way over $1.00 a bushel, and good farms in Missouri even are selling at from $100.00 to $150.00 per acre.
Good farm mortgages are hard to get. The farmers have money in the banks, honey in the house, and automobiles in the garage.
Our taxes in the United States are lower than anywhere on the face of the earth. Our wages are higher than anywhere in the world. Our schools better, our opportunities greater.
And in the midst of better conditions and brighter prospects the shameless, brainless, fameless bipeds pollute the atmosphere, poison hearts and plant discontent.
If these howlers are any better than foot-pads, thieves, grave robbers, or child beaters, I can"t see it.
And it is up to you and to me to denounce these peace destroyers, ridicule them, show our contempt for them; they have no hearts, no souls, they are only decay spots that spread rottenness, disease, despair, discouragement, contamination and anarchy, and we do not want such guests at our quilting parties or husking bees.
GLOOM CONTAGION
A Little Study of Faces in a Street Car
This evening I rode home in a crowded street car. What an interesting study to watch the faces in that car.
Discontent, discomfort, worry, gloominess on nearly every face. Tired faces, tired bodies from a hard day"s work, mouth corners drooped.
Hopelessness stamped on the countenances.
As the people came in the car some of them had smiles or at least pa.s.sable expressions, but when they got crowded together and saw the gloomy faces the gloom spread to their faces, too.
At a picnic all are smiling and laughing. In the street car at six o"clock the long procession of workers is a stream of solemn faces.
Contagion, example, surrounding, yes, that"s it--contagion and example.
At six o"clock in the cars all is gloom, blueness and sorrow faces. At eight o"clock many of these faces will be changed; there will be joy, smiles, rosiness, singing and dancing. Yet the actual conditions of finance, health, hope or prospects haven"t changed since these people were in the car at six o"clock.
Why then such a change in two hours?
It is this: at seven o"clock these workers sat down to supper, they were out of that gloom-reflected street car atmosphere. Now they are talking, they are rounding-up the day"s activities; they are HOME with mother, sister, brother and the kiddies. The home ones greet them with smiles, the appetizing supper pleases the palate, good cheer permeates, and all is smiles and joy.
Gloom spreads gloom. Joy spreads joy. Gloom is black; joy is white. One darkens, the other brightens.
Well, then, where"s the moral? What"s the benefit from this little study of the street car pa.s.sengers?
The lesson is plain: it is that you and I are ferments of joy or acids of gloom. We are influences to help or to hurt. To hurt others by our example hurts us. To help others by our example helps us. We become happier than ever.
In the street car life was not worth living if you judged by the pained faces. In two hours by changed thought the example of life was worth while.
What changes the mental att.i.tude makes.
"When a man has spent His very last cent-- The world looks blue, you bet; But give him a dollar And loud he will holler There"s life in the old world yet."
Next time we get on the street car let"s plant some smiles. Let"s give that lady a seat and smile when we do it.
We can spread cheer by merely wearing a cheery face. Costs little, pays big. Let"s do it.
HAPPINESS
Hovers Near Us If We Do Not Chase It
Some of our richest blessings are gained by not striving for them directly. This is so true that we accept the blessings without thinking about how we came to get them.
Particularly true is this in the matter of happiness. Everyone wants to be happy, but few know how to secure this blessing.
Most people have the idea that the possession of material things is necessary to happiness and that idea is what keeps architects, automobile makers, jewelers, tailors, hotels, railroads, steamships and golf courses busy.
Do your duty well, have a worth-while ambition, be a dreamer, have an ideal. Keep your duty in mind, be occupied sincerely with your work, keep on the road to your ideal and happiness will cross your path all the while.
Happiness is an elusive prize; it"s wary, timid, alert and cannot be caught. Chase it and it escapes your grasp.
I read today of a friend who walked home with a workman. This is the workman"s story: He had a son who was making a record in school. He had two daughters who helped their mother; he had a cottage, a little yard, a few flowers, a garden. He worked hard in a garage by day and evenings he cultivated his flowers, his garden, and his family. He had health, plus contentment a-plenty. His possessions were few and the care of them consequently a negligible effort.
Happiness flowed in the cracks of his door. Smiles were on his lips, joy in his heart, love in his bosom; that"s the story my friend heard.
Then came a friend in an automobile on his way home from the club. He picked up my friend and to him a tale of woe, misery and discontent did unfold.
This club man had money, automobiles, social standing, possessions, and all the objects and material things envious persons covet--yet he was unhappy. His whole life was spent chasing happiness, but his sixty horsepower auto wasn"t fast enough to catch it.