The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1871-03-15
Borrowing Trouble.
LOOKING AT THE DARK SIDE AND SHUT
TING OUT THE SUN.

TING OUT THE SUN.
Some people--and those unfortunate
ly not tew-live in the perpetual en-
ployment of borrowing trouble They
lay a life long mortgage on their hap
piness, and occupy their time in pay
ing fancy interest, and heavy one,
for their uncomfortable loan. Any
thing serves them as an occasion for
making themselves miserable; and
their indulgence in gloomy anticipa-
tons OF the worst that can befall be-
comes at last trick of the mind, which
they cannot overcome if they would
For the mind gets its ''tricks" like the
body, and they are just as difficult to
overcome. No illness, according to
them, can end otherwise than fatally !;
no money pinch can be got over save
by bankruptcy, with exceptional dis
grace; no trivial misunderstanding can
be healed before it becomes an ire
concilable breach; and they have al
ways sorrowful convictions as to the
present unsatisfactory state Of your
soul, and it's ultimate destination is
uncomfortable sure unless you make a
complete change in your opinions,
your actions and your beliefs. Their
heaven has no sun, or one they see on
ly through smoked glass; their songs
are mousnful threHodies their very
affections are so many poisoned roots
of sorrow and their troubles are mul
tiplied by just SO many as they have
friends and acquaintance in whose
welfare they are interested. If kindly
nurtured and not saturDinc, their whole
energy goes into pity, till thcir com
passion becomes vice, and their SYM
pathy an additional burden on the
heavy weight already borne by those
they love. For though they mean to
help in bearing the packet of miseries
of those who are heavily laden, they
only make it 1enser and harder to car
ry by the weight of their own gloom.
If they are mothers they see nothing of
the joy, the elasticity, the unanticipa-
tive thonghtlessness which neither
CLOCKS before nor after" the happy in
consequences of childhood; they take
to heart only its troubles shaped out OF
the hard tasks of school, the tyranny
of the whether as big boys who
make little ones flag for them, or as big
, girls who take away the little girls
, toys, or as nurses and teachers who ty-
, rannize over and Cypress both big and
little impartially; the troubles that
: have to come from inevitable ailments,
and from the gradual initiation into
the sorrowful realities CT life. They
pity children and young people sc
much-they say mournfuliy: Poor
=. little things; life is so hard Oh them J!
:, And the shrill cadence of childish
= laughter, coming in with the sunshine
a and the song of birds and the scent o
! summer flowers, does not tighten thei
: gloomy picture, nor destroy their mel
: ancholy theory.
: Nothing can do that, for even the ab
n solute present reality of JOY is to then
: only an hallucination, delusion. whicl
must before long fade away into THU
air; and blackencd ashes, where hat
, once been the glow aud warmth of fire
= or a fire that only seemed and wa:
+ true-arc the utmost they can allow a:
q possible to mankind.
. If the borrowers of trouble did moi
;. insist on sharing and passing on thei1
/ loan, it would not so much signify
p Folks are free to make themselves un
! happy in any way that strikes thei
a fancy, but the mischief lies in comnlu.
: nicating to others this unhappines!
1 elaborated in their own private crnci
+ ble-this trouble borrowed of false
+ fears and sorrows that do nota yet ex
p list, and that may not see the light a
). all. But happiness is impossible will
;. this preveniently grieving race. They
+ know Joy only by name, as a fleeing
deceitful and destructive hussy, ant
;, they choose care, in his blacklist garb
~ as their rider en- croupe. Like Trap
h pists they dig their own graves Will
d they are still walking about the cart
% as men, not crawling, beneath it a
o worms; and they keep their most pre-
il cious Jewels in coffin as casket. A
% if the absolute was not bad enough
:. and the punishment that overtakes til
"a unconscious strayings of rs poor daze
- wayfarers not hard enough TO beal
70 and certain enough to come-as it til
/. sadness inherited of life itself, an
;s which none of us can avoid, was DC
, deep enough, the mystery Of sorron
= which none of us can fathom OF fOreg
81 not mournful enough, without addin
# to it all by onr own act, pljing the Pc
,e lion of unnecessary fears on the Ossa {
d inevitable pain
c. But, indeed, the worst use that ma
N can make of his time is to borrow trou
Is BILE in any shape. 1t is quite ba
of enough to spend it in tears and despa
so when it comes of it's own irrepressibl
l. accord; until then, let us keep OF
s. hands clear of it, and if we must boz
tie row anything, borrow JOY and hop
err even if we have to pay back the loa
~ with disappointment and with grie,
ar ing All the Year Round.
al
ID AT BIossAT'S WAREHOUSE-FO
u N sale cheap-POTATOES, SALT, Al
RS PILES, MACKEREL. HAY, OATS, LINZ