The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1879-02-19
Real Care and Sham.

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That sturdy son of the English church.
the bishop Of Manchester, recently. in
the course of public speech, made some
sharp remarks on the frivolity of social
life, and read the following letter from q
young woman to illustrate:
We breakfast about 10. Breakfast oc-
Gu pies the best part of an hour, during
which we read our letters, and my mother
expects me to write her notes Of invita-
ton, or TO reply to such. Then l have to
go into the conservatory and iced the Ca
naries and parrots. and cut off the dead
leaves and faded flowers from the plants.
Then it is time to dress for lunch, and at
2 o'clock we lunch. At 3 my mother
likes me to 90 with her when she makes
her calls, and we then come home to
5 o'clock tea, when some friends drop in.
After that we get ready to take our drive
in the park, and then we 20 home to DIN
ner, and after dinner we 90 to the tbeater
or the opera, and when we get home I
am so dreadfully tired that don't know
what to do.
This is an exaggerated picture, of
course; or at least, however true of Eng
lish society girls, could hardly be assert
ed of any considerable portion of this
community. Yet the cares or what are
magnifed into cares OF some people can
hardly be Of greater importance than
feeding the canaries and parrots and cut
ting off dead leaves and faded flowers.
There is fatal facility in multiplying
cares about nothing, until we seemed to
be absorbed and completely taken up
with vanities and nothings. The more
complex civilization gets, the more bur-
deHsome it becomes, until we are fain to
run away in any direction from the tread
mill which we have built for ourselves.
Take for instance the single item of the
supply of food to our human necessities.
Plenty in the first essential; then we
must have variety and delicacy, then fine
ware from which to eat and an expert
enced servant to care for it as we'll as to
prepare the meals; other rehnements are
gradually added, until the performance
of satisfying hunger amid plenty, be-
comes feat of organization, co-opers-
ton, and execution, not at all inferior in
difficulty to the original problem of pro-
curing the raw material OF food itself. It
finally comes to this that there is more
distress over the failure Of the dom cstic
to scrub the silver or brush up the
crumbs, then there would once have been
over the absence of athe dinner sentirely.
Perhaps it is still truer of apparel that the
demands of fashion impose on this gene
ration more labor and vexation than the
weaving and home manufacture of gaf-
ments did upon the celebrated grand
mothers.
> This tendency of civilization to compli-
cate rather than simplify our lives should
be resisted at every turn. Let US be sure
these modern ''conveniences" are not traps
to impose some new ani embarrassing
letters, quite different from the opportu-
nifty for charging life which is anticipated
from them. Keep the necessities of life
we'll within bounds and find something
outside OF them, of more ennobliug
[ character, for all the leisure which can be
e made. It is very easy to fill up leisure
). with "fancy work" and ''loafng" and i'm
q agine oneself tired from mere absence o.
exhilarating mental effort or personal ex.
J perience outside of the most ordinary
y selfish ways of life.
1t is sometimes good mcrsl discipline
to think over ones burdens, separate the
:? real and the necessary, from the fictitious
;! and the needlessly assumed. The value Of
= the practice goes beyond personal life
into public affairs. The difficulties Of
e public problems arise more FROM manu-
featured obstacles to Improvement ant
j reform than real ones, however real tn
former may sometime be made to appear
y Springfield Republican