Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1879-11-02
THE PHTLTsTINE POINT OF
VIEW.
(Being the opinions Of a smart young nan on
Pessimism.)

Pessimism.)
Dear Dick,
I've been reading-or tryi e to read
4 rum SOFT of volume, a book of a breed
That, like prigs and Phyllorera, seem t.
increase
At a rate that much threatens u fun anG
our peace,
I suppose, as the sspient Darwin would
say,
IT'S the --latest Development! Things will
In our worried old world, that's so Aouted
by togies,
If the rule of the rOOsts left to beetles and
bogies,
Are the pests and the Pessimists plotting
together,
With Lawson, Burne Jones, and the Clerk
OF the Weather,
To make a clean sweep of ali comfort and
cheer,
And rob the poor world of its bliss with its
Is Life aOorh the Liping2 Now doesn't
that look
A beautiful title to give to a book?
What rotl Why, you might as we'll ask,
to my thinking.
If woman's worth loving or wine is worth
drinking;
To which any donkey could answer off
That of course it depends on the girl and
the brand.
It's astonishing, Dick, what egregious bosh
These big-wigs will wrtel But it really
won't wash
When a word-spinner, ranking himself
among sagcs,
Goes Numbering on for some hundreds of
pages.
To ask such a bogus old riddle as this is,
And fiAds at the fms the answer he misses.
Life What sort of life That's the crur,
after all,
The life that a man about town would so
call?
Or some moony and spoony existence
apart,
All very low spirits and very high art2
Ii the man means the latter, I'll answer
anStGnteT.
The browse of the dreary @sthetical Can
Absorbed in bad dreams and poetical
fummery,
Is no more like life than sour milk is like
P%ommery,
And no more worth living than I'm worth
a"plum."
Life shaped on such lines is a lachrymose
hum.
But give me ten thousand a year, my dear
And I'll show them that life is a thing to
enjoy,
And not to write poems and essays about,
Beginning in doldrums and ending in
doubt.
Here's the tip that to mooners like Mallock
I'd give:
Life's only worth living to those who can
Neat and not nubilistic. I think you will
say.
Which is Just what we want in our fog
fustered day.
Clear sense and no cloudsl That's my
maxim al round,
And what duffer denies that the principles
sound?
Meta yhysical m~uddlemepts not worth a
rush,
Nor fnical fam. nor emotional gusb.
hold that all things, from science te
From BurGe Jones art to the acting of
Terry,
man of the world is the very best judge,
ANA what ne can't fathom is mostly pure
fudge.
a plant, say the seers; well, don't
poke at its roots,
But let the thing grow, and look out for its
fruits.
find tn m most tasty, in spite of dull
stuff.
md my only complaints that 1 can't get
enough.
f a fellow wU feed on green apples and
sloes,
lie becomes a d~yspeptic and gets a red
And when a man comes to this dull ulti-
ma un,
life when summed ups uanitaS Uani- |
tGtuD1,
And fancies his verdict has settled the queg-
ton,
7e thinks it philosophy, indigestion.
Boshl A smart man scorns
such trash;
is merely a matter of health and hard
Of the megrims in prose and
in verse
lean gastric disorder or I~eanness of purse.
With money and Moet, and love and good
cookery,
Who dare say this world is a played,out
old rockery?
only T%rappists, and two-penny Timoms
Who, in search of the wind, must cut open
It's all this COMPOUNDED new fad for ana
lysis.
m'appuyez pas trop! That is the
style.
There are chaps who'll dissect you a tear
or a smile.
Fill they fancy they've proved life in just |
proto plasm.
And love al mere vortex, and laughter a
spasm.
'upposiDg they are, let's give thanks that
at present,
whirl is delightful, the spasm is pleas
ant.
as for the future, can pessimist prophet
Declare if it leads to Nirvana or Tophet?
he ends with a tag vague as fol-de-rOl-
lido,
And knows just as much of the issue as 1
do.
Zeal life's real JAM" and what I beg to
state is
IN not yet inclined to cry, Ohel jam
salts"
orth living, or not, I shall LAY out my
part,
And a fig for the funkers!
.LP"nch. Yours, truly,
JACK SHARP.
RUBENSTEIN'S PIANO PLAYING,
JIG. Browns Description Thereof.