Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1880-12-03
The Bright Side.

II is said every rose has its thorn and
cice rerss thorns ought to have their
roses. Those who are disposed to see
only darkness because they have not
been successful in winning the smiles
OF tickle fortune will find some fouuda.
ton for more philosophic view of
things on the reflection that all tina.
g)itters is not gold and that many
whom they envy on account of their
wealth would rerhaps gladly exchange
places with them. Every man cannot
have an income of ten thousand wear.
nor can every man who depends on his
own labor receive salary of twenty.
five dollars week, or more. All that
is necessary is to know how to be con.
tented with what one has and know
how to use it to the best advantage.
In one important point essential to
happiness, the bringing up of children,
the poor have reason to be thankful. A
deep thinke. makes these observa.
tiOns:
We nave no doubt, whatever, that in
this generation especially, the well.to.
do have much more difficulty in bring.
ing up their children than the strug-
glers have. Formerly this was not so
much the case, because necessity for
strong discipline was 80 thoroughly
acknowledged that it was maintained
almost without an effort, and the
habit of obedience was enforced BY
practically irresistible authority. But
the specially Of to-day is to concede
freedom in all directions, and espe-
cially freedom to children and those who
are subordinate. Discipline in any
strong form is, among large classes,
and over great tracts of the world >
nearly dead. the bad effect of that
change-we do not mean the change
from severity to kindness, but the
change from studious government to
comparative inattention-is very great
but is partly concealed by the fact that
poverty acts as a dsciplining atmos-
phere.. 1t fixes conditions rigidly. The
girl must learn to do her own dress
making or go untidy. The boy must
go to work, or there will not be
enough, and to that particular work,
for only the rich have much choice of
occupations. Economy is imperative,
for the money is not there, and no
training in self-sacrifce acts daily,
hourly, momentarily, like compulsory
economy. The will is compressed by
the facts of life, and becomes at once
strong and pliable like leather. With
tle rich that discipline is absent, and
cannot be artiticiaily produced; and
the young have only conscious train
ing" in the athletes sense, from d.
rect authority, which, as we said, it is
the tendency of the age to relax. The
result is not only that the passions, es.
pecially the passion of self-will, grow
too strong--though that is so clear as
to have become a truism--but that
among both good and bad a certai n
bonelessness of character is apparent;
certain indlsposition to endure or to
form strong purposes as to the work Of
life; n certain want, not so much of
energy as of decision and pertinacity.
The children of the strugglers very Of
ten fail utterly, either from inherent
defects of character, or from insuper-
able obstacles of position; but more of
them win than the children of the
we'll of, and, taken as a body, they
AhSc cGIOuScI duu uucT Cu6IhCLcTSs AS
their children grow up, the well-to' do
find them more burdensome, more diff
icult to manage, more trouble to
"settle, than the poorer do; are more
anxious for their future and more dis
pleased with their defects of character
and conduct, which, indeed, from the
absence of the pressure of eircum-
stances, are much greater. With the
very rich, anxiety about their children,
crosses of different kinds inf icted by
them and their frequent total failures,
make up, we believe, definite and
separate source OF pain; and even with
the well-off, greatly increase the bur-
den of life, just at time when burdens
are most anxiously avoided. A man
has not gained much in the struggle
of life whose children are prof1igate,
boyish, characterless, or given up to
seltishn ess; and that is far more often
the lot of the rich than of the poor,
and constitutes at least one "pinch of
wealth"