The Daily Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Or.) 1876-1883, 1882-05-28
Sunday Morning.


of the cares and anxieties common
to the worlds toilers are any bet
ter off therefor. The faculties of
our natures that are not brought
into constant and active play be-
come limp and Ineffective frem dis
use. Thus the man born to an in- |
heritance of plenty misses all those
grand lessons of self denial and
necessity for patient and persistent
industry that can be learned only |
in the schools of adversely and
poverty. He misses the schooling
of those hard struggles with the
perplexing problems of existence,
so necessary to harden his muscles,
moral as well as physical, and
bring out the best that is in him. |
1t is natural for the poor to envy
the lot Of the rich-especially of
those who live in luxurious ease,
and who, in the words of the Scrip
ture, "toil not, neither do they
spin,"-the worlds inutilities, the
pampered descendants of sires who
in all their busy lives knew no rest
nor peace of mind in the mad
acquisition of wealth, which did
them but little if any good, and
their descendants evil. If the poor
only knew it, they are better off as
they are; not, of course, in a spirit
of abject acceptance of the pres
ent, but so long as they are
prompted to struggle for some
thing beyond their present lot and
are reasonably happy, even though
they fail to reach it:
Hope springs eternal i'll the human
breast;
Man never is but always 10 be blest,"
says Pope, and the worlds ex-
perience veri6es the aphorism.
The struggle for it is the main
thing needed. 1t keeps the metal
bright and the faculties in tune.
No one can afford to go through
life without experiencing the ne
cessity for calling into constant
and vigorous action all his mental
powers. Where the necessity is
wanting, the faculty will be likely
to lie dormant.
The hardest worked men in any
community are those who devote
their lives solely to the acquisition
of wealth. BY constant practice
and application they succeed in
developing the acquisitive faculty
TO an abnormal extent, at the price
often, of all the nobler attributes of
the soul. This is true the world
over, from Athens to Astoria.
Such lives are usually empty of
sunshine. They are beyond the
pale af human sympathy, are desc
late and unloyed in the midst of
plenty. When they die. the south
wind whose soft breath they un-
needed in lie will blow as sweet
ly; the violets whose grateful
fragrance they never stopped to
inhale will blossom as gloriousIy,
and the stars above, whose twink
ling light they never saw, will shed
a grand iuster above their grave
that no lamp above kings tomb
can emulate. And we, "the sur
vivors." Well, as we read the
morning paper and sip our morn
ing coffee, some one on the other
side of the table says: $50 old
Aladdin is dead! and, by the way,
how much did he leave?" He left
everything, and that is his epitaph.
But probably the worst con-
dition of mind in which IA man can
find himself is that of being con-
tented and satisfied with but. little
or nothing. This is the other ex-
treme OF lifo. 1t is 3hen a man
is practically worthless to himself
and to the world. Only those sue.
ceed in doing who try to do. To
float with the stream is the easies,
thing in the world; to stem and
overcome ii, and rise superior tc
circumstance requires nerve and
manhood. Right here is where
nature draws the line between the
good, and the good nothing.
We should aim to be satisfied
only with what we cannot help o.
improve. And there is but very
little with which we come in con