The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-07-31
THE SECRET OF HAPPINESS.
DR.. Willitts Tells the Campers at Acton
that 1t Comes from Within.
Prof. D. S Jordan Lectures on the Ascent Of
the MatterhOrn-Miss Mary Rariden
Reviews Charles Lamb.

Reviews Charles Lamb.
Yesterday was the second day Of the lecture
course at Acton Park Assembly, and the attend
ance was largly increased over that of the pre-
vious day. DR.. Willtss lecture, delivered in the
forenoon, was inimitable in matter and manner,
his subject being How To Be Happy" He
proved the proposition that happiness comes
from within, and not from without that external
circumstances. wealth, position, power havelittle
nothing to DO with human happiness. Con
tentment and appreciation of the blessings of
life are the real sources of felicity. The Doctor
interspersed this part of his lecture with anec-
dotes illustrating this idea. He said that people
will insist upon shutting their eyes to the enjoy
ment of life and be utterly blind to fortuitous
circumstances provided they can get their eyes
on some trouble or misery. He made forceful
showing of this human frailty, citing the case of
Hannah the individual who was removed from
his field Of usefulness by an acute throat affec-
ton. Haman with all his wealth and power was
exceedingly unhappy. Mordecai, the Jew, refused
to bow to him.
In a very feicitous manner the Doctor, who
has genius for comedy and would have made a
frst-class actor, walked about the platform
showing how obsequiously all other people in the
country bowed to Haman and his great and
touching misery because the if-necked and
stiff kneed Mordecai refused his genufexious. He
was downright miserable because of this shortage,
refusing to appreciate the civties he did receive
In opposition to this state Of the human heart,
he gave graphic description Of Paul's arrest,
trial and imprisonment; how he was beaten be-
fore he was put in prison, then afterward placed
in the stocks and that he and Slas were heard
at midnight singing, in spite of these dismal cir
cumstances. The Doctor thought a fellow who
would sing at midnight must DO happy This
certainly must be so. He had heard Democrats
singing at midnight last fall after the election
returns came IN. He gave severe and caustic
drubbing to people who are INCREASINGLY howl
ing about this world being bowling wilderness.
They make the wilderness by their bowling, n-
stead of taking the world as it is-full of joys,
sunshine and blessings. He thought a recipe
for happiness perhaps the best one, was to make
others happy. Here, in illustration, he gave
number of sparkling and apt stories.
The lecture was received by the audience with
the greatest appreciation, accumulated by APP
plause, in which everyone joined When Colonel
Cumback announced that he had engaged Dr.
Willis for the lecture season next year, the an
nouncement provoked renewal of the applause.
MISS RARIDEN's LECTURE.
Ex-Secretary of the Navy, Hon. r. W. Thomp-
son. being unable to attend, the afternoon
lecture hour was agreeably filed by Miss Mary
Rariden, of indianapolis, whose theme was
Charles Lamb His Humor and His Pathos."
The lecturer dwelt lovingly upon Lambs school
days at Christ Church Hospital where. the sweet
ness of his disposition made him welcome guest
everywhere, while his infrmity Of speech gained
a tender plying love that went with him
through life until his death at Edmonton, Dec.
q, 1894 To be taken to Lambs heart it was
only necessary to be unfortunate. There was
in Lambs eye sort Of sacredness in sin on
account of the certain il-consequences to the
sinner He most truly learned in suffering what
he taught in song He learned life upon the
dread abysses of extremity and possibility He
had learned the lesson that the ancient Mexlcans
early impressed upon their children. ''Child.
thou art come into the world to endure, suffer.
and say nothing" He had deep religious feel
ing after reaching. middle life, though early at
tracted by Unitarianism.
The lecturer showed that no man has lived
who more conscientiously took up the duty that
lay nearest to him, and carried it not only kindly
but with the grace of bearing it happily His
pathos (of which the lecturer gave number of
admirably selected eXtracts) was but the echo of
his sad life, while his humor was the protest
against it, If, in his hi CHEST flights, he failed to
reach the sunshine, it at least prevented him
from falling too heavily earthward. Horne, in
his essay on Lamb, says: His genius seems to
have been developed by the history of his life.
Poor feeble of frame, and slow of speech-only
enough classic culture to make him long for
more, living from his early manhood under
cloud darker than death, longing for friends and
his poverty forbid6ing their cultivation; his
tender, poetical nature yearning for sympathy
1oee hon +ha al nf lniCi
its cultivation, what wonder his pathos was all
pervading touching even his quantest humors
with its shadows though dropped out of the
sunshine" He had wlthal asturcy determination
and independence no adverse fate could conquer.
Even in death, shut out from the busy scenes he
loved so we'll, we know not whether to envy and
laugh with him in his droll presentations, or weep
for him over his melancholy life.
In the evening, d. S. Jordan president of the
Indiana State University, gave his lecture,
bodying thrilling personal adventure, under
the title of THE Ascent Of the Matterhorn.' He
said that no one who has ever seen the Matter
horn will ever forget its form 1t burns itself
into the memory as nothing else in all Europe
does. 1t is not the highest mountain in the
Alps several of its gigantic neghbors little
higher, but no other mountain makes such use
of its height as the Matterhorn Other high
mountains have grand rounded heads, white
with the SHOWS Of Italy, their harsher angles are
all worn away by the action Of glaciers. The
Matterhorn is a creature of the sun and frosts.
It's slopes too steep for snow to cling to-
Glaciers make white domes of mountains. frost
makes black pinacles and spires The Matter
horn was the last of the great Alpine peaks to
remain unscaled, not so much or account Of its
difficulty as its aweinspirng appearance. The
natives still believe it is the highest mountain in
the world. They used to believe that Satan had
hi. throne on top and threw down stones Of travss
elers.
1t stands in the region of perpetual frost but
bathed in the warm sunshine of Italy every
clear day its rocky sides grow warm in the sun;
every cloudy day the snow falls, for every cloud
is a snow storm at that height. At night the
mountain grows cold and the water freezes in
the cracks which grow larger and larger as the
outside stones are showed nearer the edge.