Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-01-30
1T DOES MATTER.
The Little Things Of Life to Which Peo-
pie Do Not Attach Due Importance.

s'What matters it-'twill be all the
same one hundred Years hence!' How
often one hears such u remark when
somebody is tempted to intermit an
irksome duty, or to drop a tiresoms
task, or to decline Il suggested labor.
1t may amount only to the smoothing
of some present path. or plucking a
thorn which might leave a scratch on
some approaching hand, or making a
suggestion which could Danish some
transient fear; and since the i'll which it
should seek torcmedy itself seems slight
or transitory. that it be mitigated or
abridged, appears of small account. 1t
may be but Il question of IL little more
or u little less sunshincfor aday which,
anyway, is much %beclouded; Il question
OF more or fewer smiles upon a face
which, anyway, must wear many
wrinkles OF pain and many burrows of
anxiety; a question of Il few pennies
more or a few pennies less in Il pocket
which is seldom white with silver ami
never yellow with gold: and so it seems
easy to drop responsibility with regard
to it. and fall back upon the cruel chill
of the conclusion: swell, people al
ways do get through somehow-and it
will be all the same a hundred wears
hence!"
Yes, it cannot be denied that people
always do get through somehow"
but does it make no difference hom they
get through? Is.it all the same to the
farmer whether his potatoes when dug
are rotten and small, or large and firm;
whether his corn be smutty or sound;
whether his apples be gnarly, specked
and wormy-doubtfully admissible even
to the condemnation of the cidcr-mill-
or large and fair. candidates for the
first honors of the market; whether his
butter be lardy in look and strong in
flavor, or bright and fragrant; whether
his HAY be half weeds and all musty or
clean clover, tine-top and herdsgrass
with Il sweet and wholesome odor;
whether the wood which he hauls to
town be lean, c~adaverous .;rch, cut at
the wrong time of the sap. and water
soaked red oak. or sound and we'll
seasoned hickory? OF course it makes
a ~differenee-to his reputation, and to
his profits. And the point is that, in
all human probability. not any one
great disastrous thing is responsible for
that difference. but II thousand little
neg!ects and misjudgments. His
neighbor goes beyond him in
everything, and always finds a
ready sale at tirst-class prices for
everything which he has to dispose OF,
while he is hanging around the streets
and shops, trying vainlv topeddle his
wares; and this not through any favor
itism or better ''luck," or anything of
that sort in his neighbours case, but
because his processes were better and
his crops were better, and so the rc-
suits are better. And these processes
with their resulting harvest-were
better simply because his neighbor, in
stead OF idly sitting down under the
Supplying shadow of the notion that
all will be the same a hundred wears
hence, was diligcnt in business, daily
and hourly doing all the little things
which his hand could find to do to fore
tend weeds. to mellow the soil, to keep
away the worms from his fruit and the
i'll growths from his meadows. and
generally to make it sure that his share
of all results should always count at
least twelve. if not thirteen, to the
dozen.
Nothing ia Il tritlc which has vital
connections with the future. And that
proSy rhyme OF DR.. Young:
Think nought Il -tri1c. enough small it an.
pear:
Small sands tile mountain. moments make
the year;
And tritles life.
is better truth than poetry. If it were
possible to a~nalyze accurately and
minutely II hundred human lives, and
determine the proportion of what NAV
fairly be called real happiness entering
into each and the exact causes thereof,
we have an idea that most people
would be surprised to find: az how
much less happy many are than the
world think; GU how mach more happy
many are than the world think: (3)
how largely the happ ness that is, is
due to little things. And possibly one
result of meditation thereon might be
to lead the wise to conclude that it is a
verY%nnmanly, if not foolish. reason to
give#Sfor any action. or for the
neglect OF any action. that it will be all
the same Il huadrcd years hence.-Cou-
grcgullo"ulisi.
There areS4O hunting packs in En-
trI.p1 onp,, ,.sa Il, - 70 Ofn I y,