Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1886-10-26
WHAT WE THINK.
People Wh Kill Themselves by Think
ing Mean Things.

People who Kill Themselves by Thinks
ing Mean Things. ]
Especial correspondence
BosToN, Oct. 1S.-If you are unhappy
from any cause yo1 are a sinner. We are all
%sinnersi Our present religions don't seem to
make the majority of tlse professors happy.
1t has told us truly to reform our acts. 1t
says little about reforming our thoughts.
TIL average New England deacon of forty
years ago often died of consumption; be-
cause he thought such a set of mean thoughts
they killed him. There is a scientific truth
involved in the phrase about q mans being
"too mean to live Meanness does kill peo-
pie. It's not so quick as arsenic. But its
slow and sure. A mean thought is O
mean thing put out in the air. Its none
the less real for being invisible, no more than
is electricity or any unseen power in nature.
Some houses make you feel mean to go into
them. It's because there's so much actual
mean element floating in the air and per-
meating the walls. Think mean and you'll
act mean. Every act of the body has a mood
of mind behind that made the act. Murder
in the mind always precedes murder by the
body, You can't do a mean. thing without
several hours of mean thinking before. Some
people take several years. More's the pity.
IdSl pay lOi ~ ny SJch DDuleS. Iufe, ul-
adulterated villainy is never well. True, it
may be on its legs and about the streets,
But more people are sick on their legs every
day than are sick in bed. Don't get angry at a
mean man, Hes suffering more than You are,
unless You get angry. Anger brings on bile.
The trouble with many people who want tic
reform the world is they make themselves
sick at the start by getting angry and scold-
ing. No regular scold is ever well. Scolding
and anger poison the blood. The thought so
put out is the destructive element. 1t draws
aud attracts the same element from those
scoldea at You can pile pills all day down O
scolding woman and they won't help her.
She is a profitable patient though for the
doctor.
Short cases mean short fees. A good prac-
tice needs long cases and long purses behind
the cases, Don't blame the doctors. They
only give what their patients call for. The
doctor knows that all the woman needs is
rest. The woman thinks she needs a pill.
The doctor gives the pill to satisfy the
woman's needs. She needs it not because its
really necessary, but because she thinks it is.
Then it Is not necessary. just as | need O
cigar because / think I do. Put me where I
couldn't got one and I'd soon find ] didn't
need it. No sound preaching is good unless
the minister takes his own medicine. I
try always to swallow my bitterest doses.
But no preacher is obliged to practice what
he breaches. I've as good a right to do wrong
as my parishioners. If 1 do the penalty will
whack me and whoop me up all the same.
The idea that a man must or should practice
what he breaches to others is ridiculous.
Telling a man that getting drunk will give
him a headache next morning has nothing to
do with your getting drunk or keeping sober.
You've told the truth. Whether you handle
the truth or not is another affair.
kThat is right proves itself in the amount of
happiness it brings. One hours sdrunkn
brings n day of pain. This is the proof that
the drunk was a sin. Ii you want your
drink and must have it, and are willing to
suffer for it, you are entitled to it and it is
nobody's business but your own. All this
preaching by others to others as to what YOU
shall do or shall not do is 50 much strength
thrown away by the preacher to the preachee.
You have a perfect right to do wrong.
You can't do wong without getting your
little whaels for it at every step. Go on in
wrong doing my friend. Go on as long as
you can stand il. L. T. CREy