Western sentinel. [volume] (Winston [i.e. Winston-Salem], N.C.) 1856-1886, 1886-02-18

A Good Plan Is to Keep Company
With Pleasant Authors and Really
Sensible Folks, and to Keep Your
Eyes Open to the Beauties and Your
Hearts Free to the Benign Influences
of Nature.
BY EDWARD PAYSON HALL.
For the Sentinel.
Who will invent specific to make
every one good humored Till bet
ter be devised, I beg leave to COM
mend to your readers an old and
thoroughly teste,. receipt for an elixir
Of vivacity and CONFERENCE.-The
perusal of Charles Lambs Captain
Jackson" Happy indeed, might they
be if the train of thoughts thus engen-
dered should grow in them to the di-
mensions OF a mental blooming gar
den, well-fiIled spiritual larder,
Happy, thrice happy would they all
be with that pervading equanimllty
and sunniness of temper which piled
the Captains meagre board with rare
appliances of wassail, imagined to be
sure, but none The less toothsome and
which transmitted his small beer into
steaming punch and generous Madeira!
Are YOU poor, sick, weak, friendless,
unfortunate Read Leigh Richmond's
'Shedherd of Salisbury Plain" Does
the neanness of mankind bother you?
Read Lawrencr Sterne's Tristan
Shandy 2" Mad at blundering ignor-
ance: Take a dose from Samuel Low
er's Handy Andy" Disguised od
nanseam by clowns and clodhoppers
of the ruffin breed? Take as tonic
a draught from Judge ll's''Georgia
Scenes" before breakfast, every morn
ing in the week, S. E. Troubled by
an attack of the blue devils Swal-
low "Don Quixote" and "Hudibras. "
Discouraged, fearful, about to wilt ?
Dip into "Davy Crockett "Neno-
phon, and early Life of Charles Ii. -
Happy thoughts will spring from
seeds like these and bear an hundred
fold. It is genius fighting Satan.
Next, seek genial conlpanions-real
live, hearty, healthy human beings
not rowdies, but men who have sense
and pol iteness enough to try to be
agreeable. | know good companion
able fellow the moment | get my eyes
on him, by thousand little unmistak
able but mostly indescribabie signs
by his look, dress, manner-by the
twinkle of his eve, the way he wears
, his hat. the way he holds himself even
The ring of his voice is Us the tone o
a merry bell of pure metal. Hi
laugh i; worth all the millions of dol
lars the drug stores invest IN quacf
medicines. He is surrounded by al
atmosphere teeming with the constlt
uents of life and love and galety-th
! sweet air of enjoyment, which | ca.
sniff and recognize intuitively by tn
!. time [ get within forty feet of him.
The rext best thing is to retain tn
. vivacity of your childhood as long a
! YOU can. Don't shut your eyes am
steel your heart and affect clean gon
wisdom because it's counted manly t
> do so by the great majority of dude:
Look. Look upward, outward, every
, where. See what's to be seen and fec
: what's to be felt. Don't be q drie
and withered Solomon before your
;. twenty-five. Better be a real ma
. with a slight touch Of wickedness tha
y a draped and dignifed fool. Tax
), the practical Dutchman's view Of til
V case:
o 40 crown your het init roses, lofe!
a o keep a fiddle sprung!
- Oonendless wisdom ish but dis:
n To get it While you're young!
r. Und Age vas nefer COON to him,
4 To him Spring plooms afresh,
=" Who finds livin spirit in
: Der Teufel und der Flesh"
J. And mind what l tell you just hel
and now: don't get in a habit
n fault-fnding and criticizing and gan
Is bling. If you do, all happy though
,e will very soon be banished as far fro
,r you as the East is from the We:
Pin this verse from 'Reynard Il
+. Fox" in the crown of your hat, al
+ repeat it as often as the Moslem sa
IN his prayers:
lie 40, is it not cruel thing
M That there's end of censuring?'
what's good don't inquire about
DIS But what is bad find out
Y I; And our delight is to descry
"a The splinter in our nelghbor's eye.
- Ofthis we like to say and sing,
eu But not to praise handsome thing"
Pin your faith to all the religl'
and morality, the churches, lodg
and snch that inculcate loves to yo
neighbor and duty to your Great
.r. Act charity; act worship. But cal
Ell ing and whining and quoting Scr
rn ture by the yard never made hap
rim thoughts in a man.-"Conslder t
d;- lilies" Why consider them, vulg
Ira utilitarianism would object, seel
" that they toll not neither DO they sp
,Iv But that is the very reason for &C
~ sidering them. They are cloth
'av m from above with SURPRISING beau
;sI without taking thought for themselv
"a thing of beauty is JOY forever
and that is undeniably to be of so
"rise" in the world.
Help the poor. OF all the ways
ga happy thoughts that is the royal ro
mi. 1t is paved with pleasure and streN
nse with garlands the angels placed the
ior Stand up manfully for the rig
i've Don't be coward and trickle do'
= Stiff knees and brave arm he
When the contest is over, you '
be hitched to the victor's chariot.
"Fear God and keep His Co
ba- mandments.' That is your "who
roy duty. And duty is Synonymous "
wn happiness.
Mt. Vernom, N. c., Feb. II.