The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1886-01-16
TOWSONTOWN, Md, SATURDAY, JANUARY 1e, 1885,
A Slave to Care.
Philadeiphia Ledger.

Philadelphia Ledger.
| Many persons think that, in order to
enjoy perfect liberty, it is only neces
sary to be free from the control of other
people. If no one exacts obedience,
regulates their lives, or interferes with
their will, they triumphantly call them
selves free. Yet their is a bondage,
which is not the less slavish because
they forge the chains themselves. There
are tyrants that hold men in unfinch-
ing servitude, and burdens under which
they bend without thinking it possible
to rebel against the one or to cast off
the other.
One of the most common forms OF
this acknowledged slavery is that which
we are under, to care. Now care is
something that rightly falls to the lot
of all. Childhood alone may claim ex-
emption from it. AS the life advances
it comes with every new responsibility,
and every honest man and woman ac-
cepts it cheerfully as his or her share in
the worlds burdens. So far, however,
care is no grinding task-master. 1t de-
velopes power, it encourages endeavor,
it promotes happiness. No one but the
selfish idler would wish to be entirely
free from care; but we justly hold him
in honor who faithfully takes up that
which falls to his lot and fulfls the du-
ties it involves.
Insensibly, however, in many cases,
the time arrives when the man is no
longer master of the situation. Care
gradually tightens its grasp and extends
its domain until, by and by, he who
had once governed and regulated it be-
comes its victim. He has, perhaps, be,
come involved in business ventures that
tax all his powers of body and mind.
Not only his own money, but that of
others is implicated; not only his own
welfare, but that of a dependent family
hangs upon the issues. The ups and
downs that once were borne cheerfully
now wear upon his nerves and irritate
his temper. His brow is contracted,
wrinkles betoken an anxious spirit, the
smile fades from his lips. Absorbing
care has fastened upon him, and, though
he imagines he is free, he is in fact, and
for the time, slave.
Or he has entered political life, with
high hopes and bright prospects. He
counts much upon his friends, he un-
dertakes large enterprises, and binds
himself by many promises. Presently
complications arise; obstacles impede
his path; friends grow cool and enemies
spring up; his aims seem to recede from
him, even his motives becomes clouded !;
care overshadows him, and he can no
longer control it; his freedom is gone.
One is extravagant, and, yielding to his
inclination or vanity, he spends first up
to his income, then little beyond it,,
then incurs liabilities which he cannot
meet, and then care has gained supre-
macy over him that he can in no way
throw off Another gives way to some
temptation, and wrecks his own life and
the happiness of all that are dear to him,
and the care that guilt brings sits for
ever at his board. One is immersed
in details and takes the cares that
properly belong to many others upon
his own shoulders, until they weigh him
to the earth; another, by nelecting to
hold the threads of life in an orderly
way, becomes entangled in a web of
care, from which he struggles in vain to
extricate himself. Thus, in numerous
ways, do men give up the liberty they
profess to prize, and submit to tyran-
ny that fetters the soul, that palsies the
energies, that weakens the will. Who
that has writhed under such despotism
would not escape from it with gladnesS,
even at the loss of much that he holds
dear7 Yet, like all tyranny, it must
cost revolution to break the yoke.
1t is true that excessive care is some
times the result of circumstances that
cannot be controlled, but usually it is
not so. Often it is only question of
limit. How much to undertake and to
promise? How far to accept response
bility? What style of living to adopt ?
The practical answers to such questions
frequently decide whether care is to be
an honorable and useful servant, or a
cruel and tyrannical master. Our pow
ers are all limited, and their best eff
cheney is never secured by straining
them to the utmost. Always to leave a
margin, reserved force of strength or
means, is valuable rule of life. To
aim at excellence in one thing, rather
than mediocrity in many, to undertake
few things, and those few with whole
soul, will greatly help to ward off the
tyranny of care. So, above all, will
firm principles that place truth, honesty
and fidelity SO high that no temptation
can assail them, and pure and simple
life that prizes righteousness above gain
and draws its happiness. from nobler
sources than luxury or display.