The Daily times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1886-1889, 1888-10-14
SOLVING PROBLEMS.

Getting in and out Of difficulties Is
what makes up the life Of the general
man. Marrying in haste and repenting
at leisure, runaway matches and divorce
suits are grim illustrations OF the truth,
The old Bal al runs
Charley Bluff had money enough
SO he got him WIFE the pet OF his lie.
Nevertheless marriage is not a failure.
And the sentimental is nearest to the
truth:
There's bliss beyond all that the poets have
When souls that are linked in one Heavenly
tie.
With hearts never changing and brows never
cold.
Love on through all ills and love on till they
And o, if there be an Elysium on earth,
II is this, il is this"
But this getting in and out of ugly
fixes, solving problems, working out
sums, begins early and ends late in our
history. And it is really necessary to
make life interesting.
What is dullcr than a perfectly smooth
and even journey in flat country and
in close carrisge? And what is more
uninterestns than a life Of abundance
free from care, free from difficulty, free
from effort, listless, indifferent and STU
pid? Who cares to run fox Chase on a
turnpike on a dead level, If the turns
of the fox are not likely 10
make the course hazardous. We
would rather make few bitches and
fences for the occasion. The gaudia cer-
taminis-the difficulties to be surmounted
the dangers TO be encountered, the
trials of strength, of courage of man
hood are the things that bring out our
powers, that make honor itself enjOya-
BILE. Who cares for honors that are
bought for money, or that are mere gifts:
1t is as testimonies of battles fought, OF
laborious, persistent endeavor, of great
sacrifices for honorable ends that men
love to wear medals, badges and regalia.
AS mere ornaments, they are nothing
more than the feathers of the peacock
mere vanities.
The plainest commonest business of
every day life derives its best interest
from its difficulties. The obtaining of
employment, the choice of pursuit, the
establishment OF a brand, the pushing Of
a business, the furnishing OF evidence,
the winning a case, the treatment of a
patient, the management of finances,
the untieing of knots, the accomplishing
of apparent impOssibiliiies-these are the
things that make men think and feel like
men. Then all the way up on the levels
of life, AS our affairs and interests are
enlarged, the problems become more and
more complicated, and their solutions
more difficult. Still it is working of
sums, just as it was in addition aud sub
traction and men complain as in early
life.
"Mu tiplication is yexatiOn,
Division is rs bad.
Rule of Three Puzzles me,
and practice makes one mad"
We murmur and worry and think We
are the unluckiest of our race because
merely we can't work out our sums And
then we solve ii and fad out another still
harder:
The worlds a labyrinth where unguided men.
Wand up and down 20 nnd their WEAKNESS.
No sooner have we measured with much care.
One crooked path in hopes 10 ind our free
dom:
But it betrays US to a new afiicton.
And at the last when We have worked a
long list of problems and met the events
and issues OF our lives; when we have
reached the closing years, wearied with
disaster. tugged with fortune, tired Of
working problems and sick of yicissi
tudes, we begin to realize that after ell the
whole of life is itself problem, the state
ment of which is work out your own