Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-01-05

shut up with 40 or more nervous children
for seven or eight hours day. and doing
overwork after times, is no easy life, but
when to this is added carrying home manu-
scripts night after night to read and mark, it
is no wonder that SO many of them look as
if living at
A PACE THAT KILLS.
To surrender rest and recreation to the
manuscript work is on their part foolish and
unnecessary, and they should "kick" on
taking work home.
But lack of leisure and solace of rest are
denied alike to the men and women OF this
age. Every year it seems as if the
hurry Of living and the multiplicity of mat
ters to attend to were growing greater Tor
all. In the general decay of faith the old
proverb, "The more hurry the less speed,
seems to have shared. According to the
cheerful and favorite philosophy of those
who see in the great boom of progress in
the last century, a nearer and swifter ap-
proach to new and happier golden age,
when tyrants have ceased to oppress and
slaves exist no longer-when want and mis-
cry tend to disappear, and the riches and
pleasures of the world are more equally
divided-when the strifes and strikes Of
capital and labor will have wholly ceased
and poverty will no longer be
associated : when the new forces
of nature being developed have elevated
society by giving opportunity of culture to
the humblest-when with wealth of knowl-
edge and leisure to acquire are in possession
OF al, men and women safe from the terrors
of want will realize their dreams or
sweetness and light and love. But opposed
to these are others who persist in denying
that happiness ever has been, or ever will be
obtained, either by the individual, or by
the world at large, and that the
changed condition of things into which the
world seems passing will only by its greater
intelligence and clearer comprehension of
things, bring out in added intensity the
consciousness that work, suffering, sin and
misery are the unavoidable lot Of mankind.
A DISMAL PHILOSOPHY.
This new philosophy is most dismal and
forlorn, and will receive no acceptance at
the opening of a new and prosperous year.
Were it even forced upon the intelligence of
mankind by strength of truth it would not
add to their happiness or detraet from their
misery, since it would do away with the
sweetest dreams and hopes. As every
one has his burden to bear, so it is that he
has his sweetest pleasures as well. The
SAo0 hOW yOoA 10 upOh u.s. ACb Us hO pc ~ wa
be better than the last, more beauti-
full, less sorrowful, and bring on
the ''better manners, purer laws"
of which hope and optimism ever
whisper Looking Backward" has captured
the public mind as to what may be hoped
from socialism. But does the light Of his
tory show that human nature has greatly
changed under all the teachings of philan-
thropy and progress? Would not even some
of the good men of to-day just
as readily persecute for difference of
opinion as the holy men of old?
Were the power of the law insufficient, would
not cruelty be found as intense, avarice as
and bigotry as bitter as existed
of years ago? While we can
look backward, we cannot live backward,
and to ''move on is inevitable whether for
better or worse, Longfellow says:
Trust no future, howe'er pleasant
Let the dead past bury its deadI
Act, act in the living PRESENT.
This is all that can be done, poetry or no |
poetry, since we can neither count upon, or act |
in the future. BESSIE BRAMBLE.