Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-02-23


can be truly happy.
do not mean Just amused or free from
care; children are that but I do not call
them happy, for they cannot know how for
tuuate they are, and happiness must involve
q mental contrast with some other condition
in which we might have been involved; my
| happiness in paying those debts was the
outcome of the misery Of not being able to
pay them; the happiness of the travellers
return home is the contrast with the separa-
ton and homelessness of his travels.
PLEASURE BY CONTRAST.
We have all heard of the Indian whom
the missionary found pounding his own
finger with brick. The good man thought
it was a penance, and was applauding the
piety of the neophyte, who, however, inter-
rupted him to explain, with solemn grin,
that Much poundee, much achee; feel
muchee good when leave off.
Perhaps, then, happiness for US who know
our world is only the absence of pain or
trouble, and as the child does not know
about pain and trouble, it cannot really know
happiness.
But older children, babes between Is and
25, what of them9 Girls do not know much
of the sorrow or care of existence if they have
a father to provide the means of life, and a
mother to ward off worries and responsible
place for them in the world, and to bolster
them up in it, have as little real knowledge
of the rough side of life as they have of
rheumatism.
But are these girls and boys truly happy?
No, for they are, both consciously and un-
consciously, in a transition, and, thereto e,
in an unsatished condition; the girl is look
ing forward more or less frankly to the day
when some Mr. Right shall come along and
invite her to become the queen consort of a
little kingdom of their own, shall introduce
her into some ideal condition of life wherein
she shall find happiness, and however
fortunate her girlhood, she seldom looks
upon it as more than a vestibule and wait
ing-room through which one passes to life.
THE HAPPY HONEYMOON.
A little later on, there is condition which
I suppose comes as near true happiness as
anything this world affords; it is the early
married lite of two persons really in love,
and really adapted by age, education, tastes
and temper for companionship with each
other. To such a couple, with money
enough between them to free them from the
sordid cares and anxIeties of life, there may
come few weeks-nay, let us be liberal and |
say few months-of almost perfect happi- |
ness; but oh, my heart! how sure it; is to |
change as time goes onl The honeymoon |
perfection, and though other moons may |
come, and be very bright and very beauti- !
full, that especial moon comes no more.
And, in later life, how few people, If you |
ask them what has been the happiest hour |
of their existence, would place 1t in the |
present epoch of life. As a rule the go |
back to childhood's ignorant carelessness, or |
to youths calcium-lighted and impossible |
dreams of q future that never came.
One man of my acquaintance, when asked |
the above question, replied: ''The happiest |
moments of my existence are when, after |
really good dinner with good wines, seat |
myself in my study chair, my slippered feet |
upon a rest, a capital cigar between my
teeth, a steady light falling over my left |
shoulder, and an interesting magazine or |
book in my hanrs. Then, ifnobody disturbs
me, experience for two or three hours the |
fullest sense of happiness of which my |
human nature is capable"
to- MUCH OF COMPREHENSIVE.
ga id do you not include human COM
pani Jnship in your recIpe?"
"No, my dear madam. All through the |
y have a great deal more human COM |
panionship than want.
ga very selfish idea of happiness" re- |
sponded 1; and he: "Let US talk of the I
phoenix, or of the island of Atlantis, or of |
the man in the moon; any one of them is |
more tangible than this myth which you |
call happiness"
asked good manor at any rate he was
a clergyman-what happiness means and |
where it is to be found, and he picked up a
Bible off his table and read aloud:
And whatsoever mine eyes desired kept not
from them, 1 withheld not my heart from any
ioy; and, behold, all was vanity
and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit
the dead which are already dead more than the
living which are yet alive. Yea, better is he
than both they which hath not yet been. who
hath not seen the evil work that is done under
the sun.
THAT is the verdict of Solomon. the wisest
man who ever lived" said my friend the
parson, as he laid down the book. "and he
seems to think that happiness is an unattain-
able condition"
And so the man Of the world and the
man of God come to the same conclusion bv
different paths and without a thought in
common.
THE BUTTERFLY'S HAPPINESS.
A little disheartened in my quest, 1 next
applied to a person neither cynical, nor
pious, nor bright-a dear, pretty little but
terfy who has danced and fnttered over the
parterres of fashion for more years than we
talk about.
"Happiness" chirruped she, "why, of
course, there's any amount of happiness 60
ing, and I'm sure nobody gets bigger share
of it than you," etc., etc.
"Yes, but you," interrupted I, 'tell me,
now, what is your chief form OF happiness,
since you have so mueh?"
well, let me see. It's when 1 have a |
really good box at the Academy on a first
night, and can see that there isn't a better
dressed woman in the balcony, and have
lot of nice men crowding to get word with
me; that's happiness of one sort. Then,
when receive and have secured some lion
that hasn't roared in anybody else's rooms,
and that everybody is dying to see. and oh!
to have people besiege you for invitations,
and to appear at garden party or some
where where there's lots of room in a gown
Just that minute imported and see all the
other women looking you over. Why,
there's no end OF happiness to be got out OF
life if you only have simple and easily con-
tented tastes like mine.'
One day dear old lady, friend of nv
sent for me to pay her little
visit, and as looked at her placid face and
peaceful eyes I said to myself: "There is
such thing as happiness, and she has
found it, " and 1 asked her if my surmise
was not correct
She thought it over for a moment. and
then with her own smile said: "I am afraid
[ never really found it, my dear, although
believe fully that there is such thing,
and I am going to find it soon. It lies the
other side of the river, however, so can
not describe it to you. The happiness of
this world is hope. Man never is, but al
ways to be, blessed.
MARRIED OR SINGLE.
One thing, however, is certain; the
,impler the conditions the easier il is To fnI |