Smyrna times., 1894-03-14
WASTE FORCES.
BY LIZZIE YORK CASE.

"Stop stop! All of you stand still
moment Let go! In the name of
grace, unlOose yourselves"
The guardian spirit of the ninteenth
century seems to be calling a halt to
humanity, as if tired of seeing beauti-
ful souls translating themselves into
dollars, and beautiful bodies translat-
ing themselves into nervous wrecks.
I'VE have had something to much of
the gospel of work; it is time to preach
the gospel of relaxation, ''says Spencer.
Upon this authority we stop to take
moral and mental latitude and longi.
tude, to take the sun, as they say at
sea.
The centre of the system is the place
where we are, the counting-roem or
kitchen, large or small. The thoughts
and interests of our manhood and wo.
manhood are absorbed in that; a round
OF commerce, or Of pleasure, or it may
be the circumference of the dish-pan
that describes life.
The saddest of modern instances is
that of the patent pill man of Philadel-
phia, who swaped himself, body and
SOUL in his business, until in his warped
and diseased brain the universe became
one vast pill, which swallowed him.
You see, the trouble with US, good
Mr.. Spencer, is that we cannot let 90,
we cannot stop, we are so in the habit
OF doing and getting, we do forget that
life is more than meat and body, more
than raiment.
volunteered to wash up the cups
and saucers for tired hOusekeeper, but
she watched me anxiOusly the while.
and mentally did the work in her own
accustomed way. Habit was too much
for her; she was dOmesticated to death.
"a soul immortal wasting all its
force in aught this scene can threaten
or indulge resembles ocean into temp
est wrought, to watt a feather or to
drown a hy."
George, put coal on the parIor fire."
called sick wife from her bed; land
George, pull down the curtains in the
diuing-room window, and''-
In the name of health, let go! At
least, while you are in bed! Unbind
the strain from your tired aching head,
upon wrinkled face, a map of the wear
and tear and strain after life's petit
ness.
If something must be lost or neglec-
ted, let it be the thing, not yourself.
The engineer was wrestling with belt
and pulley, taking up the lost motion,
to prevent jar to the machinery.
What beautiful, smooth-running
sympathy life would be if we could
gather up the lost motion in nerve and
muscle.
We persist in sending q man to do a
boys work, we hold on to a bon-bon
box with a concentration of force that
if properly distributed would cover a
days work.
We are always on guard with mind
and muscle, and we call our unrestful
rigidity repOse and respectability.
1t is pitifully belittling, but we get
so tied up in knots, so enslaven by
habit, so whirled by the round of cir
cumstances-
"Grinding life down from its mark"
We forget to maintain our souls true
rank; it is lost sight of in the strain
and tension of the body. We are
swamped In the physical, which leads
life. We cannot always find our bet
ter selves among the rubbish we have
accumulated.
Let us protest against this wreckless
violation of the laws of economy. this
willful, wicked waste of life's forces.
hateful to God and to man.
Notwithstanding the marvellous de-
velopment of science in this, our age.
the majority of the worlds work il
done-and badly done-by men and
women who have developed only hands
and feet, the head that directs them
being on somebody else's shoulders.
and when it happened to be out of
sight, the work goes astray, rotten
planks are put in the vessel, screws
that will not hold, machinery that
works untrue, a reckless risk to life
and property.
So in hiring labor we take off a large
percentage for the head. and pay only
for the hands.
Not far from where am writing a
man without head built an electric
railroad last winter. He tore up the
whole road at once, plunging the
travelling community in mud almost
impassable along this main thorough.
fare leading out of the city. There is
no estimation of the waste forces this
man is responsible for. Tine and
patience and the restraining influence
Of religion gave way; expletives we're
all Iaaa| ~ II.