St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1895-03-30
A NEW CULT.
The Way q Leisurist" Would
Have Us Live.

do not believe in eavesdropping as
= practice, and it is only fair to myself
to ada that my disapproval is not based
upon the selfish ground cited in the
proverb. Still, there are times.
For instance, you are in the most
comfortable chair by the best window
at the Monogram club. Two men come
and plant themselves on sofa within
six feet of your back. Is it your duty
to leave your favorite chair and win
dow just to avoid overhearing an i'm
personal conversation which happens
to interest you? l didn't
$50 you have given up the law,
Ralph? Why, the last l heard you
were doing so well. Fine growing
clientele, and all that"
The voice belonged to one of my fell
low members, whom knew slightly.
''Yes," replied the other, evidently a
visitor, that was just the trouble. 1
was too successful. My work had be-
come almost confining. It's nearly a
year since cut it. Let me see; you We
been in Chicago for over two"
.'Great Scott, mani" cried the first
speaker '.Too successful! What do
you want?"
sGeisure, principally" said the
stranger. And l heard him strike a
match.
But how do you ever expect to
amount to anything?"
''Don't, from your point OF view; and,
what's better, don't want to-
"W-ell."
''You see, Ned, I'm not a bit in SYM
pathy with the progressive spirit of
the age. think lot of it has been
right down to the real philosophy of
living, we're not in it with our old
friends the Athenians. Our only idea
of amounting to anything is to scratch
gravel every day from morning till
night as long as we can drag ourselves
to our workshops; and our idea of sue
cess is mainly to make heap OF
money. Nobody but the slaves in old
times worked as we do. and they just
did it because they had to. No ration
al free Greek or Roman would have
dreamed of leading such life for any
motive-let alone such an elusive one
as ours"
"Pray what do you calculate to sub
stitute for work.
Leisure"
sand starvation?"
"Not at all. Now here's my logic in a
few words, You old Philistine. The
great desidcratum is to do as you
please-as nearly as possible-and for
this leisure is an absolutely necessary
prerequisite. Therefore leisure must
be the first aim. On the other hand,
It is evident that if you do as everyone
else does, you won't have any true
leisure-nonc at all, in fact, unless you
steal it from the hours you ought to
give to rest in order to brace You up
for another day of toll. But why do
you work SO hard? To make money?
Why do you want money? All, yes; to
live comfortably, to amass a fortune,
to retire finally and enjoy yourself, to
be somebody. If your being some
body depends on the verdict of other
people, or if even your own verdict is
based upon how much money you have,
don't think such somebody is much
OF any body. The real somebody is the
man who marks his life ont on true
philosophic lines, and lives successful
~ the life he has marked ont. The
reason money has been taken as a
topchstone is because it's the easiest
thing for the vulgar to estimate. Any
idiot can measure a mans success by
the number of dollars he is said to
have. or by the swell he cuts on them.
but 1t takes more intelligence to meas
ure by how happy or how wise or how
virtuous or how honorable a man is.
Therefore the vulgar count the dollars.
and as the vulgar majority rules in
these days of democracy-rabbleoc
the Greeks would have c,lled it-why,
there you nre. Besides, remember,
even If you do sell yourself into slavery,
the chances Of buying bnck your free
dom. and retiring and enjoying your.
self. and Of being somebody in your
old age are less than problcmatical
The sensible man doesA't enslave him
self in order to be ultimately free. He
Just stays free"
..But how about living comforta
bly2"
That's fair question. 1t certainly
does cost considerable TO live as we've
been brought up to call comfortable;
but then II were wrong on other fun
damental points. why mayn't we be il
this?. To cut It short, I've found ou,
that we are. Stop and think. Hal
the money we spend is for things ".
only enjoy indirectly-through the Inn
preston they make on other people
IN fact because they're fashionable
and two-thirds Of the other half 60 fol
.necessaries which our ancestors wer,
iust about rs happy without. Dom
understand me IS despising lnxuries.
4 enjoy thom mnoh more than do thos'