Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-09-07

time l know that it
is not ambition that
is eating her heart
NEl// out, making her eyes
w ferret-like ard her
W. face as scanned with
frowns as = weather-beaten cliff. but it is
a deadly discomfort with existing circum-
stances, which she is too weak-willed to
surmount. Ambition would say. II dom
like things they are, but l will do my
duty by them with cheerfulncss and alac-
rity, while l am reading, studying. think
ing and planning to get away from them
Discomfort says, 1T is all perfectly horrid,
and l hate it. Why could l not have been
born pretty, witty and wise, wealthy and
influential? Oh, wouldn't I cut a SWELL!
Wouldn't l show those upstart Winners
what a lady can do Wouldnt | make the
world stare.' One aim is noble and leeiti-
late. the other is base-born and groVeling.
Some wise creature has said, Much of
the happiness of life is lost by sacrificing
the substance to the shadow, the real to
the seeming We all desire to have the
best the world can give, but we differ very
much in our idea of what the best is. Too
often our standacd is set by our neighhors,
not by ourselves. and wear ourselves
out in trying to live up to it,
The creature was wise who gave utter
ance to that nit of philosophy. and had
I.
Keeping up appearances" is the keystone
of half the misery in the world, and dis
content of the other half. But ambition
and discomfort can never be synonymous
terms. for one kills the other.
The discomfort Of the day grows by what
il feeds on. Those who toll with their
hands desire to be recompensed as highly
as those who labor with their brains. The
difference in education, environment. am
billions and aimscuts no figure whatever in
the expression of diSc0atent. The differ
ence is too wide, in their opinion, and they
claaioT to even things up without regard
to the ethics of the situation. and never
pause to think what n social and political
CataclySm the evening up process would
cause, or that the natural result of mixing
inharmoaious elements would be the set
Ting to the bottom of the Grader materials.
Making ones self fit is the only absolute
evener known. Merit will win. and merit
and ambition usually travel together, but
merit and discomfort never 10.
An Unhappy Creature.
The disconnected girl is such an I'M
happy creature, and she has it in her
power TO make many other people I'M
happy. l really think the discontinued girl
is to be pitied though l W ould never think
of plying the ambitious girl. When 1 was
scoldng Margaret the other day, and told
her that what she took for ambition was
nothing in the world but a miserable fault
finding discomfort she colcred up and
rather sneerngly asked me to define the
difference between the two. Now, do you
know, that was not bit easy to do? Well,
l said to her, Tell me just what you want
to do and why"
Then ii was that l discovered that Mar
garet is getting advanced ideas. The shy
little thing has always been quite content
to snuggle down under the protecting wing
of her chaperone, whoever that might
happen to be, and let others do her think
ing and planning for her. But in the re-
atr
garet's papa got left in the race for Con-
gress, and there has been vast change
in their style of living. for, like the gener-
atty of public men who are not money
getters, Margarets father put by nothing.
For the first tine in her life she begins to
realize what it is to want for things. A
girls gloI es and shoes and hats and candy
cost 1 great deal, to say nothing of gowns
and other nick-nackS, and Margarets first
impulse was to earn these things for her
self; in other words, she wants to sacrifice
the substance for the shadow, in an effort
to keep up appearances. She had no de-
sire whatever to help her father, nor had
she given thought to the sunshine that
her continuous absence from home would
take out of the life of her invalid mother.
She just seltfshly made up her mind that
she could not live if her supply of fnery
cut down, and though her mother
needs her services and company more now
THAI ever before in her life. since they have
had to dispense with their maid, Mar
garet Stubbornly insists on finding some
thing to do.
1 asked her what she thought she would
begin with.
Of her graceful little head, II think that
papa has enough influence to get me into
of the departments. If l could get
about 81, 500 a year l would scarcely miss
the pin money that papa used to give me,
though, Of course the hours in office would
seem pretty long. There wouldn't be
much work to do, though. l should insist
on that, of course
Do you suppose I wasted any breath on
the little socialist? Not a Whit! In the
first place, it was not necessary, for she
couldn't even sort seeds acceptably over
in the Agricultural Department at $50 a
month and a Statesman out of a job has
no chance at anything else and in the
second place, she is not deep enough to
comprehend the logic in the simplest argu-
ment. Hence it would be worse than folly
to argue with her.
A Society Socialist.
Margaret is an example of popular dis
content" So long her own affairs were
booming, and she was riding on the crest
of tho wave, socially and financially, she
didn't care a copper cent about how she
got there or how she was kept there. To
be there was quite sufficient, and she was
not in the least troubled about the ethical
merits Of her supremacy. She was appar-
emily a bonny, even-tempered, inoffensive
creature, and had lots of friends in con-
sequence. Since the spirit of discomfort
took hold of her she has been a source of
ever-increasing surprise to her friends,
for 1t seems to have changed her whole
nature. Her one idea seems 10 be that the
world owes her a handsome living. and she
should not be made to exert herself over
much in getting it. That is discomfort,
pure and simple, and out of discomfort of
that character grows anarchy. People who,
IKE Margaret, conclude that they have not
enough of the luXuries, that things are
unequally divided and that there should be
a more equitable partition of the good
things of life, yet who will not fit them
selves for anything above the meanest en-
ployment, whose thoughts and tastes and
actions are selfish. are socialists, pure and
simple, whether they wear velvet gowns
or shoddy trousers and display sockless
feet. And of all funny things in life
society socialist is absolutely the very fun
NEST.
Then, there is another and blacker phase
of the "discontent" business. The over
weenng desire to dress and to keep up APP
pearances often leads to wrongdoing! The
steps are SO little at first which lead away
from rectitude and an upright life, but
they lengthen rapidly, and if there is no
ambition to buoy one up and to implant
desire for moral elevation, if 1t is only per-
sonal vanity that actuates, you may be sure