The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1897-09-23


may be some doubt
about where the river rises, and some
doubt about where the river empties,
out there can be no doubt about the
1act that we are sailing on it. So am
not surprised that everybody asks the
question. "Is life worth living?'
Solomon in his unhappy moments,
says it is not. "Vanity," "vexation of
Spirit mo good" are his estimate.
The fact is that Solomon was at one
time a polygamist, and that soured his
disposition. One wife makes a man
happy; more than one makes him
wretched- But Solomon was converted
from polygamy to monogamy, and the
last words he ever wrote. as far as we
can read them, were the words noun
tains of spices" But jeremiah says
lie is worth living. In a book sup
posed to be doleful, and lugubrious, and
sepulchral, and entitled "Lamenta-
tons, he plainly intimates that the
blessing of merely living is so great
and grand a blessing that though a
man have piled on him all misfortunes
and disasters he has no right to COM
plain. The ancient prophet cries out
in startling information to all lands and
to all centuries, Wherefore doth a
living man complain?''
diversity Of opinion in our time as
we'll as in olden time Here is a
young man of light hair and blue eyes
and sound digestion, and generous SAL
airy, and happily affianced, and on the
way to become partner in CONNER
clal firm of which he is an important
clerk. Ask him whether life is worth
living. lie will laugh in your face
and say, Yes, yes, yes!" Here is a
man who has come to the forties. He
is at the tip-top of the hill of life. Ev-
cry step has been a stumble and a
bruise. The people he trusted have
turned out deserters, and money he has
honestly made he has been cheated out
OF. His nerves are out of tune He
mas poor appetite, and the food he
does eat does not assimilate Forty
miles climbing up the hill of life have
been to him like climbing the Matter
morn. and there are forty miles yet to
go down, and descent is always more
dangerous than ascent Ask him
whether life is worth living, and he
VIII 7drawl out in shivering and lugu-
brfous and appalling negative, mo. no.
nor
HOW are we to decide the matter
rlghteously and intelligently? You
Will IND the same man vacillating, os-
c1llatlng In his opinion from detection
to exuberance, and if he be very mer-
curlal in his temperament it will de-
pend very much on which way the
wind blows. Of the wind blows from
the northwest and you ask him. he
Will say, Yes and if it blow from the
northeast and you ask him he will say.
NO. How are we then to get the
question righteously answered? Sum-
pose we call all nations together in a
great convention on eastern or western
hemisphere, and let all those who are
IN the Affirmative say Aye" and all
those who are in the negative say mo"
While there would be hundreds of
thousands who would answer in the af-
hrmatWe, there would be more millions
who would answer in the negative, and
because OF the greater number who
have sorrow, and misfortune, and troll
BILE, the. Noes" would have it. The
answer l shall give. will be different
from either, and yet lit will commend
itself to all who hear me this day as
the right answer. If you ask me. 'Is
life worth living?" answer. It all de-
ponds upon the kind of life you live.
In the first place, I remark that a life
of mere money getting is always fail
1Ee, because you will never get as much
as you want. The poorest people in
this country are the millionaires. There
is not a scissors grinder on the streets
of New York or Brooklyn who IS so
anxious to make money as these mon
who have piled up fortunes year after
year i'm storehouses, in government So
eurlties, i'm tenement houses, in whole
city blocks You ought to see them
jump when they hear the fire bell ring
You ought to see them in their excite
ment when bank ,explodes. You
ought to see their agitation when there
is proposed a reformation i'm the tariff
Their nerves tremble like harp STRINGS
but NO music in the vibration. Thev
read the reports from Wall street in
the morning with a coneernment that
threatens paralysis or apopIexy. mr.
more probably, they have a telegram
or a telephone i'm their own house an
they catch every breath of change in
the money market. The disease of ac-
emulation has eaten into them-eaten
into their heart. into their lungs. into
their spleen. into their liver, into their
bones. -..H y
Chemists have sometimes Analysed
the human body, and they say it is SO
much magnesia, SO much lime, so much
chlorate of potassium. II some Chris
t1an chemist would analyze one of
these financial behemoths he would
ind he was made up of copper. and
gold, and silver. and zinc, and lead. |
and coal, and iron. That is not a life |
worth living. There are too many
earthquakes in it, too many agonieg in
it, too many perditions in it. They
build their castles, and they open their
picture galleries, and they summon
prima donnas, and they offer eyery in