Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1897-09-21


may De some doubt
about where the river rises, and some
doubt about where the river empties.
but there can be no doubt about the
fact that we are sailing on it. So am
not surprised that everybody asks the
question. us life worth living?"
! Solomon in his unhappy moments,
says it is not. Vanity" "vexation or
spirit" mo good" are his estimate.
The fact is that Solomon was at one
time polygamist, and that soured his
disposition. One wife makes 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
life is worth living. In book sup
posed to be doleful, and lugubrious, and
sepulchral, and entitled "Lamenta-
tions," he plainly intimates that the
blessing Of merely living is so great
and grand a blessing that though
man have piled on him all misfortunes
and disasters he has no right to COM
plain. The ancient prophet cries out
in startling intonation to all lands and
to all centuries, Wherefore doth
living man complaint"
I A diversity of opinion in our time as
well as in olden time. Here is
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
cial firm of which he is an important
clerk. Ask him whether life is worth
living. He will laugh in your face
and say, Eyes, 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
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
has 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
horn, 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
will drawl out in shivering and lugu-
brious and appalling negative, mo, no,
nor
/ How are we to decide the matter
righteously and intelligently? You
will find fba mo man
cillating in his opinion from detection
to exuberance. and if he be very mer-
curial 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? Sup
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 NO"
While there would he hundreds of
thousands who would answer in the af-
firmative, there would be more millions
who would answer in the negative, and
because OF the greater number who
have sorrow, and misfortune, and trou-
BILE, the Noes" would have it. The
answer l shall give will be different
from either. and yet it will commend
itself TO all who hear me this day as
the right answer. If you ask me. as
life worth living?" i answer, 1t all de-
ponds upon the kind of life you live.
In the first place. l remark that life
Of mere money getting is always a fail
ure, because you will never get as much
as you want. The poorest people in
this country are the millionaires. There
is not scissors grinder on the streets
Of New York or Brooklyn who is so
anxious to make money as these men
who have piled up fortunes year after
year in storehouses, In government Sc
curities, in 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 reformation in the tariff.
Their nerves tremble like harp strings.
but no music in the vibration. They
read the reports from Wall street in
the morning with a Government that
threatens paralysis or apoplexy, or.
more probably, they have telegraph
or a telephone in their own house, so
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.
Chemists have sometimes analysed
The human body, and they say 1t is so
much magnesia, so much lime. so much
chlorate Of potassium. II some Chris
tian chemist would analyZe one Of
these financial behemoths he would
find he was made up of copper, and
gold, and silver. and zinc, and lead,
and coal. and iron. That is not life
worth living. There are too many
earthquakes in it, too many agonies 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 every in
6,,cep1ant for hanniuece IN anna ap5