Indian chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1882-1902, 1897-09-02
KEEPING A HOLIDAY.
How Shall We Plan to Get from It All the
Good 1t Can Give?

How shall W = l43H TO Get from tt All the
Good 1t Can Give?
What is sure to make it a red-letter
day?
What is the very best way to spend it?
How shall we plan to get from it all that
it can give? To make the very most of
a single day, holiday, a day that we
are at liberty to spend as we like, may
be something of a puzzle.
1t suggests the question-what do
you care most about doing with all
your time? Time is the stuff of which
life is made, and just to be sure of what
we care most TO do with it is worth
thinking about.
Mostyoung people, and in fact pretty
much all persons, have some favorite
occupation or study, or both in one,
some special direction in which they
are strongly drawn, that lies outside of
the daily necessary routine of work.
For those who have ordinarily but lit
tie leisure (and in this busy work-a-day
world this includes the majority, the
indulgence of this private liking is a
capital use for at least a part OF the
holiday. 1t may lead to important re-
suits or it may not-the thing we are
most eager TO do may be a mere amuse-
ment of which we soon tire, or ii may be
the thing that we were made to do,
the real serious business of our lives,
which circumstances have seemed to
put beyond our reach, yet which per-
severance viii enable us TO achieve.
However that may be, there is no
question about the pleasure of doing
the thing one likes best. II may be
rlusic or history, or football, or wood
carving, or what not-there is certainly
very keen satisfaction in following
ones own personal taste. And the
chances are that if you are enough in
earnest, something worth while will
come of it. Too much is made of the
motive of making money. 1t is well to
remember that there is another kind of
satisfaction in good work, in every kind
of employment, done for its own sake.
1t does not make much difference what
the work is. Any kind of useful or
beautiful thing done, in the measure
in which the heart is thrown into it,
doing ones very best for the sake of
seeing it well done. is good and satisfy
ing. Time spent in this way is well
spent.
If there is any such thing as secret
of happiness, it is surely this-make
others happy. And all good work is
an antidote for selfshness. Not only
that, but it is one of the surest, most |
lasting and rightful sources of con-
tinual happiness. To talk about work |
as the best play-the best resource
for enjoying a holiday, seems on the
surface a contradiction. But the best |
play is not idleness merely. To be |
worth having, it must be some kind of |
activity, and to be really delightful, it
must be something loved. To make the /
most of holiday. then, it is quite fair
TO do the very thing that you care for
personally, however unimportant it may
appear to somebody else.
Something is due TO the day itself.
Is it Thanksgiving day? Are we not
more ready to give thanks in sincerity
for material blessings, for abundant
food and rich dress, prosperity in the
shape of money, houses and lands, than
for better culture and richer gains in
building up our own characters and
lives? Yet these are worth more.
Is it Christmas? Do we think of il
rs time of gifts, of merry making, of
unusual gayety and self-indulgence, or
10 we care first for its higher mean
ings2 Do we make il a time of good
will toward all, time for earnest
thought and generous deeds TO pro-
note the welfare of those whom we love,
irst. but also, so far as we may, of all
,ur human brothers and sisters?
Even on holiday, and perhaps most
on holiday, when our time is free from
claims, n little honest discus
'ion with ones self of the very best
lses and objects TO which we can de-
'ote little of our time will not come
Gentleman.