Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1898-07-25

fountain. am glad ne did not lind
it. There is no such fountain. But if
there were, and it's waters were bot
tied up and sent abroad at a thousand
dollars bottle, the demand would be
greater than the supply; and many
man who has come through life of
! uselessness, and perhaps sin, to old
age, would be shaking up the potent
liquid, and if he were directed to take
only teaspoonful after each meal,
would be so anxious to make sure work
he would take a tablespoonful, and if
directed to take a tablespoonful. would
take glassfuL
But some of you would have to go
back further than 81 years of age to
make fair start, for there are many
who manage to get all wrong before
that period. Yea, in order to get a
fair start, some would have to go back
to the father and mother and get them
corrected; yea, to the grandfather and
grandmother and have their life COR
rected, for some of you are suffering
from bad hereditary influences, which
started a hundred years ago. Well, II
your grandfather lived his life over
again, and your father lived his life
over again, and you lived your life
over again, what cluttered-up place
this world would be-a place filled with
miserable attempts at repairs be-
gin to think that it is better for each
generation to have only one chance,
and then for them to pass or and
give another generation a chance. Be-
sides that, if we were permitted to live
life over again it would be stale and
stupid experience. The zest and spur
and enthusiasm of life come from the
fact that we have never been along
this road before, and everything is
new, and we are alert for what may APP
pear at the next turn of the road. Sup
pose you, a man of middle or old age,
were, with your present feelings and
large attachments, put back into the
thirties, or in the twenties, or in the
teens, what nuisance you would be
to the others. and what an unhappinesS
to yourself! Your contemporaries
would not want you, and you would
not want them. Things that in your
previous journey of life stirred
your healthful ambition, or gave
you pleasurable surprise, or led you
into happy Interrogation, would only
call forth from you Disguised 80,
pshaw!' You would be blase at 30,
and misanthrope at 40. and unen.
durable at SO. The most inane and
stupid thing imaginable would be a
second journey of life. It is amusing
to hear people say: 81 would like to
live my life over again, if could take
my present experience and knowledge
of things back with me and begin I'M
der those improved auspices" Why,
what an uninteresting boy you would
be with your present attachments in
child's mind. No one would want such
a boy around the house-a philosopher
at 20, scientist at Is, an archaeologist
at 10, and a domestic nuisance all the
time. An oak crowded into an acorn.
A Rocky mountain eagle thrust back
into the egg-shell from which it was
Matched.
Besides that, if you took life over
again you would have to take it's deep
sadnesses over again. Would you want
to try again the griefs and the heart
breaks and the bereavements through
which you have gone? What a mercy
that we shall never be called to suffer
them again! We may have others bad
enough, but those old ones never again.
Would you want to go through the
process of loosing your father again,
or your mother again, or your compan-
ion in life again, or your child again?
If you were permitted to stop at the
sixtieth milestone, or the fiftieth mile
stone, or the fortieth mile-sone, and re-
trace your steps to the twentieth, your
experience would be something
like mine, one Novem Der day
in Italy. I walked through a
great city with a friend and two
guides, and there were in all the city
only four persons, and they were those
of our own group. We went up and
down the streets; we entered the
houses, the museums, the temples, the
theaters. We examined the wonder
ful pictures on the walls and the most
exquisite mosaic on the floor. In the
streets were the deep-worn ruts of
wagons. but not a wagon in the city.
On the front steps of mansions the
word "Welcome in Latin, but no hui
man beings to greet us. The only
bodies of any of the citizens that we
saw were petrifed and in the museum
at the gates. o. the $4,000 people who
once lived in those homes and wor-
SHIPPED in those temples and clapped
in those theaters, not one left! For
l $3.50 years that city OF Pompeii had
been buried before modern exploration
scooped out of it the lava of Vesuvius.
Well, he who should be permitted to
return on the pathway of his earthly
life and live it over again would find as
lonely and sad a pilgrimage. It would
be an exploration of the dead past.
The old schoolhouse, the old church,
the old home, the old playground,
either gone or occupied by others, and
for you more depressing than was our
Pompeiian visit that November day.
Besides that, would you want to risk
the temptations of life over again?
~ Al. e l. l., r