The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1899-03-29
Don'tl Don't!

I've title Don't appears now and then
in some new form. There is sufficient
variation to accommodate new ideas and
new customs, but the tone is always the
same and the rules apply to the innumer-
able mistakes of conduct and speech, the
little sins of omission and commission to
which the people OF this day and genera
ton are given. With race more slug
gsh in temperament than we North
Americans, the shortcomings are more
likely to be the things that are left un-
done Young America is so given to rest
lessness, impulse and rapid action that
perfect poise and deliberation are almost
unknown, and nervous system that is
highly keyed finds expression in various
unconscious movements.
A short morning journey to the bust
ness center of town provides enough in
stances of the necessity for preaching re-
pose OF manner to young men and women
to fill volume. In one street car l saw
a young woman, whose pretty face was
naturally fair and unlined scowling and
making deep wrinkles in her forehead and
about her eyes, and raising her eyebrows
spasmodically until the original lines and
proportions were quite lost. Another was
biting her lips until they looked raw and
unpleasant. A man who was deep in
the morning paper unconsciously chewed
his mustache. In the very atmosphere
there seemed a sense OF unconscious men
tai strain
In a little book. The Technique of
Rest Harper & Brothers, l have found
some interesting bits of reading that put
clearly this idea of restlessness in our ma
ton. "Whatever other people in other
times have needed we in America are
not likely to suffer from stagnation and a
lack of effort to do hundred things at
time; what we need are lessons in rest
and repose, and not more of the restless
ness which already runs riot in every
drop OF our blood. We cannot keep still,
though we long to do so, and though in
creaslng WEAKNESS warns us that we are
going on toward breakdown. The rest
lessness of the sea is as nothing COM
pared with the restlessness of the Ameri-
can people. At any rate in the sea every
drop is trying to get below every other,
and thus to come nearer to one fixed
stable point but here every drop in the
social ocean is, on the other hand en-
deavoring to get above every other in
some particular. and there is no fixed
point at ALL
The restless drive of the impulse Is
creating new variety of men and wo-
men, to be recognized wherever met-and
where. over all the surface OF the earth.
are they not sure to be met? The men
tai unrest is passing into the physique
How many women do you know who can
sit perfectly still or stand perfectly mo-
tionless? With how many do you talk
who will allow you to finish sentence
without interrupting? How many have
the grace OF only walking quietly. or of
speaking slowly and placidly, so that it is
a delight to listen? How many who are
not always in a hurry. and complaining
that everything always comes at the same
time with everything else? To how
many houses-so-called homes-can YOU
go as into a haven of rest where every
thing breathes quietness and repose? How
many can quietly let one street car go
past without running to catch it, though
there are six others behind within quar-
ter of a mile? How many can wait for
a train without reading few lines in
every one of the newspapers laid out on
the newsstand. or carefully examining all
the colored cartoons tackled up on the
wall? When you have answered those
questions you will begin to appreciate
what continual hurry most people live
in, and perhaps you may begin to notice
how many unnecessary and perfectly OBJ
jectless motions you yourself are helping
to wear yourself out with.
There used to be a simple game play
ed with children in the old times which
it might be worth while to revive. After
our elders had answered what seemed to
them sufficient number of ridiculous
questions and were tired of our childish
fun, they used to set us in a line and pro-
pose that we and they should fold Our
arms, shut DIR eyes and see how long
we could keep still. and the one who
could keep perfectly still the longest was
to be called the best fellow. Perhaps it
may have been SO, for composure is often
the highest result of power. If only we
were FESTIVE instead OF restless, it would
be we'll for us
When all the inheritance of intense or
highly nervous temperaments, unsettled
habits of life. the rush and drive in en-
vironment all the fever and strife OF COM
petition, are taken into account, with eli
mate and all the other forces that scien-
lists prove are affecting us, it is not sur
prising that we are given to vivacity,
alertness. elasticity All these are char
acteristics, perhaps, OF our composite race,
but there IS no reason why any thought
tul man or woman should not recognize
the even balance it is. necessary one
should keep.