The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-03-18
A GOOD LECTURE
Thoughtful and Eloquent
Address at Y. M. G. A.
'Crun bling and umblers"-Ois-
tinCtIOnS and Effects
Neat Peroration.

| Last evening at the Association hall
| the second lecture OF the Y. VI. c. A.
Stewart, the attorney. was the speaker
and tGrumbling and Grumblers'' the
| subject. There was a good-sized and
intelligent audience and the lecture
was immensely enjoyed by all In
substance the talk was as follows:
Of course grumbling is comparative
| ~ unknown in the Paradise OF the Pa
cific But you have certainly heard OF
the skies are not so soft nor the breeze
so balmy il fourishes like the Ian
tana
Some people regard grumbing as
virtue and grumblers as the heroes OF
human history. They say that there
would be stagnation if there were no
grumblers, and that the pioneers of
reform are the grumblers of the world.
But that is not SO. Grumbling simply
mutters and exhausts itself in COM
plants II carries a knife. but no
salve nor bandage Ii is a compound
mixture of latent pride, disguised en-
Wy, malignant hatred. Ii is destructive
not cons ructive. 1t respects no rights
1t would ruthlessly tear down the IA
mily altar, close the Bible. shut up the
Church, destroy the foundations of
Government, and hold high carnival
upon the fragments OF the Temple of
Justice.
Discomfort, which people some lmes
take for grumbling, is an entirely diff
ferent thing. II protests, agitates: il
presents remedies and persists until
sooner or later il reforms. 1t is not
like grumbling, simply iconoc.astic
1t constructs, builds, develops. The
mighty Brooklyn Bridge was the out
come of discomfort, not grumbling.
Grumbling has been defined to be
a compound mixture of many of the
worst passions. 1t is shameless levity
attacking with sneering laughter the
reputation of the absent. 1t is mulish
obstinacy, refusing to go forward. 1t
is perverseness baking and kicking
from pure ''cussedness" without know
ing why or caring for consequences.
Nobody, nothing is safe from the
grumbler
AS a rule the healthy and prosper
Gus man never grumbles. 1t is bile and
failure that fill the air with mutter-
ings. The grumbler is more than an
egotist He thinks himself always
right an" everybody else always wrong.
He fills the air with lamentations and
makes you feel the mist of the fog into
which he plunges you. AS We flee from
the storm cloud so do we flee from the
grum aler
Take the three great writers, Car
lyle, Burns and Tennyson. We admire
the firSt-named as We admire Byron.
for his colossal intellect. 1t is grand.
but it is gloomy. He causes shudders
with his complaints. But with the
others we hear no meanings. no mist
shuts out the sunlight from the glori-
Gus mountain top.
1t is alarming TO know what vast
numbers of grumblers there are
Throughout the world: men who pro-
fess TO think that every government
upon the face of the earth is but a
form of tyranny, and that social con-
ditions everywhere are fundamentally
\ Ill,
tselves together and have declared war
against government and society. Ii Is
our bounden duty 10 recognize this
fact, and to Offset it by doing what We
can TO make men come to the foot of
the Cross, as disciples if not as wor-
shippers, for there is philosophy. there
is grace-7a perfect antidote against
grumbling.
1t is the duty of citizen and ruler
to help create conditions making for
cheerfulness. especially here in this
land where the experiment of free
republic is entering upon new era
and being subjected TO new tests. The
people of the earth are watching Us
; now as never before in the history OF
the world. Thirsty eyes drink in the
: vision hungry hearts feed on the spec
tacle, quick ears are strained TO oatct
our cry of triumph in haImonizing un-
der a system of government founded
> on democracy. BY strengthening the
conditions which make for cheerful
ness and destroy gI.,ImbIing we shall
continue TO leaven the earth with tbs
> leaven OF our democracy and hasten
the time when the people shall DC
: king throughout the world.
i. Queen and Kaiser, Gar and Emper-
; or. throne and Sceptre, star chamber
and Bastile, must all go down togeth-
or hafnre that Srneaf hrea L,hr. OF craven