Evening star., 1900-07-09
PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN RUTS
HABITS THAT BECOME UNALTER-
ABLE AFTER A TINE.
Travel and the Growth of Sport Act
Ing to Break Up This State
Of ARRirs.


A man with a habit Of life whose parts
are made up of repetitions of acts day by
day and yeaf, by year may in time become
almost automatic. u He who so lives may
have some powers of adaptation to new
changes or may not, but in either case the
habit of life which cramps his thoughts. re-
stricts his narrow field of action TO certain
places and acts through an indefinite time.
and engendefs preJudices against all else
that is different comes from living in q
groove instead Of living in the world.
All men are more or less subject to the
dominion of habit but there is a wide DIFF
ference between the habits of thought and
action which give men greater breadth Of
view mentally with greater usefulness in
the material affairs of life, and those which
reduce men to life within horizon limit
ed by their homes and their business in
terests. 20 ) "a
In an environment of life made up of
repetitions of daily acts which are un-
changeable man will necessarily become
more or less automatic in thought and
action. His standards of measurements
and values are all within his own narrow
world. Things outside his little horizon are
seen through glasses which distort- The
sailor, long at sea, has a supreme contempt
for the landSman, and the older the sailor
and the more he is at sea the more firmly
is he convinced that the landsman is an in
ferfor creature worthy of nothing but con-
tempt The environment OF the sailor. has
so engrossed his mind and his attention.
and he has come to know his trade so well,
with the immense benefits and value of
ships constantly in his minds eye. that the
rest of the world suffers by the comparison
as he Views It. On the other hand, the
landsmen consider with amusement the
whims of the sailor. though they may have
equally ridiculous ideas concerning each
other.
Tho Sarmer NAV heliaye fhat tho .jpa1larr
in cities are effeminate and given to GER
tain financial juggltngs which are unjust to
him. If he Hvextara rut he will grow to be-
lieve that his prejudices are facts as i'm
mutable as the laws Of matter.
Habit may become SO strong after time
that 1t is beyond the power of the man to
break 1t. He thinks in certain lines as he
has been habituated to think. reasons aft er
a certain habitual fashion. and reaches con-
clusions he has already established and be-
lieved from habit.
Nothing Is more conducive to life In rut
than living in the same way day by day
without change. A man rises. eats, works,
returns home, sleeps. meets the same peo-
pie and hears the same things said in the
ssme way day after day. till there is no
stimulus to thought or action. There is no
novelty because there is no change
There is no great breadth of mental horf-
Zon needed to. the man who lives in a rut
He may be prejudiced in favor of so living
because the rut is In evidence before him.
while all other ruts must necessarily be
worse because he does not use them and
cannot see them.
Sections drift into a rut as men do. The
west may. by self-communing, exalt itself
above the east; the east may. by like pro-
cess, consider that elsewhere all else is
lacking in the essentials Of civilization The
south may look upon the north as section
filled with men who swap jack knives and
whittle out gimcracks, while the north, on
the other hand, may be sure that the chief
industry OF the south Is the making of
mint juleps and the oppression Of the hum
BILE black. =
The man in a rut and the section in a
rut are lifted our of their narrowness by
change Of environment. Railroads and
steamboats, are breaking up the ruts of sec
tiOnaism and indiv1dualism People go
east and south and north and west, and find
there is no ground for prejudice, and that
there was much that was misunderstood
and much more to admire.
The growth of <spprt has In like manner
served the ptfrpeses of broadening views
destroying prejudites. correcting opinions
and cultivatiifg a Greater charity for men
and women who journey to waters where
fish are caught. ,i9f cruise In yachts ne
penetrate. int6 tt}s wild haunts Of es,ra OF
break away ffontii the narrow lines which
mature into narrow lives and thus avoid
the dwarfed life Gf.hia,. whose horizon never
changes, and which bounds his own house