Clarke courier. [volume] (Berryville, Va.) 1869-1997, 1900-08-01
OUR HABITS OF LIFE.
THEY TEND TO TRANSPORTS MEN
INTO MERE AUrOMarOssS.
NothinR fs More Conducive to IAfc In
q Rat Than Living In the Same Way
Day ny Day without Chsnsc-Tne
Benefit OF Novelty.


Benefit of Novelty.
A man with habit of life whose
parts are made up of repetitions of acts
day by day and year by year may In
time become almost automatic. 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. restricts
his narrow field OF action to certain
places and acts through an indefinite
time and engenders prejudices against
all else that is different comes from
living in a groove instead Of living In
the world.
All men are more or less subject to
the dominion OF habit, but there is a
wide difference between the habits Of
thought and action which give men
greater breadth OF view mentally with
greater usefulness in the material sf-
fairs of life and those which reduce
men to a life within a horizon limited
by their homes and their business IN
terests
In an environment Of life made up
OF repetitons of daily acts which are
Interchangeable, a man viii necessarily
become more or less automatic In
thought and action. His standards OF
measurements and values are all with
In his own narrow world. Things out
side 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 inferior creature, worthy OF nothing
but contempt
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 TO his minds
eye, that the rest Of the world suffers
by the comparison as he views IT, On
the other hand, the Iandsmen consider
with amusement the whims of the sail
or, though they may have equally RI
diculous ideas concerning each other.
The farmer may believe that the
jewellers IL cities are effeminate and
given to certain financial jugglings
which are unjust to him. II he lives
in rut, he will grow to believe that
his prejudices are facts as immutable
as the laws OF matter.
Habit may become so strong after q
time that 1t is beyond the power Of the
man to break It He thinks in certain
lines as he has been habituated to
think, reasons after a certain habitual
fashion and reaches conclusions he has
already established and believed 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 people and hears the
same things said In the same 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
horizon needed to the man who lives in
q rut. BE may be prejudiced In favor
OF so living because the rut is in evil
dence 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.
Inc west may, by self communing, ex-
alt itself above the east The east NAV
by like process consider that elsewhere
all else is lacking In the essentials Of
civilization The south may look upon
the north as a section filed with men
who swap Jackknives and whittle out
gimcracks, while the north, on the 9TH
er hand, may be sure that the chief in
dustry OF the south Is the making of
mint Juleps and the oppression OF the
humble black man.
The man In rut and the section in a
rut are lifted out of their narrowness
by change OF environment Railroads
and steamboats, are breaking I'D the
ruts OF sectionalism and individuaIisn
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 sport has in like man.
ner served the purpose OF broadening
views, destroying prejudices, correct
Ing opinions and cultvating a greater
CHARITY, for men and women who Jour.
ney to waters where fish are caught OF
cruise IN yachts or penetrate into the
Wllo haunts Of game break away from
the narrow lines which mature into
narrow lives and thus avoid the dwarf
ed life OF him whose horizon never
changes and which bounds his own
house and his own interests.
All that Is to be said Of travel as an
agency Of enlightenment, broadening
and cultivation of tolerance may be
said OF the sports Of rod and gun and
more. For the sportsman tourist gets
closer to the heart OF the stranger com.
munity into which he penetrates in his
expeditions than does the ordinary
traveller, whether on business or pleas.
ure bent, and this intimacy gives q
sympathetic insight into the lives and
characters OF those with whom he min
giles. The friendships which hold be
tween visiting sportsman and host MAJ
appear individually of slight impor
lance In this respect, but collectively
they have tremendous influence which
is Tor good.-Forest and Stream.
Suspicious.