The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1900-08-10
A-B-C OF
TRUE LIVING

L NU IL LII llNO
In his "Menticulture, or the A-B-C Of
True Living Horace Fletcher presents
the mind. This is his theory:
All of the evil passions are traceable
20 one of two roots.
Anger is the root Of all the aggressive
passions.
Worry is the root of all the cowardly
passions.
Envy, spite, revenge, impatience, an
aoyance, selfishness, prejudice. unrest
Ind the like are all the phases Of an
ger.
Jealousy. fear. the belittling Of self,
the blues, and all the retrospective
.orms OF depression are the children Of
worry.
Anger and worry are the most un-
profitable conditions known to man.
While they are in possession of the
mind, both mental and physical growth
are suspended.
Anger and worry are thieves that
steal precious time and energy from
life.
Anger is highway robber and worry
is a sneakthief.
:orms Of self abuse. for the reason that
many cases anger is the result of
misunderstanding, and, in many cases,
xorry's prophecies never come true;
IT, If they do, the fulhllment is gener-
ally caused by the worry itself.
Anger and worry do not stimulate to
my good end.
Anger and worry not only dwarf and
iepress, but sometimes kill.
Anger and worry are no more neces-
sary than other passions civilized man
las learned to control. and it is only
leedful to realize that they are unnec-
.ssary in order to make it impissible
70 feel, much less to show them.
Anger and worry cannot be eliminat-
ID through process Of repression any
more than weed can be killed by cut
ling down the stalk. or cancer can
,e0ured from the surface, or the drink
ng habit can be gotten rid of by tap
.ring off, Germ eradication is not
'nly the easiest, but the only sure cure
or all physical diseases and mental
landicaps.
The dispossession of anger and worry
ioes not cause indifference or encour-
Lge Incidence.
The natural tendency Of the eman-
:ipated mind is towards growth, both
Intellectual and spiritual, just as the
.endency Of the plant life is towards
rigorous growth and perfect blossom
ng, If it is kept free from the gnaw-
ngs of cankerous worms
Anger and worry are as much para
,ites as are the cankerous worms that
attack plants. The intelligent horti-
:ulturist knows that the worms are
parasites, picks them off his plants and
.hrows them away too far to return.
The intelligent menticulturist of the
future will treat anger and worry in
he same intelligent manner.
It is not necessary to engage in bat
lie the small army of lesser passions
+ you concentrate you efforts against
niger and worry, for they are all chill
lren Of these parents. Oppose them
with a bold front; make one heroic
stand against them and they and all
II their children will fly. Disown them
,nce and the ability to readopt them
will have disappeared with them.
Anger and worry, especially worry,
her the cause Of most of the drunken
ness and other designations which are
he curses of the age. Excuse for them
,r temptation to them is found in the
lesire to smother the depression which
hey themselves cause.
Anger and worry are creations Of the
mind, and can be dispelled by the same
power that gave them birth.
Anger and worry are caused by the
phantoms that we create within our
selves, and whose only strength is that
with which we endow them.
Anger and worry are like echoes; they
do not exist until we call for them, and
the louder we call the louder is their
response. We can never drown them;
vet, If let alone, they drown themselves.
Fear is possibly the truer name for
the cowardly root-passion than worry;
but as they are synonymous, and as
anger and worry are more frequently
used together, and worry has a less
formidable sound, I have chosen to pre-
sent it for attack under that title.
While the evil passions align them
selves into two classes, as the offshoots
Of anger and worry, they are, in fact,
all growths from one root. Worry Tor
fear) is the male principle, as it were,
without which all the others wither
and die. For instance, If we do not
fear aggression, or insult, or slight, we
do not become angry. We quarrel most
frequently with what we fear is thought
or intended by our adversary, and least
frequently with what he actually does
or thinks. On the other hand, our ad-
versary endows us with intentions
which he himself creates, and each
puts his own fuel on the fire to in
crease the heat Of the controversy.
In emancipation there is no fear Cor