Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1900-03-20
In this vale of tears there are two
classes of people who tend as largely


classes of people who tend as largely
r,,. W.T.. to make life I'M
bearable as any Of
the people one
who take life too seriously and on
the other hand those who take it too
aippantly. writes William Ellis in the
Philosopher AS matter of fact,
life is neither tragedy nor joke.
We are living because we must, and
not because we choose to, and the
wise man is he who gets the most
out of it with the least cost to himself
he who comes the nearest to travel
ing intelligently, and by selection the
path of least resistance. met such
man the other day, and he was
source of great delight then. and ever
since. There are SO few who really
know how to live. The strange part
of the matter is that the man is
rich. Now when it comes to getting
something out of life, the rich man
is badly handicapped. When you have
only q fve-dollar bill or less, there
are so few things you can have that
the possibilities of disappointment
are reduced to a minimum. When you
have check book that you don't have
to keep track on the stub of how
much you have left in the bank, and
look at it before you dare to draw an
order for the payment of your gas
bill, there are so many things you can
select from that you have an inn
mensely larger opportunity to make
! mistakes. But here is man who
seems to be happy, though rich, and
I'd be glad to tell you his name, only
1 know he would be flooded with let
tiers from people who want to know
how-and then where would his
vaunted happiness be? He works
hard in his business. and makes
money, and enjoys the making of it,
but I judge that if his business did
not make him happy-if he did not
enjoy 1.-THE would lock up his desk
and throw the key away. That is, he
stands rather as u happiness hunter
| than as dollar chaser, even in his
business. And when he shuts up his
Office at night and goes home he
leaves oil his business and it's plans
and problems behind him, with the
elevator man or the janitor, where
In nd {oI
his home life with just the same zest
that he does his business life-and
right there is where most men and
many women fall down. He devotes
himself to the pursuit of the elusive
first edition-the rare etching-the
unobtainable piece of climatic yint-
age that is long since out of the
market-in short, all of the things
that are worth having that are hard
to get-and in the pleasure of ac-
quirement, not by the mere specific
gravity of bank account, which mo-
body can prevent-but by the exer-
else of the craft and cunning of the
chase-he more than doubles the
value of possession. 1t is q rare life,
. and one to conjure with. For it pays
, in the dividends which can be put into
ne~banll account, and pays in the
: greater dividends Sh1erl. can only b
measured in that large content that
only comes to the marooned or the
victors. And then at the end of it
all he can cook an egg on toast
as nobody ever saw can, except Jim
Charles, and Jim Charles is good
: deal such good fellow, only Jim has
no bank account. And after all, that
makes great difference-it's like an
edged tool-a power in the hands OF
its master-a crime in hands that
don't know how to use it.