The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1901-07-11
Tepma. Shopper year, in advance q
nmo Six Months so cents.

it is better it should never be-but if
in any single case it has concentrated
all the spare energies of man or
woman, and gathered together the
waits and strays of their experience,
and so given purpose and interest to
their hours of leisure, it has answered
one of the best purposes of hobby.
Only this fact is to be kept in mind:
That the profession or business or
service which constitutes our daily
labor for daily bread, is our chief work;
and our hobby-whatever it may be
lis our off work.
Leisure hours, both spiritually, men,
tally and physically, are very important
hours. If we do not find good,
sensible or an innocent hobby to fill
them, we know who is credited with
finding thoughts for the vacant head,
and work for the idle hand. Leisure
is debatable land, liable to be invaded
from many points. Generally speaking,
we fall into one of two extremes
restlessness or stagnation. Perhaps no
people have a greater respect for
summer leisure than we have, and
none know less how to use it. Either
we permit our minds and bodies to lie
fallow, and soon find the want of
work insufferably tedious, or we go
rushing from one point of the compass
to the other, without any special
interest or object. So we gain nothing
and we attain nothing, but return home
with such sense of our failure to
encompass happiness and rest that we
are irritable and fretted. A hobby,
followed out with intelligence and
tenacity, would have filed every hour
with pleasure, and brought us back to
work healthful and cheerful. For
there is this peculiar satisfaction in a
hobby: it goes with us, wherever we
60, and its presence enables us to defy
ennui, for when we are accompanied
by our hobbies we are not easily dis
satisfied; we carry with us one of the
secrets of happiness.
Some people would be utterly
despicable but for their hobbies. In
their business life they know nothing
but the mere accumulation of gold, but
their hobby saves them from entire
contempt. One man of this kind had
taste for landscape gardening, and in
this labor he tried to cultivate his
stupid brain. He read volumes on the
science and history of the art; and if
he knows anything worth knowing,
he owes it to his hobby. 1t is remark
able in this connection that people of
an obstinate dictat orial temper general
ly choose some hobby which brings
them only into relationship with inert
matter, or else with matter that is
easily subordinated. In gardening,
man can tyrannize at will. IT he objects
to flower or plant, he can tear it up
by the roots. He can dictate, and the
flowers must live to please him or die
to please themselves. If a branch of a
tree offends his eyes, he can saw it off.
Nothing resists him; he can fill his day
with acts of despotism, though general
~, uO uOuOV, uO 10 oU uAo OCoG oAAOAS
his azaleas and tulips and roses
amiable, happy and in this department
really clever.
One of the secrets of any natural
liking for hobbies is that our hobby is
the very point on which we know our
selves to be we'll read and strong; and
we respect knowledge and strength,
and are aware that the world does the
same. Blessed are they who, when
they grow past the working hours of
; life, have the leisure for many little
hobbies, and can give to each of them
that delightful holiday character which
is their true atmosphere. Such men
will be well off in soul, mind and body.
And if these hobbies be commensurate
with their highest faculties, and look
to the noblest possible purpose
is, making happiness through the hap
piness of others-they will be twice
blessed.
1t is difficult, then, to say how much
, happiness hobby cOnfers, for it is not
, lump of happiness that is definable
and measurable; it is rather little
, current of enjoyment, flowing through
many delicate channels, flavoring all
} our days, taking our thoughts in the
sunshine, warming our feelings and
: giving to us sense of recreation and
playtime, even in old age, and lasting
until our eternal youth begins.
81 IS A. r. S.