The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-12-04

business. want to call their at tention to several classes of people seldom thought Of with reference to their pleasures
 It Is understood that broom serves only to sweep, a watering pot to water plants, a coffee mill to grind coffee, and likewise 1t is supposed that nurse is designed only to care for the sick, professor to teach, a priest to preach, bury and confess. a sentinel to mount guard; and the conclusion is drawn that the people given up to the more serious business of life are dedi- cated to labor, like the OK. Amuse- ment is incompatible with their activ- ities. Pushing this view still further, we think ourselves warranted in be- lieving that the inhrm, the afflicted, the bankrupt, the vanquished in life's battle and all those who carry heavy burdens are in the shade, like the northern slopes of mountains, and that it is so of necessity; whence the con clusion that serious people have no need of pleasure and that to offer 1t to them would be unseemly while as to the afflicted, there would be lack of delicacy in breaking the thread of their sad meditations. It seems there fore to be understood that certain per sons are condemned to be always se- rious, that we should approach them in a serious frame of mind and talk to them only of serious things. So, too, when we visit the sick or unfortunate, r,o | compose our face and manner to dole fulness and talk of anything heart rending. Thus we carry darkness to those in darkness, shade to those in shade We increase the isolation of solitary lives and the monotony of the dull and sad We wall up some exist ences, as it were, in dungeons, and because the grass grows round their deserted prison house we speak low in approaching 1t, as though it were tomb. Who suspects the work of in- fernal cruelty which is thus accom- ! plished every day in the world This ought not to be.
 When you find men or women whose lives are lost in hard tasks or in the painful office of seeking out human wretchedness and binding up wounds, remember that they are beings made | like you; that they have the same wants; that there are hours when they need pleasure and diversion. You will not turn them aside from their mission 1 by making them laugh occasionally, these people who see so many tears and griefs. On the contrary, you will i give them strength to go on the better with their work.
 And when people whom you know are in trial, do not draw a sanitary cor don round them, as though they had the plague, that you cross only with precautions which recall to them their sad lot On the contrary, after show l ing all your sympathy, all your respect, for their grief, comfort them, help them to take up life again, carry them a breath from the out of doors-some- thing, in short, to remind them that their misfortune does not shut them off from the world.
 And so extend your sympathy to those whose work quite absorbs them; who are, so to put it, tied down. The world is full of men and women sac rificed to others, who never have either rest or pleasure and to whom the least relaxation. the slightest respite, is a priceless good. And this minimum of comfort could be so easily found for them if only we thought of it. But the broom, you know, is made for sweep ing, and it seems as though it could not be fatigued Let us rid ourselves of this criminal blindness which pre- vents us frcm seeing the exhaustion of those who are always in the breach. Relieve the sentinels perishing at their posts; give Sisyphus an hour to breathe; take for a moment the place of the mother a slave to the cares of her house and her children; sacrifice an hour of our sleep for some one worn by long vigils with the sick. Young girl, tired sometimes perhaps of your walk with your governess, take the cooks apron and give her the key to the fields. You will at once make otsl- CTS happy and be happy yourself We go unconcernedly along beside our brothers who are bent under busdel
 
 minute. And this short respite would suffice to soothe aches, revive the flame of joy in many heart and open up a wide place for brotherliness. How much better would one understand an- other if he knew how to put himself heartily in that others place. and how much more pleasure there would be in lifei
 l have spoken too fully elsewhere of systematizing amusements for the young to return to it here in detail, but wish to say in substance what can not be too often repeated: If you wish youth to be moral do not neglect It's pleasures or leave to chance the task of providing them. You will perhaps say that young people do not like to have their amusements submitted to regulations and that besides. in our day they are already overspoiled and divert themselves only too much. shall reply, first that one may suggest ideas indicate directions, offer oppor- tunities for amusement without mak- ing any regulations whatever. In the second place, shall make you see that you deceive yourselves in thinking youth has too much diversion. Aside from amusements that are artificial, enervating and immoral, that blight life instead of making it bloom In splendor. there are very few left today.