The Breckenridge news. (Cloverport, Ky.) 1876-1955, 1904-12-14
CHAPTER l.
OUR COMPLEX LIFE.
MT the home Of the Blanchards
IA everything is topsy turvy, and
Y with reason. Think Of il.
4 \ Mile. Nvonne is II be married
CHAPTER l.
OUR COMPLEX LIFE


4 \ Mile. Yvonne is II be married
Tuesday. and today is Friday!
Callers loaded with gifts and trades
men bending under packages come and
20 i'm endless procession. The servants
are at the end of their endurance. As
for the family and the betrothed. they
no longer have life or n fixed abode.
Their mornings are spent with dress
makers. milliners. upholsterers. jewel
ers, decorators and caterers. After
that comes rush through Offices,
where one waits in line. gazing vague
ly at busy clerks engulfed in papers.
a fortunate thing if there be time
when this is over to run home and
dress for the series of ceremonial din
ners - betrothal dinners, dinners of
presentation. the settlement dinner-re-
ceptions. balls About midnight. home
agar. harassed and weary, to find the
latest accumulation of parcels and Il
deluge of letters - congratulations, fe-
licitatiOnS. acceptances and regrets
from bridesmaids and uShers, excuses
of tardy tradesmen. And the contre-
temps of the last minute-a sudden
death that disarranges the bridal par
~, a wretched cold that prevents Il
favorite cantatrice from singing, and
so forth, and so forth. Those poor
Blanchards, They will meyer be ready
and they thought they had foresecn
everything!
Such has been their existence for a
month. No longer possible to breathe,
TO rest a half hour, To tranquilize ones
thoughts. No. this is not living!
Mercifully, there is grandmOthers
room. Grandmother is vergng on
eighty. Through many tolls and much
suffering she has come to meet things
with the calm assurance which life
brings to men and women of high
thinking and large hearts. she sits
there in her armchair, enjoying the
silence of long meditative hours. SO
the food Of affairs surgng through the
house Gibbs at her door. At the thresh-
old of this retreat voices are hushed
and footballs sOftened, and when the
young fiances want to hide away for
a moment they flee to grandmother.
Poor children" is her greeting.
"You are worn OUT Rest little and
belong to each other. All these things
count for nothing. Don't let tl.>m alb
sorb you; it isn't worth while"
They know 1t well, these two young
people. How many times in the last
weeks has their love had to make way
60, Mt Of conventions and fntili-
ties, Fate at this decisive moment of
their lives seems bent upon drawing
their minds away from the one thing
essential. to harry them with host
of trivialitics, and heartily do they APP
prove the opinion of grandmamma
when she says, between IA smile and Il
carcss. DECIDEDLY, my dear, the world
is growing too complex, and it does not
make people happer-quite tie con
traryr'
| also am Of grandmamma's opinion.
From the cradle TO the grave, in his
needs as in his pleasures in his con-
ception of the world and of himself
the man OF modern times struggles
through maze of endless compiica-
ton. Nothing is simple any longer
neither thought nor action; not pleas
ure: not even dying With our own
hands we have nd FL 10 existence n
train Of hardships and Topped OF many
a qualification believe that thou
sands of our fellow men, suffering the
consequences Of too artificial life
will be grateful if we try to give eX-
preston TO their discomfort and II JUS
tify the regret for naturalness which
vaguely Expresses them.
Let us first spcal, of a series of facts
that put into relief the truth we wish
to show.
The compleXity Of our life appears in
the number Of our material needs. U
is a fact universally conceded that our
needs have grown with our resources.
This is not an evil in itself for the
birth of certain needs is often the mark
OF progress To feel the necessity of
bathing. of wearing fresh linen, inhab-
iting wholesome houses. eating health
full food and cultivating our minds is
a sign of superiority. But if certain
needs exist by right and are desirable
there are OlltTS WHOSE elleclS are Ia
tai which, like parasites live at our ex-
Uense. Numerous and imperious they
engross us completely
Could our fathers have foreseen that
we should some day have at our dis
posal the means and forces we now
use in sustaining and defending our
material life they would have predict
ed for us an increase of independence,
and therefore of happiness, ana de
crease in competition for worldly goods.
They might even have thought that
through the simpliication of life thus
made possible higher degree of mo-
rality would be attained. None of
these things has come TO pass; neither
happiness nor brotherly love nor power
for good has been increased. In the
first place. do you think your fellow
citizens. taken as a whole, are more
coptented than their forefathers and
less anxious about the future? | do
not ask if they should find reason to he