The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-05-30
OUR PRESENT ERA Is AN
AGE OF STRENUOUSNESS
Frank O. Beck DiscourSes on "A
Plea for the Simple Life" at
Mapleton NJ. Z. Church.
A PASSION FOR LUXURY

"a Plea for the Simple Life" WIS the
subject taken by the Rev. Franz, 4 Beck.
at the Mapleton Nj. f. Church. Ii said
/ in part:
Theodore Roosevelt, who is known as a
man of untiring endeavor. has recently
taken the role of preacher and embodied
the principles of his active existence into a
theory he chooses to call The Strenuous
Life His theory requires man to be SOL
! dierly. always ready to do striking and
heroic deeds
I'm sharp contrast with this view of
life is the life of plain. commonplace duty.
The chief exponent of this cult is the Rev.
| Charles Wagner, a Paris clergyman,
man of fine sensibilities, an inspiring phi
! losopher, a shrewd critic of life, a prose
poet. II his little book, The Simple Life.
he makes a plea for a life freed from the
nervous hurry. the futile endeavor and the
| false ambitions which he thinks character
| ize many lives to-day.
''These two views OF life seem to be con-
traries, but they are not antitheses, they
are correlatives. One is not Scylla; the
other not Charybdis. The Strenuous Life
and The Simple Life are hemispheres of
! full-orbed existence.
THE prophet of orhe Simple Life has
| had a mission to earlier ages. century
| ago the English poet, William Wordsworth,
was the voice. His was no less picture OF
| the present one, which is an age of strenu-
/ BUSINESS. Our life is hemmed in by walls o.
restlessness and fretfulness. Our national
vice is fatigue: we are under an epidemic OF
! Ernest Crosby is correct: The world is
drunk with rapid transit And in this
whirlpool we forget, yea, forget, the pur-
/ pose of our lveS-forget our God.
1--WE crave a simpler life. Our nerves are
! starved for rest; minds and hearts as
well. Let us turn the hemisphere of fever
/ ish anxiety from us for one brief hour and
worship at the shrine of simple restful-
| ness
1.-The passion for luxury hinders the SIM
! pie life. We are to-day a luxurious race,
and it is the more pitiful because we boast
about it. Our tourists in Europe are not
satisfied with the natural, simple life OF the
alberg of Italy and the gasthaus of Ger
many, but demand modern hotels with al
| the luxuries of the best in our own land
| Need is not always a criterion of c1villza-
ton. Who has not envied the life of sim
| plicity lived by Thoreau on the banks OF
| Walden pond? There is such a thing as
| tyranny of needs. 1t would be worth while
| to live even If soda water were taken away
| from us. You must distinguish between
| luxury and good taste; nor must you con-
fuse luxury with high art l speak of those
| things which are positively superfiuous the
| battle for which is as severe as the battle
! for necessities has ever been. If existence
| is loaded with the vulgarities of luxury II
| is pampered indeed.
"In the compexity of thought we have
| missed the simple duty of life. The very
| compexity of duty obscures it. We hear
so much to-day about problems-the race
problem, the slum problem, the labor prob
| lem. the child problem, the tenement
problem-problems, problems, until we gel
| to think that action and duty is so complex
! that we have missed the simple duty of life
| But these large problems are to be solved
| when each one lives out the life of simple
duty. When both employer and employed
| do their simple duty to one another the la
Dor problem will be solved. We must moi
hide behind the large and obscure duty
| it is ours to perform the simple duties.