Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1904-12-29


them it is d rest from ruoe toll The
pleasure they enjoy they have honestly
earned, and they know its cost as
they know that of each sou earned by
the sweat of their labor. More. they
have not frequented the wings, they
have no intrigues with the actresses,
they do not see the wires palled. To
them it is all real. And 50 they feel
pleasure unalloyed. | think | see the
stated skeptic. whose monocle glistens
i'll that box. east 4 disdainful glance
over the smiling crowd.
Poor stupid creatures. ignorant and gross.
And yet they are the true livers.
while he Is an artificial product man
nikin. incapable OF experiencing this
fine and salutaly intoxication of an
hour of frank pleasure
Unhappily. righteousness is disap-
pearing even in the rural districts. We
see the people of our cities and those
of the country in their turn breaking
with the good traditions The mind
warped by alcohol, by the passion for
gambling and by unhealthy literature,
contracts little by little perverted
tastes. Artificial life makes Eruption
into communities once simple in their
pleasures, and it is like phylloxera to
the vine. The robust tree of rustic joy
finds its sap drained, its leaves turn
ing yellow.
Compare fete champetre of the
good old style with the village fest
walls. so called, of today In the Que
case, in the honored setting Of antique
costumes, genuine countrymen sing the
folk songs, dance rustic dances. re-
gale themselves with native drinks and
seem entirely III their element They
take their pleasure as the blacksmith
FORCES, as the cascade tumbles over
the rocks. as the colts frisk in the
meadows. 1t is contagious; it stirs
your heart. In spite of yourself you
are ready to cry: Bravo, my children
That is fne" You want to join in.
In the other case you see villagers dis
guised as city folk, countrywomen
made hideous by the modiste, and, as
the chief ornament of the festival, Il
lot of degenerates who bawl the songs
of music halls. and sometimes in the
place of honor a group of tenth rate
barn stormers, imported for the ocea-
sion, to civilize these rusties and give
them taste of refined pleasures. For
drinks. liquors mixed with brandy or
absinth ~ in the whole thing neither
originality nor picturesqueness. Lii
cense indeed, and clownishness. but
not that abandon which ingenious joy
brings in its train.
This question of pleasure is capital.
Staid people generally neglect it as
frivolity; utilitarians, as costly sn-
perhuity. Those whom we designate
as pleasure seekers forage in this deli,
cate domain like wild boars in a gar
den No one seems to doubt the inn
mense human interest attached to joy
1t is d sacred flame that must be fed
and that throws a splendid radiance
over life. He who takes pains to fos-
ter it accomplishes work as profit
able for humanity as he who builds
bridges, pierces tunnels or cultivates
the ground. So to order ones life as
to keep. amid tolls and suffering. the
faculty of happiness and be able to
propagate it in a sort of salutary con-
tagion among ones fellow men is to
do q work of fraternity in the noblest
sense To give a trifing pleasure,
smooth an anxious brow, bring a little
light into dark paths what a truly
divine Office in the midst of this poor
humanity! But it is only in great SIM
plicity of heart that one succeeds in
filling it.
We are not simple enough to be hap
ply and TO render others so. We lack
the singleness of heart and the self
forgetfulness. We spread joy, as we
do consolation, by such methods as to
obtain negative results. To console a
person what do we do? We set to
work to dispute his suffering. persuade
him that he is mistaken in thinking
himself unhappy In reality our Ian
guage translated into truthful speech
would amount to this: you suffer, my
friend? That is strange. You must be
mistaken. for I feel nothing" AS the
only human means of soothing grief is
to share it in the heart, how must a
sufferer feel consoled in this fashion!
To divert our neighbor make him
pass an agreeable hour, we set out in
the same way We invite him to adj
mire our versatility to laugh at our
wit to frequent our house. to sit at
our table Through it all our desire to
shine breaks forth. Sometimes. also,
with patrons prodigality we offer
him the beneficence of a public enter
tainment of our own choosing, unless
we ask him to find amusement at our
home, as we sometimes do to make up
party at cards, with the arriere-
pensee of exploiting him to our own
profit Do you think it the height of
pleasure for others to admire us, to adj
nit our. superiority and to act as our
toolss Is there anything in the world
SO disgusting as to feel oneself patron
lied, made capital Of enrolled in a