Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1905-01-18

our coats over our medals and titles
and with our whole heart put our
selves at the disposal Of others.
Let US sometimes live-be it only for
an hour, and though we must lay all
else nside-to make others smile. The
sacrifice IS only in appearance. No one
finds more pleasure for himself than he
who knows how, without ostentation,
to give himself that he may procure
for those around him a moment of for
getfulness and happiness.
When shall we be so simply and
truly men as not to obtrude our per
sonal business and distresses upon the
people we meet socially? May we not
forget for an hour our pretensions, our
strife, our distributions into sets and
cliques-in short, our 'parts"-and be-
come as children once more, to laugh
again that good laugh which does so
much to make the world better?
Here 1 feel drawn to speak of some
thing very particular. and in so doing
to offer my well disposed readers an
opportunity to go about splendid
business. / want to call their at
tention to several classes Of people
seldom thought of with reference to
their pleasures.
1t is understood that broom serves
Daily to sweep, watering pot to water
plants, coffee mill to grind coffee,
and likewise it is supposed that
nurse is designed only to care far the
tick, a professor to teach, priest to
preach, bury and confess. sentinel to
mount guard; and the conclusion Is
drawn that the people given up to the
more serious business of life are dedl-
Gated to labor, like the OK. Amuse-
ment is Incompatible with their aetiy.
tiles. Pushing this view still further.
we think ourselves warranted In be-
lleving that the infirm. 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
1t Is SO Of necessity: whence the con-
clusion that serious people have no
need Of pleasure and that to offer it
to them would be unseemly. while AZ
to the afflicted, there would be lack
Of delicacy in breaking the thread Of
their sad meditations. 1t seems there
fore to be understood that certain per-
sons are condemned to be always Sc
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.
we should leave our smiles Mt the door.
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 it, as though it were a
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
by making them laugh occasionally,
these people who see so many tears
and griefs. On the contrary, you will
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
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 tc
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
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 from seeing the exhaustion
of those who are always in the breach.
Relieve the sentinels perishing at tier
posts; give Sisyphus an hour to breathe;
take for a moment the place of the
mother, 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