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

grasp. To these people the play Is an
exception. They are not bored by it
from overindulgence. And, too, to
them it is rest from rnde 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 pulled. To
them it is all real. And so they feel
pleasure unalloyed. think 1 see the
stated skeptic, whose monocle glistens
In that box, cast disdainful glance
over the smiling crowd. y
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 salutary 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 1t is like phylloxera to
the vine. The robust tree of rustic joy
finds its sap drained, its leaves turn
ing yellow.
Compare a fete champetre Of the
good old style with the village festiL
walls, SO called, Of today. In the one
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 in 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; 1t stirs
your heart. In spite Of yourself you
are ready to cry: Bravo, my children!
That is finer 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, n
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 occa-
sion, to civilize these rustics and give
them taste of refined pleasures. For
drinks. liquors mixed with brandy or
absinth - In the whole thing neither
originality nor picturesqueness. Ii
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
a frivolity; utilitarians, as costly SUI
perfuity. 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 i'm
mense human interest attached to JOY.
1t is a sacred fame 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 1t In sort Of salutary con-
tagion among ones fellow men Is to
do work of fraternity in the noblest
sense. To give a trifllng pleasure,
smooth an anxious brow, bring little
light into dark paths-what 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 II.
We are not simple enough to be hap
by 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 l feel nothing" As the
only human means of soothing grief is
to share it in the heart, how must
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 1t all our desire to
shine breaks forth. Sometimes, also,
with a patrons prodigality we offer
him the benefcence Of 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
tools? Is t anything in the world
SO disollstil 10 feel oneself patron