The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1905-02-09
CHAPTER l.
CHAPTER l.
OUR COMPLEX LIFE.
u T the home of the Blanchards
IA everything is topsy turvy. and
with reason. Think of It!
4 \ Mile. Yvonne is to be married

WlIn reason. link Oh ii!
q u Mile. Yvonne is to be married
Tuesday, and today is Friday,
Callers loaded with gifts and trades
men bending under packages come and
20 in endless procession. The servants
are ut the end of their endurance. As
for the family and the betrothed, they
no longer have life or Il 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 n line. gazing vague.
ly at busy clerks engulfed in papers
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
again, harassed and weary, to find the
latest accumulation of parcels and a
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
ty, wretched cold that prevents a
favorite cantatrice from singing, and
so forth, and so forth. Those poor
Blanchards! They will never be ready
and they thought they had foreseen
everything!
Such has been their existence for a
month. No longer possible to breathe,
to rest half hour, to tranquilize ones
thoughts No, this is not living!
Mercifully, there is grandmother
room. Grandmother is verging 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 flood of affairs surging 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
q moment they flee to grandmother
Poor children" is her greeting
you are worn out! Rest a little and
belong to each other. All these things
count for nothing. Don't let than alb
sorb you; it isn't worth while"
They know it well, these two young
people. How many times in the last
hoe 20,
FOR all sorts of conventions and fulfill
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 a host
Of triTialities, and heartily do they APP
prove the opinion of grandmamma
when she says, between Il smile and a
caress, Decidedly, my dear, the world
is growing too complex, and it does not
make people happier-quite the con
traryr
I also am of grandmamma opinion.
From the cradle to the grave, in his
needs as in mis- pleasures, in his con-
ception of the world and of himself,
the man of modern times struggles
through maze of endless compiled
ton. Nothing is simple any longer
neither thought nor action; not pleas
ure; not even dying. With our own
hands we have added to existence a
train of hardships and Topped off many
a qualification. l 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 to JUS
tify the regret for naturalness which
vaguely Expresses them.
Let us first speak of a series of facts
that put into relief the truth we wish
20 show
The complexity of our life appears in
is 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 others whose effects are IA
AL which, like parasites, live at our ex
pense. Numerous and imperiOus, they
engross us completely.
Could our fathers have foreseen that
we should some day have at our dis
poscl 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, and a de-
crease in competition for worldly goods.
They might even have thought that
through the simplification of life thus
made possible a 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
t1rst place, do you think your fellow
citizens. taken as whole, are more
contented than their forefathers and
less anxious about the future? / do
nat ask If they should find reason to be
~, but if they really are so. To see
.nem live It seems to me that majori-