Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1905-12-15


world. The ground under our feet,
trees, flowers, men, Women-eve very
| thing we see is real. To be sure there
are real things that are unseen, but
the things that are seen are by 40
means unreal. They are evident. 2 ely
are tangible. There are some people
who live, move and have their being
| in unreality They feed on fancieS.
Their ways Of life are artificial They
hold to unreal beliefs They hope for
unreal happiness. The genuine offends
them. They prefer unreal books.
They like unreal plays. Their woes
are largely unreal. And even their
| joys are affected. Now there Is q
great charm in the real. The made
can never vie with the natural Take
book, for example. The writer who
can tell us truly about commonplace
| things-humdrum life-will write a
| book that is worth while. Indeed he
who can cut out and frame for us a
section of life-any ife-is master.
That is what Dickens did and Hugo
and Tolstoi and Balzac. OF all tue
people in this world Americans ought
to be a real people. We do things.
We make things. We move things.
But many Of our books and plays and
pictures and poems are way out o.
touch with our real lives. They bark
| back too much. Note the magazine
articles. Aside from a very few real
| touches, what a miss the writer's
make! The stuff lacks red blood
And the stage. Aside from very few
pictures of American life, what
sham most of it is. And our artists
give US "impressfonist" pictures
imaginary pictures ON a real canvas
Is it strange that with all the unreal
influences about us we should be led
into unreal thinking, feeling and do
| ing? Is it strange we should drift
| into a sham standard of morals? in
stead of the ten commandments we
are learning only one-don't get
caught Instead Of straight up and
down morals we have business eth
| les" Stealing we call graft and
wink the other eye. We have an I'M
real standard of success-money. Our
unreal idea Of happiness is to get
wealth and leisure. Instead Of char
acter we try for reputation. And so
on Dark picture? Isn't 1t true
speaking of tendencies And it would
be dark indeed if the plain people
the core Of our society-were not
sound. Blessed are those who like
| Theodore Thomas give their lives to
teaching us what is real music. Aud
the James Whitcomb Rileys who give
us real literature. And the Pastor
Wagners who tell us about the real
ity Of life Blessed are all those in
every place who teach the sane, the
simple, the natural life, and make us
yearn for it. Because the simple life
| is the genuine nfe-nOthing more,
nothing less. To live that life seems
easy. But try it. Your trial will show
you what hold the artifcial-the im1-
tation-life has upon you. So far have
many Of us strayed from naturalness
that it requires the highest sort of art
to appear natural. The simple life is
the only life worth the living. Simple
food, simple clothing, simple desires
what a revolution they would work
Simple trust, simple joys-what more
real? If we could only fling away
everything that is f1imsy and false
what a remainder! That remainder
would be sane body, mind and spirit
Sham and shoddy. There is too much
of it in all Of us. Let's get down to
the eternal verify of things-the SIM
plicity Of it, the satisfaction of it, the
example of it, the manliness of it, the
womanliness of it. That Pastor Wag-
ner's simple proposal to go back 10
real things should have created such
stir is ample proof as to how far and
widely we nave wandered from the