The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1905-03-09
The Simple Life
By CHARLES WAGNER
Translated From the French by Mary Louise Hendee
conyrisht. 1901. by Mcclure Phillips l. Co.
By CHARLES WAGNER

| ANA' AdNDhAOAig w ANblllululC MIlIc 4
concerns those precautions which eacl
ought to take to assure his subsist
ence by his labor, becomes perniciout
as soon as It passes its limits anC
dominates the whole life This is sc
true that 1t vltiates even the toll which
gains our daily bread. | furnish paid
labor; nothing could be better. But II
to inspire me in this labor l have only
the desire to get the pay nothing could
be worse. A man whose only motive
for action Is his wages does a bad
piece Of work. What interests him is
not the doing, it's the gold. II he can
retrench in pains without lessening his
gains, be assured that he will do II.
Plowman, mason, factory laborer, he
who loves not his work puts into ii
Eneither interest nor dignity-is, in
short, a bad workman. 1t is not well
to confide ones life to doctor who Is
wholly engrossed in his fees, for the
! spring Of his action is the desire to
garnish his purse with the contents Of
yours. II 1t Is for his interest that
you should suffer longer, he is capable
OF fostering your malady instead of
fortifying your strength The instruct
or Of children who cares for his work
only so far as 1t brings him profit is a
sad teacher, for his pay is indifferent
and his teaching more Indifferent still.
OF what value is the mercenary jour
nallst? The day you write for the dol
lar, your prose is not worth the dol
lar you write for. The more elevated
In kind is the object Of human labor,
the more the mercenary spirit, II 1t be
present, makes this labor void and
corTupts 1t.
There are a thousand reasons to say
that all toll merits its wage, that ev-
cry man who devotes his energies to
providing for his life should have his
place in the sun and that he who does
nothing useful-does not gain his live.
lihood, in short-is only a parasite.
But there Is no greater social error
than to make gain the sole motive of
action. The best we put into our work
--be that work done by strength of
muscle, warmth of heart or concen-
tratl0n of mind--ls precisely that for
which no one can pay us. Nothing bet.
ter proves that man is not a machine
than this fact: Two men at work with
the same forces and the same move
ments produce totally different results.
Where lies the cause Of this phenom-
enon? In the divergence Of their in
tentions. One has the mercenary spir-
II, the other has singleness Of pur-
pose. Both receive their pay, but the
labor Of the one is barren; the other
has put his soul into his work. The
work of the first is like grain of
sand, out of which nothing comes
through all eternity; the others work
is like the living seed thrown into the
ground. 1t terminates and brings forth
haryests. This is the secret which ex-
plains why SO many people have failed |
while employing the very processes by |
which others succeed. Automatons do |
not reproduce their kind, and merce.
nary labor yields no fruit.
Unquestionably we must bow before
economic facts and recognize the diff
culties of living. From day to day 1t
becomes more imperative to combine
well ones forces In order to succeed
in feeding, clothing, housing and bring
ing up family. He who does not
rightly take account Of these crying
necessities, who makes no calculation,
no provision for the future, is but
visionary or an incompetent and runs
the risk of sooner or later asking aims
from those at whose parsimony he has
And yet what would become
Of us IL these cares absorbed us en-
tlrely-if, mere accountants, we should
wish to measure our effort by the mon
ey 1t brings, do nothing that does not
end in receipt, and consider as things
worthless or pains lost whatever can
not be drawn up in figures on the
pages of ledger2 Did our mothers
look for pay in loving us and caring
for us? What would become of fillal
plety IL we asked It for loving and |
caring for our aged parentsl
What does 1t cost you to speak the
truth2 misunderstanding, sometimes
sufferings and prosecutions. To de-
lend your country? WEAKNESS, wounds
md often death. To do good2 An
ioyance, ingratltude, even resentment.
'elf sacrifice enters into all the essen
ial actions of humanity. defy the
losest calculators to maintain their
osltion in the world without ever
ppealing to aught but their calcula-
ons. True, those who know how to
lake their ''pile" are rated as men of
bility. But look little closer. How
luch of it do they owe to the unself-
ihness of the simple heartfelt Would
hey have succeeded had they met only
hrewd men OF their own sort, having
or device, mo money, no servicer
4et us be outspoken. 1t is due to GER
ain people who do not count too rigor-
'usly that the world gets on. The
most beautiful acts of service and the
hardest tasks have generally little re-
or none. Fortunately there
ire always men ready for unselfish
leeds, and even for those paid only in
though they cost gold, peace
md even life The part these men
,lay is often painful and dlscouraging.
Who of us has not heard recitals OF
wherein the narrator re-
yretted some past kindness he had
lone, some trouble he had taken, to
nave nothing but vexation In return2
These condolences generally end thus:
1T was folly to do the thingy Some
lines it is right so to judge, for 1t ls
llways mistake to cast pearls before
wine. But how many lives there are
whose sole acts Of real beauty are
hese very ones Of which the doers
'epent because OF mems ingratitudel
Dur wish for humanity is that the
lumber of these foolish deeds may
% on increasing.
And now l arrive at the credo Of the
nercenary spirit. 1t is characterized