The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1905-11-11

the one man who has no chance of
happiness at all is the millionaire. !
do not think have visited any place
but one where there was absolutely
no happiness and no possibility of it.
That place was not a Jail, though l
have spoken to men in the shadow of
the gallows. 1t was not a hospital,
where people are brought to suffe:
the most excruciating pain. 1t was
ed in the mind with misery. Blu. the
place l refer to is safe deposit vault,
one of those mysterious catacombs of
the modern business world where mill
lionaires hoard the evidences of their
wealth. l have myself been IN one
of these subterranean rooms and met
in the passage man who on the sur
face of the earth would greet me with
a warm shake of the hand; but when
we meet down there, each with a tin
box under his arm, we pass each oth.r
with nod, very much as il we were
caught in some place where we had no
right to be, each of us Fastening off
to little room in order to get out
of sight and cut off our coupons or
change the nature of our securities.
That is one place in the world where
man is never known to smile. It is
one place where it is impossible. The
! man in gray who is stationed at the
gate, watching every person going in
or out with an expression of disgust
in his eye-he would know what to
do Immediately If he heard a pistol
shot Or If there was an explosion Of
dynamite. He would turn in an alarm
to the police station. But there is
one thing we would not be prepared
for. If he heard somebody whistle a
tune or sing comic song, he would
not know how to deal with that. That
would be one of the things he never
heard and had never known.
| You may say, IL there is no happi-
ness in fame or in wealth; if there is
no happiness in power, is happiness to
be found. is it attainable by any one
on this earth? My friends, do not
believe 1t is to be found in any pos
| session, and all my philosophy and ex-
perience go to prove that. That is the
thing which the Church teaches you.
| The man who is thoroughly unhappy
| is the person who assumes that all
there is Of life is the things that he
| can see and that he can touch. He
goes through life with the idea that
If he has certain amount of gold it
| viii! be as Il golden key by which he
can unlock the door of limitless happi-
ness. And at the end he finds that
| The key in his hands will not open
the door, and then he tries to persuade
himself that there is something wrong
with this particular key.sthat ii is not
large enough, that it must be larger,
and that he will fini SOME other door
| through which he can pass to the
| happiness he covers. He does not
| realize that the whole of happiness
consists. not in the things tha: you
get, but what you make Of yourself
in the process Of requirement.
But wealth is not thing % be
despised Aye wealth acquired by
honest effort has it's vain, in two as
poets: First, it is a m ,nument to in"
success of the owner; it is the monu-
ment which your fellow citizens have
erected to mark their appreciation Of
the service which you can render
them; and, secondly, it widens the
theatre Of your action, so that 1t gives
you a larger field to work in; it makes
you more effective in serving your
fellows. and thus increases your
chances Of happiness. What is hap
piness? My conception OF happiness,
the one that I have often given, is the
absorption of all your faculties in the
task before you, whatever it may be.
The task before you is not always the
same. Sometimes it is the storing of
your minds with truth; sometimes,
again, it is the exercise of your body
in physical labor, and sometimes it is
mental relaxation. Absorb yourself in
the thing before you. Remember that
every faculty spared from your occu-
patton, every faculty not enlisted In
the thing you are called upon to do
is a sure source of injury to yourself
a certain source of unhappiness.
be; I do not care what task may be
assigned to you-absorb all your fac
Utilities in it and you will never have
an hours unhappiness. Now. some.
body may say that he would be glat
to absorb himself in his task If HI
had something to do that suited hin
better, something else than the thing
he had to do. Believe me, my friends
not one of us is doing the thing h,
would select for himself. 1t may be
also, and 1t Is our faith, that highe
power, a wider intelligence, one that Il
omniscient and grasps everything, as
signs to you your proper theatre o
action.