Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-06-10
Sunday Morning Talk
The Tyranny of Things.

Sometimes we go into house cluttered
up with things that the persons who dwell
there are thrust completely into the back
ground. Pretty enough are the draperies,
vases and knick-knacks. and all tastefully
enough arranged. But they seem to exer-
else kind of domination over the people
who have to dust them and watch out
against the children's sticky fingers and re-
arrange them every few weeks and when
they get shabby replace them with other
pieces of bric-a-brac of a more approved
and later fashion.
Again we enter a somewhat scantily fur
nished home. The pictures on the wall do
not crowd one another, and the tiger skins
on the floor are not abundant, but you soon
feel the influence of a vivid, vital person
atty, the master of the house or quite as
likely it's mistress to whom the surround
ings do obeisance.
Now, the difference between these two
types of homes is not chiefly or invariably a
difference in wealth. but in the underlying
conception of what things are good for and
where the proper place for them Is and
about how many we ought to have at any
given point in time. The blessed compen-
sation for many fire Is that II destroys
lot of things that have ceased to be service
able to their owners. that have become
burden. and that ought long ago to have
been passed along to some one else or put
in the dump heap. What a man has not
courage 10 do In this particular a fire or
sometimes a moving compels him to do.
After all. some of those San Franciscans are
not to be pitied altogether IL they have got
ten rid of certain things which in their Sc
cret hearts they had long ago come to de-
spse
Anything. however beguiling in its appear
ance. is always liable to become a tyrant-
It may be as small an opal or as big as
an automobile. but certain circumstances
may elevate 1t into a position of superiority
to the human spirit. There. is one unfaiiing
criterion in this matter. When you take
into your home or your wardrobe anything
which you really cannot afford to own, 1t
will soon begin to lord 1T over you.
Another test of the goodness or badness
minister unto your best life. Has that new
Morris chair in your parlor or the multiply
ing of the dainty china on the table or the
numerous and rather expensive additions to
your stock of clothing fostered In you pride
or sloth or selHshness? / know a woman
who wears a regulation dress of substantial
material and unobtrusre color, and when
it is nearly worn out she goes to her dress
maker and orders another of precisely the
same sort. The problem of clothes is con-
siderably smplified In her case-too much
so, most of my women readers would justly
think. At the same time / admire her more
than do the women who spend long golden
hours. day after day. week after week, at
the dressmakers' and millinerS.
Things have their proper uses, 1t is true.
but we should seek those things that en-
rich and which do not enslaye our lives. The
lovely, though often inexpensive, etching.
the wholesome book. q bit of choice ware
now and then-such things these by their
presence beckon us along the right path.
Certain things. too. have a symbolic charac-
ter. They stir the fountains of memory, OF
patriotism of religion. ] honor that father
who carries all day and every day In his
pocket small. ordinary white stone that
his little girl. long gone to heaven now. used
to cherish In her treasure drawer.
We are not disembodied spirits yet, and
we need therefore. outward, tangible OBJ
jects on which our eyes and hands may rest
in fondness and appreciation. Only let US
not have too many, let us choose them