Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1906-10-24

CONGRATULATIONS are VIGOROUSLY dan
gerous, but it is at least a rough APP
Proclamation to the truth to say that the
man who complains Of the peculiar
hardships of the profession or business
he has chosen would have discovered
just as long a list of grievances what
ever his choice. What he does is simply
to exhibit his tendency to fret and
protest against the irritations of every
day life which are common to all call
ings. Plainly, the lesson he needs to
learn is the lesson of content, and he
should cultivate a bu0yant optimism.
This suggestion is prompted by an eX-
cellent article in the Atlantic Month
liz, whose unknown author names it
1.-The Confessions of an Obscure Teach
er." Now, if you have q teacher or
teachers among your acquaintances,
you have probably heard great zeal
about the sorrows and distress of the
teaching profession. When people who
work fifty-odd weeks in the year throw
out critical hints about ten weeks va
cations and Saturdays off, and all the
holidays, and short hours, the teachers
wax wrOth. They cannot refute the in
dictment, but they can and do make
a very good case of nervous worries,
bad boys, ill-smelling rooms, unreason-
able parents, cruel principals and SUI
perintendents. They, too, are down
trodden, like the rest of us, and not
pleased because their remuneration
falls short Of that Of corporation law
yer or a bank president. But our OBJ
scure monitor whose words are a tonic
for every worker yields to no such fu-
tile discomfort. Though he has the
mood occasionally, he reflects that 1.-THE
frequent and long vacations, the regu-
larity of work and the comforting as
surance that your work will be paid
for, the freedom from excitement and
the comparative freedom from worry,
the constant association with the
healthy optimism Of youth, an optimism
diffusive, contagious and immortal
these are conducive to health Of body
as well as to health of soul" Actually
the worries are there, but he looks on
the bright side. Small as his pay is,
he thinks that it is as large as it would
be if he had gone into some other oc-
cupation. And though he has to be
prudent in his expenditures, he has
his little luxuries, is out of debt and
carries $4,000 Of endowment insur-
ance. During each summer" he says,
1--WE can spend part Of the vacation on
a farm, paying our board, too, and some
years we go even to the seashore."
The rich man may go to the seashore
every year, but this teacher does not
envy him. He feels that his life is
richer than the lives of many rich men.
He finds an abiding joy in his work.
He says: IF the pleasures Of life are
in the free and generous play of the
domestic affections, In the possession
of health of body and soul, in labor in
which self-interest is not the be-all and
end-all, in feeling that ones life, though
in a humble way, is part of the great
forward movement OF the social body,
know Of no other occupation which l
could follow that would afford better
opportunities for the attainment of
these simple and immortal joys" That
is good food for teachers. 1t Is good
also for lawyers and doctors and mer-
chants and editors, for this particular
teacher teaches them all the value of
spirit.