The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1907-01-24
SEES JOY IN WORK
WORLD SEEMS TO HAVE NO
PLACE FOR THE ,pLER.
No Real Joy In lite Of Ease without
Labor, Says Man Who Has Given
the Matter a Thorough
Trial.


"there's nothing like work.
Il used to think that IL had
money enough to live on comfortably.
20 that didn't have to work. should
be happy. My work was one incessant
grind, day after day the same un.
ending round OF the same things over
and over again. and used to get SC
tired Of 1t all that sometimes it seem
ed as though | should fly.
But ! had to keep at it to live. and
SO did keep at it till a distant rela
tive Of mine that I had never known
was worth anything died and left me
fortune.
There never was anything that
ever happened to me that ever gave
me half so much pleasure as that
Tho first thing ! did was to shake the
work which ] got rid of as quickly as
decently could. and then | set about
planning enjoyment.
THE one thing of all that wanted
most was travel craved change.
set out on my dreamed Of travels,
and found a keen delight in them all
for q time.
1T was all the same to me whether
1t rained or the sun shone. for wher.
ever I was or wherever l was going.
was free to enjoy it all. and did
for time. but then began to find
myself in a way apart. and not so
much privileged to enjoy these things
as had been at first
For I was an idler pure and sim.
pie. while all those to whom I was
indebted for the possibility of the
pleasures Of travel, the railroad men
and the steamship men. were all
workers. as were also the hotel men
and the theater people and every.
body to whom was indebted for
pleasures in sojourn, all workers. So
likewise were all or nearly all the
travellers I met. workers in one field
or another, all, and finding delight in
every breath they drew because they
were workers.
And they were drawn, If not to-
gether, at least toward one another
of their kind, while I, an idler only,
had nothing in common with the
world. Even in the far distant ports
where I leaned over the rail I found
myself more and more separated from
the laborer on the wharf, who, bound
though he might be to his work, yet
had an object in life. which he &C.
complished by labor, while I was
mere part.
In fact the more l idled the more
clearly l came to realize that the law
of the universe is labor, that in nature
there is nothing idle, and the more
l travelled the more clearly it came to
me how few real idlers there are
among men. When finally at the
end of three years of idling had
come back again to the city l had
this fact borne in upon me with
greater intensity than ever. and now
the great Joy that l had found at
first in sheer loafing was quite de.
parted.
THE city was alive with activity,
with men all at work, all doing some.
thing, all accomplishing something,
and l was out of It, an idler and-a
stranger. Actually men looked at
me as strange being, and some of
them with curiosity. That Ishould
be doing nothing when there was a
chance, they wondered.
Friends that l had known greet.
ed me and smiled and then-passed
on They had their work to do. and
their interests and their sympathies
were with other people. So I stood
alone. as one set of, until, by
kind OF Providence. there arose with.
in me desire to work.
I've been at 1t ever since, and 1
am at it still. grateful to be back in
the fold of men,"