New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1907-02-06
SOURCES OF HUMAN COMFORT.
A Plea for Tidiness and It's Consequent
HealthfuI Effects.

Mans point Of view has frequently special
suggestions for womankind, so agreed many OF
the women who listened TO a talk by a we'll
known social worker recently on Sources of
Human Comfort" TO this effect, IN brief:
Cheerfulness and content are to great de-
gree the result of outward and physical condi-
ions-the result OF very little things. Time
was in which happiness was regarded being
too much, perhaps, matter OF ones outward
lot. Such Is the belief of a primitive age and
an untutored race. Time was when happiness
was too much made thing of a quiet home
comfortable income Of climbing and
honeysuckle, of easy chairs gentle wife or an
equally kind husband. and limited number Of
particularly well behaved children Indeed Il
cannot be denied that these. with health and
good conscience, would go a long way toward
making most reasonable grown up people happy
and content.
Perhaps the pendulum in late years has swung
too far in the opposite direction. and we have
learned 10 make too little OF external things,
But since happiness is a mental condition we
must not forget that mental conditions very
strongly ana 1 airecty produced by outward
stances are the great causes of inward feelings.
You can almost certainly count upon making
a man happy under cheerful conditions as upon
making him wet by dipping him in water. The
life which is too subjective is morbid; the minds
shadow and sunshine should not too much
from tho mind itself When this is so It is gen
orally the result of q weak physical condition;
and it goes along with poor appetite and shaky
nerves.
Under normal conditions-that IS, when life IS
not darkened by great misfortunes beyond hu-
q. person to keep to state Of moderate salts
faction and content Ike carrying OUT the resolu-
ton that everything within the personal range
shall be IN order-shall be tidy. Tidlness Is
nothing else than the carrying into the hundreds
Of little matters which meet us, hour by hour,
the same principles which direct tho affairs of
the universe. Tidiness is, in short, the being
right in email concerns in which too many peo-
pie are slovenly satisfied to be wrong. An
tidy person is a person who is wrong and Is
doing wrong for several hours q day.
Tidiness Is q great, constant source Of cheer
fitness and temporary satisfaction. II gratifes
the instructive love of seeing things right which
is in q healthy human being. The absence Of
this simple and humble quality is the cause Of
a considerable part Of all the evil and suffering.
physical and moral. which exist among ordinary
folk in this world Tidiness is in some measure
a matter of temperament. There are human be-
ings who could never sit down contentedly IN
room where everything is topsy-turvy. There
are others so nerveless and washy that they
cannot bestir themselves to set things right Tt
IS foolish. OF course 10 keep house merely TO be
clean, as tradition tells US WAS 50 often the way
in the oIden days Of New England in particular:
but the wise woman realizes that order and its
attendant tidiness go far toward giving her homo
and her belongings the air Of comfort which
includes cheerfulness and the effect at least Of
reasonable prosperity.