The Waxahachie daily light. [volume] (Waxahachie, Tex.) 1894-current, 1908-12-23
CULTIvATING CHEERFULNEss

When fate hands you lemon,
smile. Picturesque as Is this familiar
bit of slang. IT contains sound phil
osophy for root.
For when misfortune comes Is the
only time when one really can AFFORD
cheerfulness The luxury of melan-
,4holy can be afforded only by those
with whom the world is on good
terms.
tCIn New York there Is a man nam
ed Hammerstein who ran away from
his home in Germany at the age Of
16 and came to America. He has
seen a great many ups and downs
since that day. but with them he has
won fame and fortune. Just now he
is producing grand opera, pastime
that has wrecked millionaires, but
he is making 1t self-supporting.
Once Hammerstein saw his whole
fortune, a million and a half, swept
away in the burning Of his theater
Did he sit down and grieve? He
whistled and started to work again
often / am deeply melancholy, y
he says, '.but 1t is when everything
is apparently going all right. Then
| can AFFORD to be melancholy II
want to. But when bad luck comes
am cheerful. have to be-
Such is the philosophy of man
who, as his own president and board
of directors, voted himself last year
an annual salary of $4,000.
Melancholy is form of worry
and worry fattens on the future
tense. 1t Is the thing which may hap.
pen that makes us lie awake nights
and lose appetites, not the things
which belong to the past.
Riches are restless; tits only t.
poverty the gods give content" says
the old proverb, but the foundation
of happiness lies deeper than mere
surface of wealth. The man trained
| to the anpreciation of luxury canno
easily enjds>privation by merely as
lg to himself, II will be happ.
I6f misfortune" Perhaps
hen can but their example Il
she real foundation for enjoy
ent of life is being able to appre
kte ones opportunities. And follow
! that the man with million may
if he has trained himself to thorough
ly enjoy his privileges, be as happ.
as the man on five hundred year
| There are many people living in thi
! city whose financial affairs ar
/ comfortable who never take time t.
| really enjoy the fresh air; who can
! appreciate beautiful sunset, who
! when they take drive, have lul
/ ling sense of satisfaction, but N
| lively appreciation of the interestin
attractive and pleasant things ma
! ture is doing all around them.
And, on the other hand. there ar
poor people who are no better off.
i The sense of appreciation must b.
/ trained in order to be happy. Happi
| ness is satisfaction attained, wheth
err 1t is satisfaction with few want
| or with many. 1t is false philosoph,
| to say that happiness comes from be
| ing contented with a little, if by TIL
statement it is applied that happi
ness may come to everybody tn
| same way, 1t doesn't.
+ To every normal man has beef
| given five senses. to see, TO hear, t;
| taste, to smell, to touch. And whel
| the man has been trained, or ha
{ trained himself. so that his eye cal
see beauty when it offers itself, eth
.er on a costly canvas or in the cur
| of cloud; when he can hear ant
! en- 10y melody either in a symptoms
/ rhapsody or in the piping of wood
thrush; when he can taste and EMO.
every meal, be it banquet or disl
! of mush and milk when he expert
/ ences sense of delight in the odo
of a rare exotic or in the homel.
scent of an old-fashioned garden
when his hand is not so callouset
| that he fails to find a thrill in thu
confiding clasp of a child or thu
! hearty grip of friend; then ha
that man learned some of the priu
eiples of how to appreciate beint
alive itself.
And happiness with the cheerful
| ness it brings is not so far away
Fort Worth Telegram.