Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-12-14


written a letter to Mr.. Miller in which
he tells him that he not only leaves
him his money and mines, but his two
pet jackasses that have served MIN
so faithfully, as he followed his vary
ing fortunes across the desolate plains
on prospecting journeys In his charac-
teristic answer the poet said that he
thought more of the jackasses than he
did of any other property his friend
might leave him, and hoped that Mr..
Herrin would live many more years TO
enjoy his good luck rather than pass
it on to anyone.-Joe Mitchell Chapple
in November National Magazine.
God made the country and man
made the town." is only another way
of recognizing the fundamental char
acter of country life in our ciViliza-.
ton. Country life would be abundantlya
possible without city life, as compared
with city life. In some countries, ike
Russia, ninety per cent Of the popula-
ton live in the country; but city life
is impossible without country life as it's
foundation. This fact gives the work
of the presidents commission on coun-
try life q very real interest In the
jewellers in, towns, as well as to those
who live In the country.-iifford Pin
chot In Suburban Life for December.
! Is there any particular benefit to a
salaried man to economic in order to
save money? A great deal of sophisti-
cal argument has been expended on
this question. One or two bank fall
ures will upset all the reasoning of the
economists and the wise men. Sym
phonies and Oysters" a breezy little
story in the December Smart Set. is
an echo of last years series of bank
crashes that gives point to the question.
The writer, Grace Ellery Claiming, de-
tails the financial experiences of
young couple who lived for many
months on cold mutton and roseate
visions of a rapidly growing bank bal
ance. Then came the deluge-and the
resulting problem: Pinch and save and
starve every pleasure-loving instinct,
or "blow it in" and enjoy life while
youth is with us?
A common and picturesque express
sion for common experience runs,
Its so noisy 1 can't hear myself
think" After a visit to New York we
feel that it's inhabitants are so deaf
ened by the constant blare of noisy
confusion that they can't feel them
selves live. The steady sufferers from
| this complaint do not realize their con-
dition. They find it on the whole less
trouble not to feel themselves live, and
they are most uneasy when chance
forces them to spend few days Con
shipboard, for instance), where they
are not protected by ceaseless and aim
less activity from the consciousness
that they are themselves. They can
not even conceive the bitter-swee
vital taste of that consciousness as we
villagers have 1t and they cannot I'M
derstand how arid their existence seems
to us without this unhurried, penetrat-
ing realization of their own existence
and of the meaning Of their acts. We
do not blame city jewellers for not hav-
ing 1t; we lose it when we venture into
their maelstrom. Like them, we be-
come dwarfed by overwhelming num-
bers and shriveled by the incapacity to
sense" the humanity of the countless
human Simulacra about US. But we do
not stay where we cannot feel our
selves livei We hurry back to the
shadow of Hemlock mountain, feeling
that to love life one does not need to
be what is usually called happy; one
needs only to live.
1t cannot be, of course, that we are
the only community TO discover this
patent fact; but we know no more OF
the others than they of us. All that
we hear from that part of America
which is not Hillsboro is the wild yell
of excitement going UP from the great
cities, where people seem to be doing
everything that was ever done or
thought of except just living, City
jewellers make money, make reputa-
lions (good and bad), make museums
and subways, make charitable institu-
tions make with an hysteric rapidity.
like excited spiders, more and yet more
complications in the Macy labyrinths
of their lives, but they never make each
others acquaintance ana tnaL
is all that is worth doing in the world.
From AT the Foot Of Hemlock
Mountain" by Dorothy Garfield in the
Christmas Scribner's.
Gertrude Atherton pays her respects
to the pampered self-indulging women
of society in no uncertain tetrms in an
article on Bridge Whist and Drink"
which appears in The Red Book Maya
zine for December. She says in part;
"a ships doctor told me once that
rich American women were the worst
sailors in the world because their self
indulgent lives had left them with no
power of resistance to anything. On
the other hand, there Is no question
that many women Of the same class IN
England drink as recklessly In secret
as Americans. A London doctor told
me of one woman he knew who wore
a thin, curved flask in her stocking,
which she managed to have filled
daily at one restaurant or another, not
caring to trust too much to the dlScre-
ton of her servants. These women lie
in bed half the day drinking. NO DOUBT
when the habit is contracted by mature
women In fair state of health, 1t Is
to drown trouble or that disgust of life
which comes of too much indulgence
and leisure. They have neither the Will
nor the desire to check the habit.
stayed once in a private hotel In Lon"
don much frequented by women who
had sold or let their town houses, and
was told that it was no infrequent
thing to find these ladies in the morn
ing on the floor of their sitting rooms
after a late supper without"