Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1909-05-22
JAMES A. PATTEN.
The wheat king of chtcag

: : .
things, without always knowing just
what they are.
But always he Is uneven, drifting
ready from depression to excitement.
Alongside his lovable traits, we find
traits extremely offensive. Sometimes
the quiet child becomes violent; he has
fits Of rage over mere nothings, though
they soon pass, leaving him ashamed.
Besides, he is obstinate; at times you
find him ramming his way to the OBJ
aject he has in view without rejecting
and without taking account Of OBJ
stacles; he Is intoxicated by the CLAM
our of things that fascinate his i'm
agination and angered by the slightest
contradictions; he is alternately enthuSi-
astic and discouraged; he is hesitant
and tenacious by turns, given to ankle
ty and eternally giving anxiety. He is
restless, and his restlessness keeps him
in an inferno OF perpetual torment.
He is out of conceit with things past.
disguised whit things present. and un-
certain about things still TO corne--un-
less the whim takes him to display I'M
reasoning confidence.
PHYSICAL NEEDS.
TSeen]y attentive to what pleases him,
moment later he is inattentive; self.
ish, then absurdy generous, he is sol
emn with moments of inconceivable
f1ightiness; he is extremely faithful to
his friends-then inconstant; a tumble
Of strange moods, he would be an un-
answera BILE puzzle but for our knoWl-
edge that all his traits are engendered
by ouantitive variations in the nerve
current that supplies his energy. And
nv a curious paradox of nature, the
children who are most eager for indie
pcndence are precisely the ones that
most demand control at the hands OF
imperious authority. Such character
as theirs can never know happiness, II
by happiness you mean the perfect
adaptation Of life to its surroundings
and its occupations. This child has
a constant need OF novelty and excite
ment Never satisfied with realities
near at hand or with the monotonous
enioynlents of ordinary people. he IS
ever in quest of new sensations, impos-
sible pleasures, and the complete bliss
that nature refuses to give. Happiness
is within one, and those who are ever
lastingly seeking it are doomed not TO
find it.
Such a child has right to our care
full attention. Little understood, mis-
taken fora sort Of hysterical invalid
only the dueerer because of the unjust
verdict pronounced by those around
him. Yet his only offense Is that of
possessing a smaller supply of nervous
capital than he ought to possess. II
everybody was nervously capitalized as
slenderly as he, we should call him
normal. All his moods come from the
insuficiency of the nerve current and
from the alternate excitation and de-
preston that results. This Is not to
be regarded as quality" inherent m
the fiber of his nature; 1t Is to be COM
ton of quantity, and it is to be COM
bated first by physical means. then by
..{f 1tt,,S
him or useessy scoldinE him.
Let us extend all our solicitude to this
shy, restless child. who has within him
the germs of great powers as we'll as
the germs of deplorable Weaknesses
and who may win a lofty position one
day II he Is not crushed by unreason-
able exactions, overheavy responsible
tiles, extreme restrictions. and stupid
obligations. While everythingis posi-
BILE to him. there Is a chance that he
may come to be only a tissue OF con-
tradictions, n chaos of extremes and
contrasts, a garden OF antinomies, and
agreeable dilettante and excellent
Copy for psychological novelists Let
us shield him against the oyerwork that
torrnents him and, IL we aren't careful,
will by and by make him a picturesque
valetudinarian, recluse or going about
IN gloom with nothing to interest him
but his fantastic hobbies. Since he
mas more talent IoI' Jceli11ES lfarl fOr
selecting the object Of feeling, and
since he lacks gertrude Derhaps by
reason of his clear-sgrtedness) and
spends his efforts over dreaming of one
sort of happiness after another only
to drop back into WEAKNESS and apathy
let us add what intensity we can to his
experiences, give his restless sensibility
a clearly defined object or two. and seek
to direct his life.-By DIR. Albert Des-
champs TRANSLATED from his book,
lies Naladies d EnerGIe').