The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1909-04-29
THE GOOD WITHIN REACH.

ism of 'sseize the present day" which mas
reference to the life of idle pleasure. The
votaries at that shrine are unlovely IN their
youth, and in age sink into contempt ana
wretchedness. Great multitudes have
higher and iuster aims, and yet are per-
petually uneasy. They lead lives useful
and good, and by every computation ought
to De reasonably happy, but the clouds on
their horizon are always of dull leaden
gray and real sunshine never succeeds to
the drizzly weather. Burns had them IN
mind:
"But human bodies are sic fools,
For a. their colleges and schools,
That when nae real ills perpex them
They make enow themselves to vex them."
Such is the mental state of many excel
lent people that they would be surprised to
be told in all seriousness that there is after
all wonderful deal of real good in this
world, and that the good is within their
reach They have been looking so steadily
upon only one side of the shield that they
would be shocked if informed that they, in
their present lives, country, mode of exist
ence, prosperity, health and surroundings,
are particularly blessed, and that never in
the worlds history were the blessings OF
existence so easily accessible to so great a
proportion of the population.
The impressions which many excellent
people receive of their own and of preced-
ing ages come from the reading without
thought of histories and other unveracious
books. History is wholly untrue for the
Understanding and unframed reader,
who loses sight of perspective and fails to
keep in mind relative values. There is no
period, except the Athenian age of Pericles,
which is better calculated to excite an in
tellectual mans perfervid eloquence than
England's age of Elizabeth. The great
Eliza was wonderful woman, and the
English of that time were remarkable
people. The great poets, the glancing
chivalry, the splendid state of the power
full lords, the prowess of the fighting men,
the feats of statecraft and the splendors of
the romantic careers of those of whom the
historians write make fit themes for the
impassioned orator, historian, poet and
panegyrist.
In reading of that fascinating time UNI
discriminating people in a dull modern
age-the present is always dull to dull
people devoid of true imagination-in
reading of that brilliant age thoughtless
people living in Louisiana, for instance,
are apt to thinkst that they are unfortunate
in not having lived in the age of Elizabeth.
For ninety-nine in every hundred the
fact that they are now living in the twen-
tieth century and in the United States is,
however, a wonderful escape from misery
of which they cannot even imagine the
depth. The fortunate people of that by
gone time were but mere handful, who
were the favorites of fortune and the bene-
mass of people were of no more account
than the cattle on our thousand hills. The
great mass of our comfortable and pros
porous population are people who in that
earlier day would have been housed in
miserable kennels, With dirt or stone floors,
subssting on short rations and thinly clad
in cold weather. The men who are now
our independent, self-respecting farmers
would then have been feudal tenants OF
the soil and attached to the land. The
great mass of the population whose children
are now we'll educated, we'll trained, well
fed and happy were in those days menials
and bondmen and ignorant vassals, living
all their lives next door to want and mis-
cry
The common people in those days meant
more than 80 per cent. of the whole, but
with us the term common people is almost
losing its meaning because the means oil
comfort and the opportunity for advance
ment are SO abundant that it is difficult to
say just who the common people are
There is great misery in the world, and
many hav< cause to be unhappy, but there
are great masses of our people possessing
all the essential comforts and all the means
of happiness who do not perceive the fact
that they are thrice blessed and among the
fortunate of the world.
1t is an ignoble counsel to give to any
one that he should be supinely content
with half success or with small achieve
ment. The ambition or discomfort which
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