Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1909-05-21

EnfOld the world around!
Margaret Ridgley Partridge in The Cen.
fury.
Getting Most Out of Life.
What do l get out of life? is the wall
Of the pessimist. Well, what do any Of
us get out of it? If it is to be measured
by what we are able TO buy, as many
people esteem it, then only few of as
get much out of it, If we account phys
ical ease and the requirement Of things
and the ability to be bountiful as the full
measure, such enjoyment is limited TO
the elect. There is no disposition to
ScoH at these things. AS society is con
Stituted. it is of vast importance that
ones means be Independent of his fell
lows. The possession of money opens
many avenues to our feet--smooths many
rough place-ls highly desirable in ev-
cry way. But if we do not possess it we
must perforCe seek other ways of ac
counting our rewards. And yet every
one of us, if we seriously diyest ourselves
OF our preJudIceS and our preConceived
attitude, will agree that the majority Of
people, measured by common standards,
get very little out of it. If we get a
living with some decency. we have
achieved all that can reasonably be ex-
pected of us. And yet the heather does
that.
If we come down to the end of the
year and have not hungered or wanted
for seasOnable clothing. we congratulate
ourselves; if we have laid by some small
store we account ourselves fortunate So
that after having lived three score and
ten man is felt to have accomplished
much If he has kept ont Of the poor
house. But having evaded the begruGged
bounty Of the public, does he have any
reasonable possession to show for his life
ana the work he has accomplished?
1t is true that certain things he
possesses in common with all his as
sociates; the sun, for instance, though
he does not get its full benefits if he
cannot look up from his hoe; the air.
though 1t tastes strangely unpalatable
II 1t is filled with factory smoke or fly
ing clnders from a smoke stack; water,
more or less innOculated with the germs
OF typhoid fever, due to his own and his
neighbours ignorance and neglect of sun
itary measures.
That aboriginal condition when men
could live on these elements has passed
The economic system of the present age
may have made him the servant of q
great corporation or the participant in
its profits, but in either case he will
have difficulty in finding that ne has
been adequately rewarded for all the
work and worry he has bestowed upon
the problem Of living.
lie will be dissatisfied in spite Of him
self. The things he planned to do are
left undone or only half accomplished.
The things he has succeeded in doing
he counts scarcely worth the effort And
so it goes. For the majority of the men
and women; ambitious, living with some
purpose in view, life comes to be looked
upon as in many respects a failure. This
is true in a large measure Of the atiiuent
as well as the poor; disappointment IN
some direction has made them doubtful
Of the return they have had upon their
investment; their investment Of energy
and strength, Of courage and enthusiasm.
For to each, life comes as a challenger
who is TO be wrestled with and over
thrown. At the beginning the victory
seemed easy-in the end the contest is
a draw.
Great leaders Of men to whom we
look as Accompanying Ones-the Alex
aUders and the NapoleOns-found their
achievements dwarfed in their own
sight. They themselves did not seem to
stand upon the dizzy heights where we
place them. To lesser men defeat or
only partial victory in narrower fields,
seems equally like failure.
But let us recall the old lady who al
ways smoothed the toughest road by
her resolution to make the best Of
tnjngs.'
That homely phrase is, after all the
see ny some good. Of drawing some in
suiration from the most hidden source.
hat makes life endurable, that glOri6es
IT,
The tired mother. whose petulant in