The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1909-04-15
OPTIMISM IS SANITY.


moral sentiment before it becomes service
able to the higher life, and worldly knowl-
edne must have discriminating sense OF
the unpurchasable before it understands
that the treasures of happiness are as rich
in business depression as in prosperity.
One Of our finest essayists has just written:
.sIt comes to US, with msgiving that is
almost a terror, when we pause to thlnK'
that we stand here in the midst OF mortal
life and that we shall not pass this way
again. Life is infinitely beautiful; and we,
if we fail to find it so, must search TOR the
defect. not around or outside us, but IN
ourselves. He is happy who finds his per-
ceptions sharpening, his powers increasing,
his sympathies widening, his helpfulness
broadening.'
To exult, be confident and believe in
worldly success when times are good is as
easy as it is to sorrow, grumble and despair
when the hard times come. The rule OF
intelligence is the reverse-to look for de-
fleets and short comings when times are
good and to watch for the useful, charming
and compensatory when the tide OF wealth
runs low Even the tide of wealth never
runs so terribly low. and the low tide is the
time lessons are learned, defects are reme-
died and preparations are made for solid
Accommodations in the better day coming.
1t is, therefore, the real time of success for
the man who understands how to succeed.
1t is the time when the sluggard, the in
competent and the debauched are shaken
out; when dishonesty and foolishness and
bad methods are discarded; when the fittest
survive and the greater prosperity is
constructed. The obvious, easy, animal,
childish mode is to stalk haughtily, swollen
with vanity and optimistic courage when
the sun Of business shines, and to skulk
and shrink, timid and cowardly, scattering
distrust and pessimism, when passing
cloud casts shadow. The childish mode
makes good times foolish and short of life.
The mode of manly sanity, which seeks in
success to buttress every weak point and
in depression to make the most of the good,
shortens the dull period and with cheerful
ness and confidence spreads the spirit of
faith in work and resources.
After all, even the gross, material differ
ence between flush times and depression is
nothalf as wide aspeople, in their weakness,
make it appear. Every man may have
few more perplexities and there may be
small remnant of actual distress; but the
great body OF people in America live about
as they lived before. Most of them have
the same abundance of food, the same
clothes, more amusements than they need
and more luxuries than are good for the
soul. Homes stand where they stood, the
thousand conveniences of civilization are
absolutely unchanged. Business has gone
to smash? Has it? The truth generally is
that business has only slowed down little
and is going along SO we'll that its owners
would not entertain a thought of exchang-
ing for what would fifty years ago have
been rated as the very dizziness of pros
perity. To restore the good times of late
years does not take much except true
courage and intelligent optimism to deal
with the eXhaustless resources of the coun-
try, which are intact
PLUCK wins. 1t always wins, though days be slow,
And nights be dark twixt days that come and 90:
Still pluck will win; its average is sure
lie gains the prize who will the most endure:
Who faces issues; he who never shirks:
Who waits and watches, and who ALWAYS works"
And what if times were worse than thew
are or can be in America? Wealth is such
trlvialty compared with life. "The i'm
ponderaoles are greater than the things
which are weighed, measured and bought"
You can sell life for the triviality of wealth,
but you cannot buy it back. For the life
which joys in its own gifts it does not SOL
EMMY matter whether business times are
good or bad. Thought, feeling, good and
happiness are wealth which has no hard
times. The pulsing of the healthy blood in
healthy arteries is joy infinitely deeper
than any pleasure derived from the acqui-
sItion of fame or stocks and bonds or lands
and goods. The heart warns with the
innocent pleasure of being painlessly alive;
alive in the midst of muniicent world of
beauty. color, society, mind and movement;
boundless, costess, ready at hand and
glad to serve you. 1t is a picture of realities
so sweet and inspiring that one marvels at
the fortune he possesses in the indescrib-
able glory of human life. Congenial forces
act upon the conscious life of the true man.