Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1910-01-14
HAPPINESS THROUGH SIMPLICITY
AND CONFINEMENT.

Gold allures and then leases. Many
people wish for grand homes, but they
never take into consideration that so
many Of our very rich have so many
houses THAT have no homes. They
have town houses and country resi-
dences, seaside cottages and mountain
lodges, and almost all the time their
owners are on the wing after the hap
piness they cannot secure. The only
people who really enjoy these places
are the servants.
This is the view Rev. Madison C..
Peters expresses. AS he looks at it,
happiness comes more through SIM
plicity than from highly developed
luxury and a ceaseless reaching after
pleasures of new variety, The envy
that is felt of the rich, the aspirations
to emulate the magnificence of their
displays, is all misplaced if happiness
is the real object sought. AS DR.. Pet
ers puts it Happiness loves the home,
it loves the simple and the common
place, the quiet lane, the fIower-deck-
ed field, the waving meadow, the
sparkling river, the birds, the flowers,
and the trees, the peace and beauty of
the landscape. It does not sigh after
lordly halls or immense wealth or
great learning"
There is no questioning the correct
ness of this assertion that the secret
of happiness is the secret of finding
how deep down into the heart sink
many of life's commonest blessings.
Wadsworth found delight on a spring
morning contemplating a green tree;
to him it was an object of beauty
which riveted his poetic soul, heav-
emily rapture. Others passed it by
unheeding and uncaring for it's SPLEEN
dor.
THE soul which has found
tits true life finds happiness
in the simplest things of
Gods creation. These simple things
are all around US, but we have eyes
and do not see them, for we are spir-
itually blind to their beauties and the
sense of qualification they could con-
fer upon us. Men and women go over
mountains and seas, north, south, east
and west-everywher in the vain
quest which they well know will end
in disappointment, and neglect all that
tends to make home bright, warm
happy, the dearest and most sacred
spot on earth. One would think that
the Holy Grail of happiness was reach
able only by those who are free to fly
and have money to buy
But the delectable places are not
over there, they are right here; the
fa1rest and sweetest things are all
about us. Happiness and simplicity
are old-time friends. What have been
your happiest hours? When you gave
a great dinner to your friends; when
you spent the evening amid gorgeous
gowns and sparkling jewelry when
you were the most admired and flatter-
ed of all the throng on the waxen floor
of the ballroom, with your ears ting
ling with the sweetest music and the
applause of friends? Oh no! On none
OF these occasions were you really
happy. Your happiest hours were at
nome, IN quiet nook with your book:
or talking to your faithful friend and
companion; or when you poured your
tale of trusting love into the ear that
thrilled with JOY to hear it; or the
hour when you came back to the old
gFay-haired mother waiting at the
gate to clasp you again in her arms;
or when you sat by the fireside with
your firstborn in your lap listening to
its merry prattle, which was music to
your soul. Yes, on some such and on
all these occasions you were happy. as
happy as it is given mortals to be-"
The lesson that DIR. Peters seeks 10
convey is one that is especially needed
in a day when the desire to find hap
piness through the avenues that
wealth alone affords has become so
well-nigh universal, breeding crime.
misery and unhappiness. 1t is still as
true as it was when Spenser wrote:
o! Who can lead, then, a more happy
life,
Than he, that, with clean mind and
heart sincere
No greedy riches knows nor bloody
strife?