Evening journal., 1911-07-15
YESTERDAY TODAY
AND TOMORROW
By John S. Hamilton.

The Optimist and the Pessimist Of
fers an opportunity for profitable
study such as no other two charac-
terizations probably will afford. There
are Optimists and Optimists as there
are Pessimists and Pessimists. If you
would stop every we'll informed man
you meet and ask the questions what
is an Optimist and what is a Pessi-
mist and then make an attempt TO
analyze the answers taken together
you unquestionably would find your
self in a maze Of bewildering inco-
herency
Outside OF a dictionary it will be
found that these terms will be de-
fined as variously as there are ans
werers and it will be as difficult to
find two Of these answers agreeing
as It will be to find two men or two
women exactly alike. There is the
some confusion Of tongues here that
there is in the consideration Of any
other vital abstract question.
In spite of this fact, however, there
is real Optimist and there Is real
Pessimist. These terms stand for a
definite entity and the confusion that
discovers itself in discussion of the
meanings is more a reflection of the
intelligence OF the disputants than II
is to any obscurity as to the meaning
of the words.
Many people would like to be
thought optimists. On the other hand
few would admit that they are pes
simists. The number of either is not
so large or overwhelming as to be
cause for either felicity or solicitude.
Some are said to be optimists who
are merely lazy. They are too in
dolent to look a fact in the face and
when a disagreeable situation con-
fronts them they simply say mannana
and smile the day away.
Others are said to be pessimists
who are suffering from indigestion
and a lack of good intellectual exer-
else. Not that they are always lazy
or stupid by any means for nearly
everyone of this class as far as the
writer has had an opportunity to OBJ
serve them is afflicted both mentally
and physically with what some doc
tors for the want of a better term
call "A working devil"
Unlike their opposite the so-called
optimist they never say mannana.
With them II is yesterday and today.
All they know about yesterday, of
course, is limited. What they think
they know about today leaves any
thing sweet and good outside Of the
realm Of possibility. Tomorrow, to-
morrow to them is nightmare. Like
man at the mouth of a sewer who
forms his opinion of the district
drained by the filth that is being car
ried away his bile tinted eyeballs have
confined him in the prison Of his own
perverted senses and he Is the most
miserable creature on earth. This is
really the only kind Of a pessimist
that the writer has ever come in con-
tact with. There may be other kinds
and it is conceivable that there might
be a sweeter character who would be
entitled to be called pessimist, but he
never came our way.
The real optimist, however, is not
so difficult to find and though scarce,
he is both a benefcence and a benedic-
/ ton. He knows enough of yesterday
to be convinced that It was merely the
making Of today. He likewise knows
that yesterday and today will merely
unite TO make tomorrow. Yesterday,
today and tomorrow as far as his In
telligence can inform him, are en-.
ba6ba III AAAN hAahAA6 VI AhNA hDb hANA w
animals who can run and fight anC
make war and play baseball and &C
cumulate great fortunes, but men whS
will live to be OF service 10 their kinJ
and to whom the realization that thel
have been of service will be all thu
compensation they desire.
The real optimist knows and de
plores the weakness and shortcominl
of mankind, but yesterday informs hin
that he came from much worse and to
day tells him after all how much h
has improved and the real good Their
is in him. From what he has learne
from yesterday and today he bases no
his hopes not even his belief but hi
confidence on the sure coming of al
ever better and ever happier tomor
row. He doesn't look for much in hi
time for the real optimist is never i
a hurry but he is serene in the assur
ance that il will come in good time an
il is not based on visions either.