The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1911-02-04
THE SIMPLE LIFE.

The amount of trouble that people
take to lead "the simple life" is funny.
1t is not a mere question of paper
or damask napkins, but of doing with
out rugs or carpets and so slipping
on a bare floor or having cold feet.
It is not merely living on uncooked
fruits, to avoid the cleansing of sauce
pans, but it is getting anemic from
lack of variety in food. 1t is not SIM
ply going bare armed and bare headed,
but it is suffering from neuralgia and
neuritis from want of covering. Just
because housekeeping can be made
fussy and the care of bric-a-brac weari-
some, the opposite extreme of mis-
sion furniture and unattractive col
oring (because they will last) is adopt
ed and wide spaces and blank walls
are supposed to atone for the lack of
coziness. Somehow the alleged simple
| life does not suggest mothers and
caresses.
The truly simple life does not con-
sist in doing without things, but pro-
ceeds from the soul outward and is
so beautiful in it's process of adjust
ment to simplicity of taste and to
economy in expenditure that one new.
err thinks of it as the doing without,
fbut* as the never too much. While
the would-be followers of "the simple
life" adopt an ever-changing sequence
of fads, frills and frenzies and waste
their energies in self-congratu1ations
the true adept in simplicity does not
hesitate to wear gloves when doing
homework, that her hands may look
restful and smooth, the work done;
that is, she allows the pleasant ap-
pearance of things to be factor in
her simple life.
There is much humbug or jealousy
in the present preachment about sthe
simple life" The disappointed am
bition that can not afford an expen-
sive menu take refuge in putting two
herring or half baked banana on a
lettuce leaf or in slices of bread, cut
so thin that not even fairy could
alight on them, and insists on call.
ing it's china closet a buffers pantry.
Yet it is the sink (the word is not
esthetic) that constitutes such a pan
try where, not the ''swelI' butler, but
his man assistant or the parlor maid
washes the dishes!
Most of us have not the courage to
be independent and frankly own ina,
we can not afford what others can
Why can not "the simple life" exist
for each, taking the phrase at it's true
value. Taking it as the usage of eat
ing carelessly or scantily (and people
who are underfed grow nervous), OF
saying what one likes without regard
to others feelings, of being sporty
unconventional or slovenly, it is about
as disagreeable phase of civilization
as is The Smart Set
Too often it is a miserable pride
that leads one to adopt ''the simple
life" Because one can not have all
one wants, she won't take half! PEG
pie will move from city to country
up town to down town and back again
searching for the outward sign of sim
pie living, instead of seeking it in the
) quietness of their hearts 1t is the
: absolute not wanting a thing, rather
, than series of attempts to do with
: out, when one needn't, that subserves
r simplicity. Don't pretend not to want
. but really don't want The perpetual
; working at the problem, how to ap
pear simple, is very different from
! that innate simplicity of heart anG
: purpose which invests small means
: with the same resourcefulness anC
1 grace that attaches to large OUTLAWS.
i When people laboriously try to Lead
| simple lives, they make one think Of
: trying to empty water trough into
| which the water is running, for as
) was said by the keeper of reform
| atory, who thus tested the menta
) ability of his newcomers, Them as
) isn't idiots turn off the tap" So de
! the devotees of "the simple life spend
/ their time trying to get rid of things tx
] be done instead Of seeing that what
t they need to do is to turn off The
r desires of their hearts for what they
, have not got
r 1t is hard to tell whether men OF
> women are the greater idiots in theil
: hunt after simplicity, though {
/ Frenchman said that ''the American
10 -,