Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1912-06-06
The Home Circle
Thoughts from the Editorial Pen

.hOob Vi ho lCCl Bdllll LOT lut
abjectly poor, and we sometimes send
out thought of pity for the rancid
ly rich, with their burden of respons-
ibility. But there is one class usual
ly overlooked when the sympathy il
being dealt out, and that is the class
referred to by a modern writer as
the "Eggsloosives."
The reason why we should pity an
exclusive person may not be appar-
ent to the casual observer But ii
we saw flower seed that knew not
by instinct or education how to eX-
pand, but whose daily effort was in
the opposite direction, toward con-
traction, we would feel sorry for the
poor little ignorant thing, because it
could never reach the sunshine. and
blossom into beauty and usefulness.
True, it would be exclusive, in it's
own particular little place, and it
might not even have any knowledge
of the freer air and the JOY that it
would experience could it but change
its method and expand, until it final
ly would burst into full bloom in
veritable wilderness of flowers and
birds and trees and grass and God s
own sunshine.
So it is with poor Mrs. Eggsloosive.
She is so because 'nothin' nor no
body" ever told her she would be
happier if she expanded and reached
out and touched her fellow beings.
You can see her any day, riding
in lonely grandeur in her automo-
bile, with only her chauffeur. one
occupies the tonneau alone. For the
only persons she would think worthy
to ride with her are the other eggs
loosives, and they all have machines
of their own, and are out doing the
same exclusive stunt.
The young girl who waits upon
her in the shop where she buys many
of her gew-gaws-how can Mrs. Eggs
lOosive learn much-needed lesson in
remuneration, unless she looks into
the brave eyes of this young girl who
has given up hope of an education,
in order that she may help to lift the
burden of the family support from
the bowed shoulders of her old faith
/ er?
And there is the little boy who
! delivers the Saturday Evening Post
to Mrs. Eggsloosive.. True, he is a
very busy boy, but undoubtedly he
would take enough time to tell her
his hopes of going through college.
and making something of himself,
/ were she to take sufficient interest
! to talk with him a little.
He might tell her that he could not
! remember his mother, she having
died when he was baby. But / am
sure he would have been mute about
the tragedy of his little life, that his
| father is periodical drunkard. Yet
if Ms. Eggsloosive would show a
human interest in him, it would help
him, and it wuld be still more bene-
! ficial to her. For, warmed by the
| sunshine of love, the seed of her
heart would burst its bands of con-
striction and would push it's way up
ward and outward into a world of
beauty of which she has not dreamed,
while she remains underground in
her small area of eXclusiveness.
Then would she know the benediction
that eXclusiveness brings to its apos-
! ties.
AS for the others, let em walk,
! they're used to it!
/ But to return to poor, lonely Mrs.
| Eggsloosive. She has no way of
knowing the joy she could confer
upon herself, to say nothing of the
! poor, old, rustily clad woman who
steps to the side of the road to es-
| cape being run down, should she stop
/ her machine and invite the humble
old soul to ride with her Not from
her lofty height of exclusiveness-
oh, dear no-but as woman to wom-
an, sister to sister.
But the stars would pause in their
courses before Mrs. Eggsloosive
would think to do such a thing. The
poor woman can't help it. She prob
ably would do it, if some one should
tell her to-that is, she would after
a few cycles of time had shown her
that eXclusiveness does not pay, does
not produce or bestow happiness, and
! that the man was right who said
ANY one can be exclusive, but it
takes big person to be inclusive, -
or words to that effect.
The pitiable thing about it is, Mrs.
| Eggsloosive is missing the very best
part of life. Why, there is not a
day that the inclusive person does
not find mental stimulus by coming
! in contact with the rich and the
! poor, the high and the mighty, the
meek and the lowly.
The dear little old lady who lives
in the funny little house with the
old-fashioned yard fenced in, who
has never in her life attended a Real
Function, whose daughter works
| downtown, and comes home at night
with her budget of news for the lit
tie mother, receiving the tender min
istrations of a pair of wrinkled old
hands in return-how can Mrs. Eggs
loosive know that the old lady's
mind is as sweet and fresh as one OF
her own posies?
And the old man who keeps the
little bakery at the corner, who
served all through the Civil War
and gave his only boy during the
Spanish-American War-how car
Mrs. Eggsloosive know the soul
thrilling history of those early strug.
giles contained in his mental store
house?