The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-01-22
EVENING CHAT
BIZ RUTH CAMERON.

ITO be truly happy is a question of
how we begin and not of how we end, OF
what we want and not of what we have
An aspiration is a joy forever, a posses
sion as solid as a landed estate, a fortune
which we can never exhaust and which
gives us, year by year, a revenue of
pleasurable activity. Robert Louis Stew
enson.
The daughter of one OF the weaIthiest
men in our town has recently been mar
ried.
Her fathers wedding gift to her was a
house completely furnished. The house
stands on the edge of fine lawn. 1t is
beautiful big building with WIDE
Verandas open ffreplaces. and a splendid
vista 1t is finished in rich natural woods
and it is furnished complete, even to the
minutest detail. Hangings. rugs, orna-
ments, all the little minutiae OF utility
and service that most people acquire
gradually through years of married life,
were absolutely complete in that house,
the day the owner stepped into it as a
bride
BY most of the young girls in the neigh
borhood THIS bride is considered quite the
most fortunate girl who ever was mar
ried. From this opinion most respect
fully, but none the less firmly, beg to
differ Why, [ think the poor little girl
is positively pathetic. And 1 think her
father. though undoubtedly he meant 20
be the kindest and most generous of par
ents. has really robbed her of vast pos
sibilitieS of happiness
Don't you pity her, you people who
have known all the joy of gradual home
building, all the interest of planning and
waiting and contziving, and all the sat
isfaction of acquisition made q hundred
fold keener by the delay?
Why, just think, she'll never have the
unequalled delight that you knew when,
after waiting and longing for it for years,
you bought that beautiful mahogany
bookcase. To be sure that bookcase
didn't cost as much as one of the arm
ably brought you more pleasure than her
whole library gives her
And how can she ever experience the
excitement and elation which possessed
you, when YOU found that the particular
Oriental rug you had admired for years,
had actually been marked down within
your means. To be sure every room in
her house is lavishly strewn with far
more costly rugs, but what of that2 DO
they bring her half the JOY the acqus;-
tion OF that one brought to you? Indeed
What chance will she ever get to feel
as happy as you did the Christmas that
all your family dubbed together and
bought YOU a good table for your living
room and made it possible for you to get
rid of the cheap and ugly makeshift you
had used so long?
Hunger. they say. is the very best or
sauces. Who has never tasted food thus
does not know what a real
Now. planning and longing and contrfv-
ing are equally good sauces for the meal
of acquisition.
out with the necessities and few of the |
Iuxuries, are far better off than the |
young folks who have almost everything |
the heart could desire right off at the be- |
ginning.
Every little thing they acquire Will be !
and glorified by longing and |
waiting. and perhaps by the sacrifices /
made to obtain it. Every humble piece of |
household furniture will have a meaning |
and a history. Thought and love viii be |
the interior decorations of such a house,
and will gradually make it that wonder
full thing which is different from a
mere house as from q city hall-a home.
Poor little, rich girl who has been rob
bed Of all the joys of home building
Aren't you sorry for her? am.