The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-02-10
EVENING CHIT
BY RUTH CAMERON.

~. ne hurried restless pace at which vVo
I'VE each day filled to the brin, 1,-,tt,
Hiss -. which are hardly as important as
'iIhk them. and which have cost nc
ana I,aot tlcA hours of leisurely thought
IN the world of science ana ,r,,.,,.,-.
az 49, are many lost arts For instancs
= I Otller gay an antiquarian showed ,79e
a. e et vase of ruby glass. in Vljn6
the glass had been colored ali ~ mn
through The art of doing tbat me ene way
colIpietely lost Nowadays. glass -,
el,erely coIored on both sides AGAIN
tue fascinating, old fashioned lnste- lie
las long since slipped from the rninds -
M W. Int 20 lnpenetrable oblivion.
OF living, there are MANY lost srts "V.l5 ~
Inc me chlef Of them is the art of ha[ins-
a ms is pre-eminently an age of time
ssiaNlng devices And yet it is an age ~
'ii me starvation Why is it?
,-oa e1e IS no room for doubt that our
t nllcestors mad more time than we for
skePtlclsm on that subject. look m :.
PACKET of your grandmother's letters c,-
~ you don' keep such things. accent my
assurance that if she were like her con-
tenpoTasies. those letters were many
pages long and probably crossed In e.,
olu trunk In the garnet, we have nv
q ahuihoI hef diary 1t is written in a
me handwriting and a year OF If occ,,
PIES a good sized volume. And vet INV
grandmother was the mother of four chill
dfen and the hard worked wife of an -
derpaid Methodist minister who. aceorJ
ms 70 the laws of the church, Changed
parishes every year or two.
Look at the books people used to yaa.4
compare novel of Dickens, Scott or
Thackeray in length with one Of M.
modern novels. Go back a little f.,rtber
and glance al Clarissa HarloUe In ser-e,,
volumes or Tom Jones in six
Think of the visits people used IN nav
IN our grandInother's day. a visit cut
shol'ter than week would have been
thought almost an Insult. and in Jane
Atstens works, the heroines and their.
friends think nothing of six weeks
visit
Compare all this with the customs OF
TO-DAY. Our letter are notes. our diaries
in the rare cases in which any are kent
are lne-a-day books. our reading ~
mostly magazines and our visits are
chiefly '.week-ends.''
And yet the twentieth century is tho
age of time saving devices. There's the
telephone the limited express, the auto
mobile. predigested housekeepine- tire
fountain pen. and a thousand other de-
vices to save US seconds or hours many
of which have become such an accustom-
ed part of our living that we scarcely
recognize them time savers
Again I ask. why is it that with all
these devices to save time. we still sesm
TO have so much less of that precious
I have answer to my question
don't know that it will appeal to YOU
but 1T Is the only answer I have been |
able to formulate after very much
thought on this subject
1t seems to me that this generation Is |
just like man whose income has In
creased at a rapid rate and. who has |
felt delighted and expansive at this |
increase, that he has allowed his wants !
and his expenditures to increase Just /
about twice as fast.
For every hour we've saved, we've tried /
to use two. Grandmother made soap and t
her mother spun the wool to make the l
family clothes The woman of today 4
does neither and should have that nuca |
more time. Instead she uses ND that |
time and much more in extra burdens |
which she imposes upon herself. She has |
bread and butter plates to wash and /
three courses to prepare and clear away
at dinner. and many other things to do.
which grandmother never thought of.
That is but one example Of the way in
which we habitually overspcnd a con-
tinua11y increasing income. Dickens
makes one Of his characters say some
thing to the effect that If man has an
income of two pounds and spends one
pound, nineteen shillings, he is rich. but
E he has an income of four pounds and
spends four pounds, one shilling, he IS
poor and unhappy.
1t seems to me that some of the dis
content and restlessness of this genera
ion, of which we hear 50 much. may be
iue to the fact that it never. lives within
is time income.