The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-05-12
SAYS UNCLE CIV

Sure, John Henry, the world moves
you bet it does. One of these days
we are going to wake up and find our
selves knee-high to a duck. A duck
is wiser than most human beings in
one very important particular-there
aren't many things that can make a
duck unhappy. He waddles along
and doesn't know too much to get a
lot of fun out of life. In that re-
spect we may all of us piously hope to
attain duckhood.f 30.
1t begins to look as if some of us
had made up our minds to do that
very thing. Sounds silly, doesn't it ?
1t also sounds silly to suggest a school
of happiness. It's perfectly preposter-
Gus to suppose for an instant that a
duck can have anything on you,
psychologicaliy speaking, and it's just
as insane notion that anybody can
teach you anything about happiness
when you have tried every mental nos
trum, copyrighted and uncopyrighted,
and know that there is no such thing.
Happiness, say you, John Henry, is for
children, fools and-ducks!
But over in that dear Paris the 9TH
err day a certain famous author came
to the very sensible conclusion that up
to that particular moment he hadn't
been worth killing. He'd been making
spirit, although opuIent as to purse.
Beyond being able to pay the grocer,
the cafe cashier, the barkeep and the
tailor who supplied his spring raiment,
he hadn't seemed to be making any
particular progress. He thought it all
out and made up his mind that what
the world needs is not more books
telling it how bad and how hopeless
and how picturesque it is, but some
body who would merely encourage it
to be happy So he opened his school
of happiness and invited Maurice
Maeterlinck. who gave it his unqual-
fled and enthusiastic o. K.
Our French altruist may not be an
unmitigated success in his new en-
deavor. He may not have found the
unfailing recipe. He may not be able
to adapt his principles to the needs of
each of the scores of individuals who
come to hear him lecture. But he has
accomplished one big thing in the di-
rection of inspired duckhood. He has
set the minds of hundreds of thous-
andS of people who read the newSpa-
pers upon the thought of happiness.
He has attracted attention to the fact
that with all the blessings of the world
about US, few of us are really enjoying
them. He has emphasized the monu-
mental folly of the ages, which is that
with all our progress we really haven't
learned the ducks beneficial secret.
You may be quite right, John
Henry. Perfect happiness may not be
the portion of moral men, although
for the life of me 1 can't see just why
not. 1 know that there are a few men
who by the simple process or refusing
to be unhappy have succeeded in driv-
ing dull care away. 1 know that to in
woke frequently the merry ha-ha is
better medicine than ever came out of
a drug store. 1 know that to be busy
is to be pretty near perfect happiness,
and that loss isn't loss until you lose
your nerve. Hence I'm strong for the
new French school of happiness,
which, we are reliably informed, has
little to do with the modern school of
French literature and nothing what
ever with absinthe.-(Copyr 1913,
by the Mcclure Newspaper Syndicate.)