The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1913-08-14

The thing that throws a glamor about high life is Our own lack of know.
ledge of what real happiness is. We imagine that happiness depends upon
something external; whereas. in point Of fact, exernas have very little effect
upon our happiness except to hinder it. Many a millionaire has committed
suicide and many a poor "a has longed for a thousand lives.
Happiness is a thing altogether internal and depends n OF upon the null
ttude of ur possessions, but upon our appreciation q. the ones W have. 1t
is or failure to realize this that our admiration for high society begins. We
think that a champagne supper is a jolly entertainment because it looks like
II. We regret that the old family horse lis not a n automobile, and We prefer
steam heat to the old CRATE fire, not because the steam heat and the automo
bile are essentially the nor enjoyable, but because they cost more money.
If punes we're $50 a pound they would be considered a raed eicacy, and
mushrooms a la carte would fall below the level of spinach.
1t should afford as much pleasure o a person to go to the theater in a
street car and in ordinary clothing as to be driven to the place in a cab and
to YEA a picture hat large enough to obsruct the vision of a dozen people
in the seats. behind. 1t ought to give rs much satisfaction to read a single
book, and know it we'll, as S to- buy 40 yards of them in bindings to match the
wall paper and never see the inside of any. 1t ought to be as pleasant to
ride behind the same good old family horse every day as to own three stables
full and use a different n OF each public occasion. But to the mind of the
high liver simplicity has n 20 charm To seem to be happy is his ideal of happi
ness He does not consult his own judgment with respect to what will give
him solid comfort or satisfaction, so much as he considers the opinions of
those about him and struts for their applause.
OF courset the high nven4s not always to blame. Sometimes he has a
wife who would rather se him the leader in local society than have him
President of the United States Sometimes he has daughters and son who
lead him around by the hosea and bully him into a dress suit when he would
rather be sitting at home beside a bae burner reading Shakespeare Ark
wright, the inventor, had a wife who became dserunted at the poverty which
her brilliant husband might have prevented and threw his models into the fire
The wife of a struggling politician. who later achieved national fame, is
repued to have driven him from the house and soused him with a bucket of
slp because she objected to the style in which she had been supported. And
many a equally brilliant man, lacking the courage and resolution of these
men, has consented to be made the lackey of the Excelsior Whist Club in
preference % running for congress.
But in the majority of cases the fault lies strictly at the door of the
offender himself, who prefers the feshpots of Egypt to the milk and honey of
Canaan and who sells his brthright to happiness for a mess of potage. He
loses present contentment and future prosperity by his blind devotion to the
requirements Of high life; while the right hver' h seek for the things
that count gains both
There is a story somewhere, in a book of long ago, that tells Of a man
who journeyed from worlds end to worlds end seeking the pot Of gold which
lay at the base of the rainbow. Forever grasping, forever struggling, he made
gered nom I'LL TO MI that ne wonder SPOT wherem the anythted arh oent
down and kissed the earth, lay just beyond. But when he had travelled around
the world and found the end of the rainbow at last, he saw that it rested
upon the very spot from which he had started, and that a neighbor who had
remained at home had discovered the pot of gold while blowing his own field
The requirements of high life cannot be met by any man OF woman who
desires to succeed, for they involve a style of life that sap tn strength of
mind and body that Is necessary to all worthy attainment. That la will live
longest and live most happily who regulates his conduct, not with a purpose
of seeming successful, but with the purpose of being successful; who prefers
right living and clear thinking to the vanities of high society,