Mexico Missouri message. (Mexico, Audrain County, Mo.) 1899-1918, 1915-02-25
MUCH PITY WASTED
Martyrdom for One May Be
Pleasure for Another.
The Open Air Man Pities the Man
With the Indoor Job-Then There
lie the Case Of Hen
rietta.

There is an awful lot of pity vast
ed in the world. Take, for example,
Henrietta. Henriettas family and
friends are always plying her be-
cause she married that "hopelessly I'M
interesting" or ''everlastingly disa-
greeable" man, while Henrietta IL
laughing in her sleeve because her
sympathizers have never seen the real
side of her Henry, and she feels posi-
lively much set up because she knows
he is more interesting and infinitely
nicer than folks suppose him to be.
Personally, the writer never cared for
this negative charm in men, but there
are numerous women who feel differ
emily. They consider that a man
apathetic, or even disagreeable, to
others can be stirred out of his habit
ual mood when associated with them.
Hence sympathy for Henrietta is
wasted.
The open air man pities the man
with the indoor Job. He rejoices in
being out among his fellow men. Con-
finement or detail work would kill
him, whereas the indoor man feels con-
corning the outdoor one that the lat
ter leads a dogs life-always on the
go-always having to be cheerful, no
matter If the water pipes have frozen
or the baby has the Group.
Our little banks of life may seem to
be carried along by currents stronger
than the individual will, yet really
the individual is consciously, or un-
| consciously, at the helm controlling
every portion of the steering gear and
directing the craft toward the port of
! his desires. One might think we put
up with our associates as we put UP
with our features, but actually we are
| constantly drawing the congenial
| companion to US and eliminating the
acquaintance we care nothing about.
! 1t may be that one wants but little
! here below. nor wants that little long,"
but certainly people do want the
| queerest things. Imagine how a man
who rejoices in pretty wife and cozy
home must pity an explorer like
| Peary and what Gelett Burgess calls
| the latter's uncomfortable taste for
voluntary and unnecessary suffering.
According to Gelett, Mrs. Peary's pc
culiar self-chosen line of hardships in
cluded twenty years of half freezing
to death, pulling sledges, eating shoes
and candles, sleeping in a bearskin
bag" And then, as Gelett patheticaliy
concludes, when he had found the
north pole he didn't know what to do
with it."
Who can understand the luresof the
undertaking business? Or appreciate
the mental attitude of a man who
could go to the ball game with fas-
cinating girl. yet who elects instead to
gather together all the small fry OF
the neighborhood, marshal them on
and of cars and treat the bunch to
roasted chestnuts. You sigh over the
melancholy avocation of the one and
thu seeming martyrdom of the other,
but that is all you know about it. The
first is keenly interested in his SEEM
ingly depressing avocation and the lat
ter has the time of his life with the
boys.
Yes, if folks stopped commiserating
others and expended half the energy
in just being pleasant. maybe they
could win a smile from even Henri
etta's phlegmatic husband.