The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1915-06-17
PLEASURE NOT HAPPINESS


The pursuit Of happiness is righI
guaranteed to Americans By a certain
immortal document, which declared in
distinguished language that certain
truths were self-evident To-day, most
Of us have deprecated great funda.
mental truth into mere pleasure-seek-
ing, an American prerogative which
thus nearly becomes a vice.
From the first giggle Of joy which
the infant utters when handled on the
mistaken parental knee until the last
picture show witnessed by the totter-
ing graybeard, pleasure seems the
chief end Of most Americans.
We work, not for the JOY OF the
working but because only by work
may we secure the means to pursue
pleasure. We play not to relax strain
ed nerves and tired muscles, but for
the false stimulus Of excitement. We
send our children to school-when we
have any--not with any responsible
oversight Of their education, but be-
cause they interfere with our pleas
ure.
The factory, the shop and the Office
are full of clock watchers time-servers
and shirkers, who toll not, neither do
they spin, save to render just enough
grudging service to earn money for
their pleasures. Even food and
clothing must pander to this vice, so
we have cheap and fashy apparel,
made not to wear, but to display, and
weird, highly seasoned, indigestible
foods to stimulate jaded appetites and
feed abnormal cravings.
Small wonder, then, that our chill
dren skim through their daily task at
school, by dint of "help," keys, easy
methods or plain "cribbing," so that
they may the sooner hurry to the soda
fountain, the ball park, the picture
theater or the joy-ride.
Student activities" are officially
recognized methods of holding the i'm
patient pupils within school bounds
for few years of formative life, and
so the class society, the girls club, the
school play, athletics, the semi-official
dance and the never-ending round of
little parties, outings, "peerades," Wis
It's and various excitements leaves so
little time for study that one wonders
when the teachers manage to obtrude
t.
81 haven't seen you for Is weeks"
said a Rutland mother to her child, on
he rare Saturday when she was able
o claim the daughters company for
lerself and most Of us will echo the
sentiment.
Many a modern parent rubs his
yes occasionally after learning how
it is for the young ladies,
n the fair youths, to stay at home of
IN evening. Am | in charge of this
amily, he wonders, in his poor, feeble
gay, or am | merely the treasurer,
nth weekly limit | must reach or
o through the debtors court?
Pleasure is the restless phantom
yhich nearly every one pursues. If !
ould only have motor-car; if {
ould only have a cottage at the lake;
could only have all the pretty \
Iothes | want; if | could only enter 4
hin all | wish; if | could only have a t
igger house; if | could only make 8
lore money; if l could only quit work Q
nd enjoy myself. :,
How mistaken the belief that true ;,
appiness comes in pursuing this will Il
-the-wisp called pleasure Y
Ask the quiet, mellowed and placid
who sits with eyes on
lie sunset path and face tender with O.
cams of the past, what constitutes a
.ppiness. Will she say selfish pleas m
'e, the stimulus of cheap and feverish q
.citements No, she will tell you u
at happiness comes from service, to q,
lildren, to family to church or COM y,
unity. n,
Ask the grandfather who watches q
It'll kindly, benevolent eye the !usty ia
forts of younger generation to tn
axe pleasure serve for happiness, oil
ID he will say that happiness comes Dc
om good work we'll done, hard path d.
putty trod, family well saved and ~
AIRED and, above all, service, to home, ~ ~
state, nation and God.
Perhaps the bleak, unpleasurable by
es of toiling New England genera IA
ms have brought this reaction in our Ct
y to frantic pleasure-seeking, but an
-tain it is that in the end it will AZ
on
[ suffice and we shall be found ~
asping a pinch of silvered dust--all PR
1t is left of the gaudy bauble. sir
ha
True happiness comes, not through ay,
assure, but through service. -Rut 4
,