The Washington herald., 1915-08-30
The Comfortable People.


The Comfortable People.
By JOHN d. BARRY.
IL
As rule the comfortable people have de-
ghtfu humor. In everyday life they find a
surprising number of things to laugh at Not
that they ridicule. Toward others they never
take the superior attitude. On the contrary, their
humor carries sting. 1t is perfectly innocent.
1t creates uneasiness. In it any one can join.
Often the comfortable people laugh at themselves
They show that they feel their own relation to the
absurdities of life and the ineongruities of hu-
manity. They true philosophers
The comfortable people know just how far to
go. They never overdo. Instinctively they avoid
doing the things that at the moment seem at
tractve and later carry penalties. In their rela-
ton to the present they never fail, consciously
of uneonsciously, to keep an eye on the future.
They seem to be gifted with a genius for realizing
implications, for feeling subtle intimatons The
thoughts and the acts that carry seeds of evil they
avoid Whatever seeds they sow themselves al
most invariably spring up in good deeds. When
, ever life goes wrong with them, instead of re-
acting unwisely and making the situation worse,
as so many of us do, they lie low. 1t is as if a
storm passed over their heads, leaving them un-
harmed. They teach Us the folly of ill-natured
resistance. They have discovered the meaning of
the words that to SO many of us are unintelligi-
BILE: Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof
In the great figures of history there are few
tthat can be included among the comfortable peo-
pie. Even the philosophers betray a quality that
bars them out, kind of sef-concern and remote
ness. Indeed, most of the great of the earth
convey the sense of discomfort In the achieve
ment and the maintenance of success there is iso-
ation. History echoes with the penalties that
come out of it. the exactions, the apprehension,
the uneasiness. These echoes suggest that the
great have paid fearful price. Often they long
for the wide companionship of the comfortable
people. We all know how many of the kings of
old. in their WEAKNESS of themselves and of their
state would occasionally assume disguise and
mingle freely in the everyday world. They were
initiating the comfortable people.
Even among our own leaders, since the estab-
lshment OF what we like to call democracy,
though we might expect to find many of the COM
Portable people, there is surprising. lack. Lin
the comfortable people no distinction could shake
him. no responsibilities trials.
In literature we might expect to find many OF
the comfortable people. Surely they ought TO be
version from care the wise observers, the whole
some entertainers. But you think of many?
Do you often read story with the feeling that
you would like to know the human being behind
it? AT this moment George Eliot comes to my
mind. OF all imaginative writers she seems to
me the most lovable l cannot open a book of
hers at random without feeling that fine under
standing is expressing itself, large and generous
sympathy. Nearly every one of us chcrishes
some writer that offers refuge from the turmoil
of experience. that gives us the restful sense
Cd h,y ,h1
The rewards of the comfortable people are so
great the marvel is that don't all compete: And
yet, in this company, the idea OF competition is
absurd. The comfortable people owe nothing to
striving. Those who succeed in making them
selves comfortable people begin in the simplest
of all ways, by caring. Once care more for other
people than oneself and the problem is solved.
assertions and pretenses. The world changes. 1t
grows more beautiful. 1t reveals wonders before
hidden. 1t pours out unsuspected treasures Those
creatures that went about, uninteresting,
perhaps offensive, become delightful presences.
Now perhaps we can see what the ideastic cults
mean when they say that there is such thing
is we, ourselves, who make the base clay Just
as easy and with joy, instead of pain and sorrow
we can work the magic of enchantment.
l sometimes wish that we could look into the
give us valuable lessons. l wonder if we should
not find them more or less alike. The differences
in thinking would be of little account. Essentially
the mind of the highest and the lowest in the esti-
nation of the world would be the same We
.shoud see that all the minds were nourished from
the same spring. forever bubbling, fresh and pure
carrying through the whole nature health and
poise Perhaps where the world has gone wrong
is in its disregard of this spring. At times it denies
that such spring exists. But we all know bet
ter We feel it when are among the COM
Portable people. Somehow. for the time, they
purify the spring within Perhaps quite unin-
tentonally on their part they make us realize that
our own spring is impure. They make us see that
il we all drew from the living waters Of tolerance
and generosity and sympathy how different lite
would be, how quickly our problems would settle
themsevesl s...
The French Army Mustaehe.