Norwich bulletin., 1917-02-10
THE MAN WHO TALKS

The person is to be pitied who does not know cheerfulnesa is an asset in life, and Is often capable of doing for him more than large bank account can. The greatest English writer tells. us to frame our minds to xn1rth and harms and lengthen life" Cheerful ness has helped more than one man to discover when reduced from compe- tence to want that 1t was the pest thing that ever happened to him. be- cause it gave him a new and import ant viewpoint in life for himself, as we'll as of himself. The seriousness
 which not only models long faces but concretes them. is a misht wherever | happiness abides. Artists, have mo- ticed. never hazard putting a long face upon the devil. although he is chief The ennobled soul must glow just as naturally as superheated metal comes to a white heat The error of mortal mind which in past age passed over | all amusements to the devil surprised him with a heavenly bouquet. We of | this age like to see smile upon an angels face for a smile discloses the glow of love.
 lt has been known for more than two thousand years that "a good ex-
 ample is the best sermon" but the best sermons are not forthcoming. I Man mas a way 01 pIidlSlnS ta0 pre- cepts and leaving the practice to the other fellow One excuse for not | practicing the precepts is that they are framed up in such an ambiguous form that is is easier to make new ones than to follow old ones; but those | who thus defend their lack of prac- tice, or the dearth of example, have
 never proven their ability to improve them. Charles Kingsley used to be- | lieve that a good example was more catching than the measles: but he must have been mistaken, or else good
 examples have greatly decreased since his day. Shakespeare looked this same | field over in his day, and wrote: T could easier teach twenty what were l good to be done, than to be one of the | twenty to follow mine own teaching" Following the line of least resistance l is so popular that many people who | think they are on the road to heaven
 are headed the wrong way.
 Man spends his early years in dreaming of days of leisure, and if he is unlucky enough to get them he dis covers that he has reached the age of | tedious hours. Hardly any of the
 things we dream of and envy others of in life are worth having. Those l who think the privilege of standing | around and looking on is a cinch would soon change their minds. The men | who have worked and won a compe- I tence find it impossible to overcome their habits of industry and to become positively idle. To a person of gump- | tion there is nothing attractive to | idleness. The idle-brain has been called the devils workshop; and idle hands usually become skilled in mis- | chief. Industry it is said knows the fear of only one devil, while idleness Is haunted by @ thousand. The idle
 rich beget the wanderiust, and the wander1ust never eonfers any lasting joy, it only becomes a. bad habit. Leisure brings peace to none save the dead.
 While nothing is to be said against the highest culture it is the little l practical knowledges which are most | important. At certain points in life
 the knowledge of Shakespeare who does not know how to swim; and the practical knowledge of an Edison would not be of any avail under some circumstances if he didn't know how | to make batter bread to save his life;
 the Kaiser is reputed to be better in l formed upon government policies than ! any fifteen men in Europe, but if he l goes on laying up wrath against the I day of wrath what good is this great | fund of knowledge to him. There are l occasions when 1t is more important ] to know how to black ones shoes we'll 1 than to know how to write an essay. I There Is no such thing as having too much knowledge about the commonest | things in life for they may prove to | be the preservation Of other knQw1- l edges. No domed temple should be
 caught making faces at its corner stone. It is an important thing to 1 be prepared to meet the exigencies of
 life, and this cannot always be done with pen and ink, it may require the l use of the frying pan.
 The great foreign painters are com plaining because war has come to be | holes in the ground, crawling forces bedaubed with mud, and blank acres 1 of land swept by shells and smoke and poison gases, and there are no longer. uniformed men and prancing chargers l to paint This war has become a war | of machinery. Manhood, honor and 1 decency have all been swept to the I winds; and as Israel Zangwen pictures l it, has fell to a point of degradation | equivalent to two duel1ists abandoning 1 the old code of honor and approach I ing one another to throw vttroil into each others faces. Since treaties | have been classed as scraps of paper, the rules of nations have been violated, | and every neutral nation under the sun made subject to indignfties from I which they thought they were amply protected, we behold that advanced I warfare in reality is a condition of l degradation and insecurity such as the I ing Is underground or under water | and the methods the methods of knaves and pirates instead of honora- | b1e men. When honor and respect of 1 law are cast to the winds what moro | can be expected?
 l The appearance of a two Aa river in the dispatches from the Riga region | of war operations reminds me of a | r0 I d.