Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-06-25

Are Discussed
BY WILSON WOODROW

We have had what might be
called a lingering winter instead of
spring this year, a sulky, asthmatic
season angry at having to be springs
understudy, while that capricious
young thing took a vacation, and
we have had to suffer for it.
Do you recall the merry month
Oh May Rain and gray, discour-
aged skies and steady east winds
for thirty days made most persons
acutely conscious of their bones.
Every one had a cold, and if there S
one thing more than another which
can damage normally sweet dispo-
sltion, it's a cold in the head. It
makes you an unattractive and even
ludlcrous object, and you don't get
any sympathy because every one
knows that a cold in the head is not
particularly dangerous.
But more than the late spring
greater than merely temporary and
unlmportant causes for low spirits,
there has been a paramount and
very genuine one. this year.
over the world lies the heavy
depression, the weariness induced
by the war, a sense of uncertainty
and insecurity, and a feeling of
chaos and bewilderment. 1t there
fore becomes the duty of every one
W OuOh Up anu CneGr-
fulness as matter of determina-
ton. There was a rallying cry in
England year or so ago when the
Gallipoli campaign had failed and
things looked pretty black for the
tight little isle. Are we down
hearted?" some one would shout at
the head of khaki-clad column or
to a group, of citizens. and back
would come in a resounding chorus,
mo-" And England took a fresh
grip on the situation with her bull
dog teeth, and formed her lines anew
for the Somme and the Bagdad vic
tories. One may we'll look on the
bright side of things and to cult
vate optimism, until the doing so
becomes a habit.
We so often speak of our moods
as If they were separate and apart
from us and beyond our control, en-
titles in themselves instead of being
merely habits of mind. There's a
sort of underlined, subconscious su-
perstition in most of us, a feeling
that if we predict unpleasant things
long and loud enough. we may so
propitiate the evil fates that they
will slip an occasional pleasant and
profitable thing our way.
All of us have heard our friends
say something like this: THE way
things are going now,@i it looks as If
this misfortune were inevitable, and
If it actually occurs, what am
going to do? I cannot face such
responsibility. 1 don't see how l am
going to live through it."
But If the dreaded event does
happen, they do live through it, and
they do accept the responsibility and
carry it creditably, sometimes splen-
didly. And although the thing which
they greatly feared has come upon
them, more often than not it goes
through inexplicable notifications
and changes which could not be
foreseen, but which alter it from
curse to a comfort.
Did you ever pause to consider
that not only among your list of ac-
quaintances, but in every city and
every village in the country, there
are little groups of people who are
signing and shaking their heads and |
saying in effect: Poor Sarah! What |
will she do? This will kill her, and !
If it doesn't she will starve." But it |
doesn't kill Sarah, and Sarah doesn't |
starve.
It's long lane that knows no
turning. Sometimes 1t seems a ter |
ribly long lane, but in the end it al |
ways does turn. The tide may go out |
SO far that it looks as If it never |
would come in again. We can't see a |
thing but long, unending stretch of |
send. And then at last. through |
harrow creeks and inlets breaking, |
comes flooding silence in the main"
Everything can be reduced to |
mathematics: life also. And mathe- |
matics, by the way, is the most |
of sciences. But most |
people when they are stating their |
troubles forget or ignore the algebra |
Of the situation.
It's like this You are set a diff |
Hcult problem in life. This is what
faces you-Misfortune This is what
you may expect-Nothing. Misfor- |
tune plus Nothing equals Despair
Absolutely nothing to hope or live !
for. you point out; but you have |
left out of your calculation the most |
factor in any problem, |
and that is *" the unknown guam
tity-the Unexpected.
And that Unexpec ted, which !
changes the face of everything, has |
happened again and again in all of |
our lives. 1t is the unexpected |
which makes of life The Great Ad- |
venture, a serial story with surprise |
and suspense for its strongest ele-
ments.
Again and again we have every
one of us laid our plans with the |
most scrupulous nicely and wasted |
BUR time in doing SO; for the unex- |
oected, the entirely unforeseen, has
rendered all those "best laid
schemes" null and worthless. How
frequent Is the phrase. II never