Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-08-04
DO YOU KNOW
HAPPINESS?
1t Cannot Be Gagged, but Has
to Be Joyously
Found

boggan reversed. You climb long,
steep hill to get to the top-and
then one wild rush lands you at the
foot again. Happiness is the thing
we spend most of our lives pursuing.
She eludes us deliberately when the
pursuit is direct and has a way of
coming to us when we have given
over seeking or are seeking some
thing else.
The story of the search for happi-
ness has never been told more beauti-
fully and effectively than in Maeter-
lincks Blue Bird" The little
brother and sister Mityl and Tityl go
hand in hand throughout the world
and the Kingdoms of ice and fire and
water surrounding it and even to the
fields where dwell the departed who
are not dead because they live when
we remember them.
Through forests and into the sun
shiny Land of the Hours themselves
the children go in search for the
Bluebird of Happiness. Often they
think they have found it but the
bird which they have captured is
never the true-blue of happiness. So
at last discouragement drives them
home. And there in the wooden cage
of their own cottage is the Bluebird
they have been seeking.
beautiful. After all. happiness need
not be sought in any of the wonder
full kingdoms to which wealth and
travel bear us. 1t is at home-at
home in the simplest tasks which lie
about us.
The Reason Why
The reason most of US rush SO
wildly about and search for happi-
ness is because we have so little idea
what il is. A girl says: 1T Is love-
And she follows all sorts of will o
the wisps thinking they are the true
lights Of love which Will bring her
happiness. A boy fancies that money
brings happiness and so he enters
into the bitter struggle for wealth
And both of them are likely to find
unhappiness rather than the thing
they are seeking. The girls finds thai
| love can be very cruel and the boy
! finds that the hard work and effor'
he has given have netted him nothing
but the feverish desire for more
money.
| Success or fame or mere lazy, SEN
sual enjoyment stand for happiness
| to some. Buth neither pleasure mol
applause can fill an empty life witt
! happiness.
| To be happy, you must create
around yourself an atmosphere OF
happiness. And that means making
other people happy.
| No matter how much to-day's phil
osophers talk about the JOY of eX.
pressing yourself, there is but cole
comfort in expressing your own per
sonality If in so doing you force the
people around you to pay for your
| freedom. For in an atmosphere oi
dlstrust, and jealousy and misery. yor
! a
happy.
|. In expressing your own personality
you have to take mental stock o.
yourself and make sure that what yot
are expressing is the best, the fines
and the fairest and squarest part Of
your strongest and most hones
/ ideals. You have to see that cheaT
and gaudy desires do not clog youl
aspirations.
Now when you have figured out the
sort of man or woman you honestly
want to be, the man or woman yoI
would be proud and contented to be
you will find you have just naturally
made allowances for the folks around
you. You can't express yourself de-
| Gently and honestly IL you expires!
, yourself selfishly.
A Good Star
All this may not sound as IL yoI
were remembering to seek the roaC
to happiness. But you are follow
ing the surest rule to get there! w,
left you with a decent, square deter,
mination to realize the best in your
self unselfishly and with due con
sideration for the rights of others
Very well, suppose you start. Yol
will have to work to fulfill yourself
and you will find good comrades OF
the road-comrades who will respec
your efforts and who will generously
give and take help. The work will
be interesting. and each time yol
! forge ahead a bit you will have tn,
inner JOY of knowing you have dont
your best and the outer satisfaction
of hearing that pleasant sound-ap
| plause.
Those who love you will be shar.
ing your success. They will be proud
of you-suddenly you will see thai
| they are happy. And now one of tht
good comrades of the road is likely t.
turn lover. And happiness. for which
you have ceased longing, is suddenly
yours.
In the consciousness of a job well
done, of love deserving, of a person
ality developed without shirking or
whimpering, you will find happiness
Nathaniel Hawthorne spoke wisely
anu OH lHlS suppose
we learn what he had to say: Hap
piness in this world. when it comes
comes incidentally. Make IL the OBJ
tect of pursit, and 1t leads us a wild
goose chase and never is attained.
Follow some other object and pos
sibly (very possibly we may find that
we have caught happiness without
dreaming of 1t. but likely enough II
is gone the moment we say to our
selves. Here 1t isF like the chest
OF gold the treasure seekers find
,"
And that carries us back to the
Blue Bird. When Mityl and Tityl find
1t In their own home. they feel that
1t is not fair to keep the bird Gagged
where 1t has no freedom and where
they alone may enjoy 1T. So they
carry II into the woods and open
the cage. that 1t may fly away.
And you know that in letting hap
piness have its freedom. and in offer
ing happiness to the rest of the world
| the children have kent IL n1oaf aa foiy