The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1919-03-06
WHAT IS AN OPTIMIST?

\V/IilLE this department lays no claim to being
w Webster or a Worcester, unabridged or other
wise, it has objection to taking a fling at
word-defining, when it has the time and when some
iair reader makes appeal This effort is meant for
the little girl at the dinnertable who had been read
ing the paper and suddenly inquired, Daddy, what is
an o-p-t-l-m-i-St;' Not being on familiar terms with
such big word She spelled it instead OF trying to
pronounce it.
An optmiSt, my dear, is a person or an animal or
flower that lacks the unhappy faculty of knowing
when it Is licked, if you will permit the use of a lit
tie AngIo-SaXon word that means more than defeated
lhe optmlst may be a a woman whose life
has been hit squarey in the solar pexus by some
hcart-breaking or misfortune which according
to all the commonly accepted rules Of the game should
be knockout blow and send down the victim for the
count OF ten; but who stays down till the umpire
counts Nine" gathers fresh breath for a renewal of
the drive against fate, then jumps up and gives the
ancient enemy Failure, a ribolt that jostles him
back against the ropes and makes him squeal for
merc.
Or the optimst may be a dog that has been kicked
out OF his home by brutal master that has become
a hobo toragng for back-door scraps that has been
run down by Ford terror and suffered the loss of
IT'S southeast leg, that has become afflicted with the
mango and with ieas but that nevertheless continues
its pursuit OF lie liberty and happiness on three props
HIAlcdu OF IOUT, ana NNtn 1t tndS a bare bone on
back porch can chew it all night in the lumber
yard and imagine that the luscious porterhousc which
belonged to the bone will be found and applied to the
immediate purpose by the next meal-time
Or the optmis may be violet that has been
crushed into the earth by the heel OF a human but in
ssts upon lifting itself broken stem to salute the
next sunrise; or pebeian potato vine that has been
bitten by bug, but refuses to surrender uucond-
uonalIy so long as there is sap in its stalk for the re-
building of its shattered faculties; or tree OF the
forest, struck by lightning and dccapitated, which
nevertheless sends forth green shoots and grows
again to the glory OF God.
The optimist my dear is the human or the beast
or the vegetable that hasn't sense enough-the un-
desirable kind Of sense necessary-to know when it
is licked. The woods and the streets and the dwellings
OF this old world measurably full OF such They
are the salt and the of the earth and but for
them the universe would be a howlng Wilderness and
there would be movie shows, nor any picture
books nor any poery-books, nor any music machines
nor any churches or schools tcn-ccnt stores
And but ior the opDmi,t who is 4 person that be-
Ilcvcs life to be worth the living and knows how to
grin and bear it and transform the grin into a smile
but Tor the opGmi,t my dear there wouldn't be any
bright little girls TO ask questions about the meaning
OF bigsomc words and bother the brains Of busy cdi
tormcn who don't know any too much themselves
But who are optmi,ts-ii they are cditors