The Washington herald., 1920-02-02

lnSs instead OF ones aInictlOns, ana
to boost instead of kick.
It Is specifically explained that
the club Is not a movemenat against
the recognition of sickness, poverty
and sorrow. but an effort to induce
people to look on the bright. side of
life instead of the dark side.
More power to this organization,
and may its membership include
every man. woman and child. for
II there is any one single thing that
would do more than anything else
to make life worth living IL would
be to stop the ceaseless flow of
whines and complaints. and tears
in which the most of our acquaInt-
ances drench us. and which we in
turn pass on, with our own woes
superimposed on 1t, to the next VIC
tim.
Did you ever stop to think that
most conversation is nothing but a
swapping of troubles? When you
meet your friends they tell you Of
every single solitary thing that has
gone amiss with them. and you lis
ten with baited breath waiting for
a pause in the talk so you can break
in with the Iitany of your own
woes. And when you part you both
60 your ways feeling that this IL a
rotten old world, and everything in
II is askew.
Why do you do It? Why do they
do il? Nobody knows. It's moth
ing but a bad habit It's a morbid
custom that we have fallen into of
shrieking aloud our misfOrtunes
through a megaphone while we put
tho Enff nadaN h1aGGfnUR
As a matter Of fact. our troubles
are neither half so great as we
pretend they are. nor are we as
much afflicted by them as We de-
clare ourselves to be. Our attitude
of being a Jonah is all a pose. and
we would be very angry IL anybody
really believed that we were the
chronic victims of i'll luck.
We simply like to talk in a mel
ancholy strain. and we do it with
out realizing how depressing we
are to all OF those with whom we
come in contact. Still less do we
realize that we are laying the bur-
den of our own troubles on the
shoulders of other people, who.
perhaps. have already all they can
bear. and that when we add our
gloom to theirs we may be putting
our the last flicker of hope in
some dark soul
Yet we all know from expert
ence how true this is. All of US
have acquaintances whose visits We
dread as We do a scourge, because
we know that every minute they are
with US We will have to listen
to their lamentations, and that
they will weep on our breasts un-
til we are as limp as a wet dish
rag with their tears. Likewise, we
all have correspondents whose let
ters We dread to open because we
know beforehand that they will be
nothing but a record of one tribu-
Iation after another.
These disseminators of gloom
paralyzc every energy and slay all
courage and initiative because they
make us feel that the whole world
is going to the bow-wows. and
everything is foredoomed 10 fail
ure, and there is no use in making
an effort
On the other hand. the cheerful and
optimistic people are missionaries of
light and hope. They are like a clean
wind that sweeps miasms from our
souls. They are like a sunshiny day
that floods the earth with gladness.
They are the incarnation of courage
and hope. and the thing within us that
makes us dare and do.
If VIC knew that we had deadly
disease. such as smallpox or leprosy,
common humanity would make US iso-
late ourselves so that we would not
communicate II to our fellow crea-