Bonners Ferry herald. [volume] (Bonners Ferry, Idaho) 1904-current, 1922-03-23
LOAFERS

This is a queer subject to write on,
isn't it now? But do you know there
are so many of us (please note | use
the pluraD that it seems a most ap-
propriate topic.
Inspirations never come when you
want them. At least one never came
to me, when 1 was already to write
this essay, for the important Junior
Paper. l sat and sat and waited and
waited but it never came-not even
one Pickering of an inspiration. Then
as l gazed at the ceiling, l realized
was wasting valuable time and most
important of all the precious midnight
oil. 1t came! l was loafing on the
job. Simple isn't it? So that's where
the subject sprung from.
There are so many different species
of loafers that you can hardly tell
where one class leaves off, and the
other begins. There is the chameleon
kind for instance. When someone is
looking at them, they are busy-oh
so very busy-but let the eyes of the
observer stray, and the picture chang
es very suddenly. But then it is so
hard to work all the time. don't you
think? And when the eyes of the
teachers are upon you-bewarei at
least if you are not putting your nose
to the grindstone, so to speak But
don't you get tired of your job once in
a while and wish you could just loaf
and loaf and loaf? You do it some
times, too.
But these "all the time loafers" they
are the problems! What care they for
work? They are the most optimistic
group at that. Just drifting through
life, and getting away with it too
They never worry, and they never fret,
and perhaps they are the happiest
people after all. But wouldn't it be
a mixup if everybody in this old world
followed their example? What would
this place be, if the steady and indus
trious were not able to point at them
with finger of scorn and say, "They
are the froth of life, while we are the
liquid beneath"
OF all the loafers to be loathed are
the pessimists. They cry that they
are not getting their share of this
worlds goods. They blame the gov
eminent, they blame the wealthy, they
blame the poor. In fact they blame
everyone but those who are the source
of their so-called misfortune them
selves. They merely stand on the
COIntI5 anu lOdls anu WOuu6I why lu6y
are not being fed with silver spoon.
They are the breeders of discomfort,
of distrust and of anarchy in any
country. They are the detriments to
democratic people and government
and the sooner they are banished the
better.
Whew! the last paragraph was fiery,
wasn't it? And now l come back
merely to my way of drifting along.
With spring in the air and the robins
coming back, oh we are so lazy.
Spring is the greatest pal of loafing
there ever was. You just can't feel
studious and intellectual then, but are
possessed with the wanderlust. You
want to start right out somewhere
you don't really care where you go
and drift and loaf along. But the one
nice thing about this spring loafing
is that everyone has the disease-even
our worthy instructors.
And now you have the knowledge
of different kinds of loafers. And
what have you learned? Nothing of
high ideals, of worthy professions, of
noted people, of even the Qualification
of the commonplace have you learned.
There has been none of these learned
subjects, but merely the carrying out
of the theory that loafing is not so de-
spicable condition. There has moth
ing been written worth while. Alasi
/ have been loafing. The Editor.