Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-10-27
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

| seen suffering men and women who
were bright and cheerful and entirely
| happy, as far as any one could tell.
| land no one has any particular right
| to look any further, in such cases,
except, perhaps, to add such addi-
| tional happiness as an outsider can
bring)
The distinction between happiness
and contentment, however, Is not
| always realized.
The same thing holds true Of love
and affection
Love is the universal word. All the
| world loves a lover. Love Is ro-
| mantle, but often it will not stand
the fiery test. of the home furnace!
Every day affection, therefore. is
held by the wise to be a surer recipe
for happiness than love-. Love may
| easily fly out the window, at the sight
, of the other party eating a soft.boiled
egg, but affection will forgive and
| forget.
Love puts it's faith in fine dresses
and we'll groomed hair, but affection
| abides when clothes are rags and hair
| is turned to gray or lacking alto
gether.
There are many to praise love, and
| few to say anything for affection, and
yet the handclasp of affection is surer
and truer and more to be trusted than
| all the eager warmth of romantic
| love.
And so it is, it seems to us, with
happiness and contentment.
Happiness goes in a dress suit,
whereas contentment gets along nice
| ly in everyday dress, or even in
| overalls.
Happiness seems to have some
| thing about it Of display, whereas
contentment can live up to its good
| name in poverty. 1t needs no praise,
| nor plaudits, but rather shrinks from
them as unnecessary.
What is necessary to cOntentment
| is warmth of mind, body and spirit.
| Given these, in the true sense, a man
| may well dispense with happiness,
since he has found something better.
X X X X
The furnace, in supplying warmth
of body to the household, also goes
far to make warmth Of mind and
spirit, since even the most intrepid
spirits cannot long Withstand the
freezing effects of physical cold.
The modern heating systems (Such
as the hot water, for instance, the one
we know Intimately re.really among
the wonders of the age, but are so
commonplace today that few pause
to realize it. 1t takes real effort
to resist the stultifying effects of the
| usual. We strive for the unusual, we
give our best attention only to the I'M
usual. Like the men of Athens, we
willing do nothing but hear or see
some new thing every day.
Down in our easements, however,
| we have an old thing, dingy with age,
perhaps, made of sturdy iron, filled
with water, that needs but touch
of a match to properly piled paper,
kindling and coal to give warmth to
so many cubic feet of confined air
bounded by four walls and a roof, va
riously known as a house or a home.
Just how many persons are sitting
around shivering, as this goes to
press, there is no way Of knowing.
They ought to buckle down to it, adj
NIT that Autumn actually comes. and
start that old fire for the season.
This is the fire of hopes, of dreams,
of solid comfort. After all, what
pleasure is there, in the ordinary run
of life, more to be desired than an
evening at home, after a good days
work, warm, comfortable, filled with
hours of contentment?