The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1930-02-18
Humble News Also Big

There is Just as much adventure in segrec in the OF
binary happenings that do not get into the news as there
Is IN the veishty events that supply the top lines for the
first pages Of the newspapers. only the gallery that
shares the thrill Of the former Is insignificant compared
~ the audience that world affairs command.
London naval conferences. prohibition debates. tariff
discussion. sports and scandal are not the only occur.
rences that are under way in the world. They hold the
stage merely in the newspapers. Often these are Of mere
opr 'lcrdh interest In the end. It is II the hearts and the
conscences. the fortunes and distresses. the ambitions.
the failures and the successes of individual lives that
the real dramas Of life are acted. II Is around such that
literature builds its lasting fiction or constructs its i'm
mortal dramas.
Even in the humblest of happenings Of the individual.
often seemingly petty affairs, there are stories Of real
importance-thoush it may be only to the h:lnble in
dividual actor.
What stories are those? Well. suppose that some MORN
ing when YOU picked up your paper you saw. right next
to the London naval conference story. a yarn like this:
Tommy Jones. a 24-year-old clerk in the Cooper
Manufacturing company offices. has got a $5-a-week
raise. and he figures that will just nicely make it posi-
bic for him to marry Alice Brown, who is a stenograph-
CT on the floor above him. sometime soon."
Or this:
John Smith. who is As years old and has a wife and
four kids and just manages to keep two jumps ahead Of
the sheriff. what with all his unpaid bills, taxes and in
surance payments. got a look at the lamplight shining
from the windows Of his home when he returned from
work last night and decided that it's a pretty nice old
world after all. He'd seen the same thing often enough
before, but somehow. last night. it Just struck him all at
once that q snug home. a good wife and a few children
are about all any man needs in this life. That lamp
hight, shining out through the dusk, looked mighty in
viting."
Those stories would look funny on the front page, in
between the stories about great statesmen and indus
trialists and scientists and 50 on, wouldn't they? Yet
1t IS the little things, just like those. that are really the
big things in the lives OF most of US.
Nothing spectacular ever happens to us. The dividing
line between happiness and unhappiness is determined
BY insignificant things. Sometimes q matter Of an ex-
ira five bucks in the pay envelope can make the whole
world look brighter: and sometimes It's even q hitler
thing than that-a brief, unexpected moment Of vision,
In which We discover that the small Joys and unimport-
ant rewards of every day living are, after all, the mo-
ments that make life worth hangine on to.
Learning that lesson Is the beginning OF wisdom. There
isn't any great triumph or high adventure in store for
the most Of us. We don't amount to much, from most
standpoints. and We never shall. But that doesn't mat
ter. We 60 along, from day to day, doing the same old
Jobs. seeing the same familiar faces: and little by little
We realize that It's all tremendously worth while. The
most ordinary sort OF life can keep In touch with infinity.
Our stories don't get in the papers. But it's just as
well. We know-and we are content.
II the best words in our language are Enclosed find
check" then the worst are please remit"
Blue beads are q token Of bad luck in the Orient. A
black eye is the token in America.
Big oaks from little acorns grow and lightning strikes
more oaks than any other tree.
Making ends meet is often like q dog catching his tail.
They simply won't stay met.
An optimist is a man who lends money to kinfolks.