Evening star., 1932-09-28
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

What is life-just something to be
got through. or has 1t definite. WORTH
while intention behind 1t?
This Is large question, and we do
not ask it here with any idea of at
tempting to answer it, but merely to
elucidate, If We may, single ten
dency.
Too many persons seem to work on
the former theory, that 1t Is just some
thing to be got through.
Most of them would be Mortified to
have it put that way, but there is not
much else to make out Of it.
II one really thinks that life has a
purpose, worth while intention, he will
not spend all his time in ruthless
rustic, hustle and hurry.
He will give some of the time of 1t
to decent contemplation. to pause in
a headlong flight in order to try to see
where he is going.
If he has home, he will stay in it
sometime, instead of going downtown.
If he owns car he will let 1t re-
pose in the garage upon occasion, in
stead of flashing over all the roads as
If their very existence depended upon
him being on them.
If he can sing, he will not necessar-
lily move toward the opera stage at
once. nor find it expedient to sing over
radio, just because he can sing.
If he Is able to make a good speech,
he will not, therefore. find it essential
that he rush to the first platform.
He will not play golf to the detri-
ment Of tennis, just because he finds
he is able to play golf best. He may
prefer tennis
He will not fill his home with crowds
of people merely because it will accom-
modate them.
What he will do Is to be the master
of things. rather than permit things to
master him.
Not entirely the master, Of course
there is no one who can say as much
for himself in the modern world
Even the most contemplative men
have telephones and radios and rush
to the one whenever it rings, and to
the other upon mysterious urges to
turn on something good" when they
know it is likely to be something else
again.
A serious attempt. however, to be
master, helps make one so.
1t is the attempt which counts. even
more than the succeeding. Success is
modern god. oftentimes found to be
with feet of the stickiest sort of clay.
Even success in great endeavors
what of it?"
Just as winning an argument is a
futile thing. in the last analysis.
One wins, but there is no JOY in the
winning
The writer here won SIS on Philadel-
phia to finish ahead of Washington.
but would much rather have lost the
bet, even though it had been made
when the Athletics were in seventh
place and the Nationals in first.
Success Is winning, and winning is
not always as grand a thing as bally-
hoo has pictured it.
The good attempt is what counts.
and, of all happy efforts, among the
very best are those which have to do
with the ordering of the personal life
The man who despairs of life, one
may think. is the man who acts as If
it were not worth thinking about as
he goes along.
So what does he do?
He throws himself too furiously into
his every activity, as much as if to
say, Anything, o Lord. so that may
not have time to think"
In his ranks will be found that most
common phenomenon. the individual
who is forever working. He is prodi-
giously busy. He is busy beyond what
mis- proper work calls for He is at
it all the time. until he sometimes Won
derS about it himself.
He excuses himself to himself, and
sometimes to whoever will listen, by
enunciating popular theory that has
a vestige of truth in it, that hard work
is what makes the world go round.
Even the motion of the stars is
dragged in to the support of the the
ory. which once was quite popular as
theme for commencement addresses
But perhaps it was true then, as it is
now. that few of the graduates put
much stock in it. They realized. al
though perhaps no one had told them.
that the successful speaker was vice