Evening star., 1932-09-28

president in half q dozen insurance
companies, and the like, for which he
did little If any work. and yet from
whom he received a paltry $4,000
year each just for the use Of his name
Work didn't have much to do with 1t.
and the listeners knew 1t. They didn't
know what to call it, then, SO they
just called it nothing. but today they
would brand 1t "a racket"
Whenever one runs across one OF
these furious workers, who has time Tor
none of the so-called amenities Of life,
such as fall to even the most hard
pressed Of common men, one may have
a suspicion that the fellow Is sort OF
faker deluding himself more than any
one else.
His fundamental belief Is that life
is a racket, Just something to be gone
through with. If he thought for an
instant that it held we'll defined pur-
pose, would he work himself into
lather every day, and far into the
night?
No brief can be held against legiti-
mate and proper industry; that Is not
the sort of thing under discussion;
what is held up to little light Is the
nirthless occupation with life's essen
tials which leaves no time at all for
the brighter. the lighter, and the more
romantic side of the eternal picture.
The romance of life has all but
faded from the stage. Shakespeare
would be talking to strangers If he
enunciated today his old theory that
all the worlds a stage, and the people
in it players.
Too many human beings, in this day
and age, in this America, and probably
in all the world, play their roles un-
consciously, according to birth, environ
ment, and previous condition OF serv-
itude.
They keep their noses SO busily to
the grindstone that they have not time
to see life as an interesting spectacle,
in which ones role, even If not self
chosen, may be seen in its entirety, for
just what it is, and no more.
One divine ingredient OF the best ac-
tors in this drama evidently is left out
Of their composition.
Humor, most graceful gift, vouch-
safed even to the animals, on occasion.
is the fairest grace in the repertoire.
He who has it will never take himself
too seriously He will not rush at life
as though he were afraid that some
how it will get away from him. He
will not unconSciouSly give himself
away. reveal himself as one who is
afraid of things as they are, and
therefore keeps himself so busy with
the first thing that comes under his
hand that he has no time for contem-
plating the divine show in all its glad
ness and sadness, in all its glory and
awe in all its wealth Of alteration and
fear. The fear of God is an old, old
phrase, one which confronts man not
only in the earthquake and in the hur
ricane. but also every day Of his life, If
he will give himself time to think
about it, and not go rushing around
wildly, with MS eyes shut tight to 1t.
The rusher, the hurly-burly artist,
the man who makes one tired by his
incessant busy-ness. is coward that
is the plain truth of it. He is afraid
to think life through, by use OF the in
telligence which God has given him.
He is afraid to pause and wonder, ex-
cept under supervision; he is practi-
cal man. and feels that life is one
thing. and the universe another. But
evidently they are both parts OF the
same stupendous plan.
This modest man here. who may be
no wonder worker. is his superior Nnen
it comes to caring to stand on his own
feet, in face of the eternal verities.
These are large. these self-same eter-
nal verities: they We're here yesterday,
they are here to day. they will be here
tomorrow. There seems to be no end
to them. as there seems to have been
no beginning. They just go on. and
mankind stands N the center Tor it
seems the center to him) and looks on,
If he has enough gumption to look, in
stead of burying his nose in life, love
and politics. and permitting these and
similar activities to take entire charge
Of him as If he had no more to say
about what he should do and how he
should think than # he were a wooden
doll hauled around by wires on stage
he dare not look at and would not if
he could