Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 279, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 November 1916 — PHILOSOPHY OF THE SIMPLE LIFE [ARTICLE]

PHILOSOPHY OF THE SIMPLE LIFE

The Experience of Men Ripe In Years Is the Best Guide Fpr All. Mt. Ayr Tritune. From the Monroeville Breeze of November 2nd, we clip a piece which was written by Mr. John Burroughs of that place, which has so much food for thought that we reproduce below the entire article, and use the heading above which was used for the piece in the “Breeze.” A cut of Mr. Burroughs accompanies the article, and we wish bhat we might have it to use because it shows the visage -of a man well along in years, THRtTJIRT who talks from experience. This is too much good advice from one so young as ourselves, and we want our readers to remember as they read it that it comes from a man ripe in years of experience. We know that Mr. Burroughs must be a good man, a good neighbor, and a good citizen. His article follows‘tielOw: “If you should askme what eounsel I would give to a young man starting in life—how I would attempt to set him on the road to happiness—it would run something like this: Be industrious. Be honest. Be serious and sincere; don’t slur your work. Deal fairly; like your neighbor; lend a helping hand. And don’t forget how to play. Play will keep you young. Lucky is he who gets his grades to market with the bloom on. “Reading the lesson of my life to myself, it seems to teach one thing: that one may have a happy and not altogether useless life oh cheap and easy terms. The essential things—the true values —are all simple and near at hand—home, friends, books, nature, a little leisure, a little money, and, above all things, congenial work —something you can put your heart in. But uncongenial work, even drudgery, is better than idleness and indifference. — A heritage of—inestimable value is wholesome instincts, especially an instinct for the truth. “I have never bothered myself with any regularly thought out philosopny of life. I have simply loved and most of the things and the peoplejibout me. Things become tools when 'yOTr'teaTTT to grasp the right handle, and people will lend a hand if you are naturally disposed to lend a hand in return. Sympathy begets sympathy, love begets love, and in the end if a man does not magnify his’ duties he is pretty sure to get all that is coming to'ihim-in life. I have never seriously thought about my dues, or if I had and dues, I have simply looked about me for things worthy of my love and interest. I seem to have been getting my dues and more every day of my life. With health and friends and nature, with the sweet air to breathe and the husky old earth to walk on, or till, or study; with the press of one’s foot to the ground, as Whitman says, springing a hundred affections, how could one fail to get his dues? Invest yourself, in the people and things about you; deal honestly with yourself and your neighbor; think not of rewards; think how well you can do your work, how much you can grt in the way of satisfaction out of each day. Young men often write me that they want to be nature writers like myself, and ask me how to begin, what books to read, and so on. I tell them to begin where they are, at their own doorstep, and to read their own hearts to see if there is any real nature love in them. Can they serve the trio, the True, the Beautiful, disinterestedly, or are they after fame or money ? . Mr. and Mrs. F. D. Burchard went to Knox this afternoon to attend the funeral tomorrow of Mrs. Burchard’s uncle, John Jones. Mr. Jones died yesterday of pneumonia. The funeral will take place at Knox at 10 o’clock tomorrdw and burial will take place at Francesville, his boyhood home. Mr. Jones was the son of W. R. Jones, of Francesville, and the brother of Gilf and Charlie Jones, of Redkey. He went to Knox a little over twenty years ago and engaged in the furniture and undertaking business and was one of the prominent merchants of that city. Previous to going to Knox he was elected celrk of Pulaski county, being elected on the republican ticket at a time when that county was strongly democratic. He leaves a wife and two children, a boy and a girl.