Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 June 1912 — Real Sorrow Always Seeks Solitude [ARTICLE]

Real Sorrow Always Seeks Solitude

By DR. FRANK CRANE

One of the maxims that are not true is “Misery loves company.” The fact ia that it is happiness that loves company, while sorrow seeks solitude. We close the door to weep ami draw the blinds: we go to the theater and crowded restaurants to laugh. .. : Misfortune isolates. Pensiveness is wnsociable. These lines are written on shipboard. We have been six days at sea and all th® passengers have become acquainted; for an ocean liner a few days out resembles a

r country village; everybody knows everybody and everybody’s business. Convention rules the decks and gossip guards the cozy corners as thoroughly as in a New England town. Only one man keeps apart. His wife is in a coffin in the hold. A. month ago they went to Italy for a long lark; she died in "Naples. Thia man speaks to no one. He keeps his room. He may be seen of nights looking over the rail into the boiling dark of the sea, alone. \\ hen an animal is wounded he flees the pack and in some cave or under some bush, solitary, he licks the bleeding paw or tom shoulder. So when the human heart breaks its cry is for solitude; it shuns light; fellowship is pain;. lonesomeness becomes luxury. Joy is the centripetal, sorrow the centrifugal force of the world. Joy makes cities; disappointment makes emigration.