TTIF. IIARDWUUD RECORD. 



The MoLn. About Town. 



THE PLEASURES OF MODERATION. 

 I (lou't kiuiw uiii-ilKT voii ri-iiictulicr 

 iiiiw that two wci'ks ii^ii wi- wi«ri' ills- 

 <-iissintf the "Plwisiiri'S of MiHlcnitiiiii." I 

 di'ii't siippiise j-ou il«. Miiylif now Hint 1 

 itu'iitioii tile fiict Villi till i-fciilli-i't soiiii'- 

 tliin« of the kliiil. luit voii doirt rciiiiMiilii'r 

 iiiiytliiiii; of wliiit wo sniil. 



It llilS tnH'll two WtM'kS slllCI' tlll'll iuhI 



two wfcks iiiv II Ion;; time In n way. 

 Tlilii;.'s that sfi>nn>«l of hiiporttiiu'e two 

 wtfks ago may not appear of iinporlnnce 

 now. 



I nuneiubor when I was foreetl to cut 

 that artiele short two win'ks apo. without 

 Iiresshitf home the lesson of the •'Pleasures 

 of Moderation," I lliou;:ht it very unfor- 

 tunate. Now. two weeks Liter. I have 

 nearly forjiotten all about it. 

 * • » 



I was startin;; a liiv with a piece of 

 newspaper this morning, and as I crumpled 

 it up I ohserved that it was a portion of 

 ji Sunday paper, upon which the writer and 

 jirtist had put a irreat amount of work, 

 jiud time, and thou;rht. and patience. And 

 there it was, forgotten about and jioing 

 into the Are. 



There is always that element of dis- 

 couragement in newspaper work that yon 

 cannot see the results. He who erects a 

 I'.ouse, or clears a piece of laud, or paints 

 a picture, or builds a railroad, has the 

 pkasnre of seeiuR his work in a com- 

 pleted state: and if he has worked con- 

 scientiously and well it is a source of pride 

 to him. It is an enduring monument to 

 l>is industry and ability. 



Rut the man doing newspaper work 

 writes only for a day or an hour. He may 

 put all his heart and soul into a piece 

 of work, and the next day it is all gone 

 and forgotten. There is nothing to show. 



It is possible that something in the 

 ^vork has done a vast deal of good. Some 

 brave word may have clieere<I a fainting 

 spirit, some sound advice may have save<I 

 a sad mistake, some clarion note may have 

 cheered a warrior on. lUit the newspaper 

 writer never knows. He may put his very 

 heart's blood into his work — and the next 

 day people start fires with it. 



But I've got no business bothering you 

 about luy trouble. You've got troubles of 

 your own, no doubt. Every man has and 

 lie who is constantly telling his to his 

 neighbor is a bore. What got me started 

 was that in taking up the subject of the 

 ■"Pleasures of Moderation" where I left 

 oft" last issue, I knew you had forgotten all 

 about it. And, in fact, I had about for- 

 gotten about it myself, and that is what 

 vexed me. I remember that I had worked 

 hard on that article, and here in almost 

 110 time I had even forgotten it myself. 



It is as though yon wen' a builder, and 

 as fast as you built a house it was dos- 



UY C. D. SIKUUl^. 



tioyiil; and after biilMIng all \oiir life 

 tin re W.MS Kllll II vacant lot In front of you. 



^'oii may have been aniiiKcil one time or 

 a;iotlier at the lll-ciuieealeil eagerneHH of 

 some iioor scrlbliler to know whether you 

 have read Homelhlng he had written. It 

 Is considered bad form to show this eager- 

 luss. but .some poor scribblers can't help 

 ii lint you should not be amuseil. You 

 ought to feel sorry for them. 



I tell you we have a lough time of It 

 ai'd need all the sympathy we can get. 

 • • « 



In our last Issue I find that we had 

 only barely reached the subject of the 

 "Pleasures of Moderation." There Is a 

 go(«l deal more in the subject than ap- 

 pejirs on the surface. It's got the whole 

 philosophy of life in it. Hut for that mat- 

 ter, so has nearly everything else. Y'ou 

 pick up a little bit of a subject and think 

 you will unravel it. all in a minute, and 

 show where it begnis and where it ends. 

 Hut to your surprise and vexation you find 

 it entangled with other subjects, and after 

 unraveling for a while you lind that your 

 innocent-looking little subject has brought 

 you right into the very heart of all crea- 

 ticn. 



It is this condition which forces a man 

 to be moderate in his ]ihilosophy: and 

 moderation in philosophy is as essential as 

 moderation in other matters. 



Here is a man who has coumiitted a 

 murder, maybe a cold-bloodeii murder. 

 Suivly we are justified in condemning him 

 and hating him. and loathing him to the 

 very limit of hum.in capacity. And we 

 take up his case certain that wo can dis- 

 pose of it in a few brief sentences: but 

 always we find his tlire;id of life is en- 

 t;nigled with other threads and twisted 

 ami Icnotted. and if we have a con.science 

 which impels us to follow it. we find that 

 it brings us right to the heart of Creation, 

 right back to the Creator of all things, and 

 that we cannot condemn, or loathe, or hate 

 him. We lind that he is a jioor, misbegot- 

 tfii degenerate maybe, and that instead of 

 hating we can only pity him as a poor, 

 U'iserable creature, whose warped and 

 twisted nature has bi-ought him only a life 

 1'!' |iain and misery, and that it is only 

 <iod's mercy that we had not been born 

 as he was born and roared as he was 

 reared. Why the .\lniighty should allow 

 such a creature to be brought into the 

 world is the Almighty's business. 



It would simplify matters immensely if 

 we could love this man with all our heart 

 and hate that man with all our soul. But 

 we can't do it. or if we do. we are doing 

 wrong. There are few things in the world 

 worthy to be umiualifiedly condemned or 

 approved. There is always some good in 

 the evil and some evil in the good. And 



that fait bfhoflves ns to be iiioderali' In 

 our Judgments. 



When a mail learns to In- moderate in 

 all his judgiiieiitH, slow to condemn, or to 

 approve overmiii'h. he Is advani'lng In wis. 

 dom and is fortified against mistakes and 



ilisappointmentH. 



* • • 



I espei'lally comiiiend the foregoing to 

 till' h.'ii'dwood lumbernien at this time. \u 

 ifl'ort is to be imiili' to bring two wings 

 of the tr.'iile to fiiip In unison, and It will 

 be well if the lumbermen in each w iiig be 

 motlernte in their Judgineuts. 



* • • 



But the advantage of moderation over 

 excess Is more ii-rtalnly felt in physical 

 than in mental exiieriences. When I 

 smoke my jiipe on the front stoop of an 

 evening it brings me peace and content- 

 ii'.dit. I l(X)k upon my neighbors sitting 

 on their stoops and 1 feel toward all of 

 them with kindliness and good fellowship. 

 And if one of them w.iiits to borrow a 

 r;ike. or a s|iade. or a stepladder. or a lawn- 

 mower, he gets its. I enjoy the smoke and 

 believe it does me good. 



Hut I have leraned th;it 1 must stop on 

 the one pipeful. I often feel that I would 

 enjoy another, but experience has taught 

 me that if I smoke another the enjoy- 

 ment I derive therefrom is dearly bought 

 at the expense of a night of broken rest, 

 and ji dull and heavy feeling in the morn- 

 ing. One pipeful after supper is my limit. 



It is the same with any kind of physical 

 ii dulgenco or excess. It doesn't pay. The 

 pleasure of the moment is dearly bought. 

 Ill short, there is nothing in it. 



The niaximum amount of enjoyment is 

 to be gotten out of life by moderation in 

 all things. A mnii should be moderate in 

 his ])assions, moderate in his judgments 

 and moderate in indulgences. 



The old (J-reek motto, "Nothing in ex- 

 cess," cannot be improved upon. 



* * * 



As before stated in this article, when a 

 man has brought himself to the foregoing 

 conclusion he may safely be turned loose 

 on the world with no guide save his own 

 pleasure.. 



That is. of course, if he has the strength 

 ot" will to follow the dictates of his reason. 

 If he has not, if he is of so foolish a nature 

 that he will give a dollar's worth of pain 

 for a dime's worth of pleasure, then he is 

 of unsound mentality and should be re- 

 strained. 



If a man should go out on the street and 

 give dollars for dimes, he would be ad- 

 Judged mentally unsound and would be 

 restr.'iined by law. Hut every day we see 

 men making almost as bad an exchange, 

 swapping all that is sanely healthful and 

 enjoyable for a few hectic moments, or 

 a few hectic years, of unholy indulgence. 



