LEAF AND TENDRIL 



petitors. Shall we cut off their armis ? No, we can 

 only shame them out of making hogs of themselves 

 and of laying up greater stores than they can 

 possibly use. In our day and country, the golden 

 fruit on the tree has been so abundant that the 

 long-armed men have degenerated into wealth-ma- 

 niacs, and have resorted to all manner of unfair 

 means; they have trampled down the shorter- 

 armed men, and gained an advantage on their pros- 

 trate bodies. That is where the injustice comes 

 in. Some of our monstrous trusts and combines, 

 for instance, have killed competition by foul and 

 underhanded means ; they have crowded or thrust 

 their competitors entirely away from the tree, or 

 else have mounted up on their shoulders. They 

 have resorted to the methods of the robber and 

 assassin. 



I am bound to praise the simple life, because I 

 have lived it and found it good. When I depart 

 from it, evil results follow. I love a small house, 

 plain clothes, simple living. Many persons know 

 the luxury of a skin bath — a plunge in the pool 

 or the wave unhampered by clothing. That is the 

 simple life — direct and immediate contact with 

 things, life with the false wrappings torn away — 

 the fine house, the fine equipage, the expensive 

 habits, all cut off. How free one feels, how good the 

 elements taste, how close one gets to them, how they 

 fit one's body and one's soul ! To see the fire that 

 260 



