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Show The Victim of Things. There is a sort of cult that announces as one of J4;i fundaments! principles ihe determination not to become "the victim of things."' This sounds well when pronounced with a pompous air, and is particularly par-ticularly effective when used in condemnation, of the unnecessarily rich who have a lot of money they do not need, and arc kept everlastingly working work-ing smd watching that it does not get away. Tn following fol-lowing out the rule of conduct necessitated by the de-ire to avoid becoming a ''victim," one must say frequently. "It will be all ihe same a hundred years 1 enee.v and let things slide. Those who are most successful in this practice have a tendency to run 1 long hair, to take to a vegetarian diet, to seek for ihemselves a lodge in some vast wilderness, and from that coign of vantage sing the delights of living liv-ing on boiled potatoes with a little salt, flavored willi a high grade of thought or intellectual converge con-verge with those kindred souls who find the pathway path-way to their door. But what about the poor chap who in ins journeying jour-neying ihrough the world has accumulated a home tilled with household goods and household gods, a family, a few debts, an income of greater or less dimensions but wholly dependent upon an equivalent equiva-lent in services rendered!; Tie may arise in the morning with a wise and philosophical determination determina-tion that "things'" shall not disturb him or drive him to do that against which his soul revolts. But Ihe chances arc that he will find the sucker off (he pump rod the very same pump that he paid the man .r.8." to tlx just two short months before. The telephone tel-ephone i the obvious remedy, and forgetting that ihat insensate instrument has been cursed by the Arch Demon of Aunoyanee with a quality that its simple and trusting inventor never dreamed might enter ir. he uses time enough for his breakfast to 1ike on the tenrperalure of "funeral baked meats" in his effort to locate the ."party."1 Or one of lm clocks hes run down, and it the very one upon which he relied most. With four other clocks, and a watch, why worry; says the theorist. Why, in-iced: in-iced: There is the kitchen clock thai earue with a pound of baking powder or eake of soap, cv some thine of that sort, ticking alont' right irieirih . I The heirloom in the dining room is thumping along in its ponderous way.' but from the mantle the onyx nightmare with a cuckoo in its inside that serves as a perpetual reminder' of the day he was married, glares at him with a stony face in a silence that is ghastly. Cau he withstand this silent disapproval of his neglect? Not he. lie winds it. up, tlvu gives the heirloom a whirl, yells at the cook to wind up the baking powder or soap premium, sets the little gilt affair with a cherub on it in th- spare bedroom that is already registering some time after dinner, goes to his own bedroom and compares the alarm clock there with his watch his watch that is always to be relied upon to lie right or not as the case may be. By this time lime-nieces are on lm mind, and the office clock well, he thinks of it eight limes before he has rini-hed his morning meal, and has as often resolved that his rirt act will be to wind it. Which resolution he probably keeps, and quite as probably not. Perhaps he is not fired with a mad ambition To get in a good day's work, but he knows that his job is waiting for him and as a "victim of things'' he is bound to be there. Then lucky is he if he be not held up by a belated street car another calamitous calam-itous thing contrived for the chastening of man. and against which his artifices, his hopes and hi;-; prayers avail not. In truth, things d.uuinaie. drive s'.ud circuni- ; scribe him; his accomplishment is in spile of tln-iii. , his life a struggle with them. If he did not v- J occasionally ihe other side of tic shield he might ! lie down in despair and refuse to arise again any I more forever.!! For on the reverse he sees that he j lives only by the things about him. and the in- I stinct for self-preservation is strong. Therefore I he looks resentfully at ihe "Do It Xow" motto that he. keeps tacked on the wall to remind him always that "tilings" arc his inexorable boss, roils up his i sleeves and sails in to conquer what he can. yield- j ing to what he must, and continues thus until that i time when he has no more Use for things or they for him. The Silent Tloosier. Tndiumpolis. |