OCR Text |
Show REQUIREMENTS FOR CONTENT IN A SMALL TOWN . . A writer in the American Magazine Maga-zine says that in order to be content in living in a small town, one must first of all possess a sense of humor not take trials too seriously which may be laughed away. Too much seriosity makes its possessor unhappy. He sees too keenly. And most of his ills are imaginary anyway. The other requirements are, tolerance, for which there is ample need, kindliness, human interest and interest in the social and religious life of the community, com-munity, discretion in what one says, always remembering that quotations are not exact, and lastly, the most important, is absorption in your work. Many a person of superior parts could not remain in a small town with its littlenesses unless so absorbed in the work of his life that these mean little annoyances slide off un-hurting un-hurting in the intensity of pursuit of the life work. A good safe and sane hobby is the best balancing medium one can have. Whatever form it may take, it does a salutary work and performs per-forms a function. In a large city publicity is given" to any trivial matter in the press; newspapers there publish any scandal, scan-dal, any crime, any happening, and it is greedily read if it hurts the best people. In a small town almost all of that is held out from publication. A few remember in a small town the rapidity of gossip, mis-quotation, and even actual intention to misrepresent. News becomes gossip imperceptibly. The dividing line is sometimes too fine to be seen. And of course, malice, defamation and willful hurt are more or less prominent in any community, big or little, and certainly, not free from most small towns. Millard Co. Chronicle, Delta- |