LOST IN THE LUSITANIA.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 144708, 17 June 1915, Page 6

LOST IN THE LUSITANIA.

ELBERT HUBBARD AND ALICE

THEIR LAST “LITTLE JOURNEY.”

(Written for the Taranaki Herald by J nines IT. Stevens.)

In outlining for your people the life and work of a man big enough to be boycotted for ids bold originality’, 1 am but anticipating the arrival of a deluge of appreciative magazine articles which will conic in by the first American mail; for, did bo not say, "The truly great man is be who sits in the grandstand and sees himself go by, and who cannot hope to arrive until lie has departed.” Robert Barr, oue of Tingland’s accredited men of letters, editor of The Idler and author of many fine books, lavishly expresses the admiration which is shared by millions of people ivho road Hubbard and feel the uplift of bis inspiration. ”1 uni a writing man myself and know the difficulties of tho craft; and 1 say T without hesitation that, vocabulary and range of ideas considered, £Jbert Hubbard is the greatest writer the world has over known, ancient or modern. 1 do not sa.v he is the greatest man—that is altogether another question..” Hnbhnrd has done more to free tho world of sordid superstition and tho dejection of fear than any writer dead or alive. He trampled upon the trammels of conventions, and so startlingly condemned abuses that hy tacit consent he was socially tapu : but his force and lesouroc not infrequently called forth from press or pulpit violent and abusive epithets, and e.harges of the grossest character. These he met in his own way hy reprinting tho very worst they could say of him, and asking his readers to pass an opinion upon men who think snolr things To read any of his volumes, of ivhieh them are literally hundreds, is to find on .every page amt in almost every paragraph a startling aphorism worth remembering. His writing interests and inspires, vitalises and visualises, and as he thinks so ho writes. He shocks a few effeminate men, lint electrifies thousands into life and makes them think. His writings comprise 187 tabloid biographies which he happily named “Little Journeys to tho Homos of Good Mon and Great.” Of these ho wrote one a month for nearly sixteen years. His complete works were supplied iu ten superb volumes, each ns big ns the Encyclopedia Britannica. to five thousand subscribers at one hundred guineas. Whilst he got together an immense fortune, it was not at the expense of his workers, of whom there are about a thousand. They are employed on n co-operative basis and hnnsed'nmlcr ideal conditions, having pictures and music, lectures ami flowers, tents in tho woods and boats on tho lake. This mutual concern produces printing and bookbinding, woodcarving and furniture, copper work and leather goods, and farming in alt its branches. The work is of the highest possible quality, and so am the prices. The workers comprise mental defectives, maimed and blind, aged and young, gaolbirds and school truants, and, in fact, no ono is turned away who will try to work. It is to be hoped that Urn organisation built up hy Alice and Elbert Hubbard and the Two fine lads they have left will carry on tho reclamation of tho unfit hy putting them to work under congenial surroundings, as they have so successfully done for tho past twenty years. He is without a rival as an advertiser. and has not infrequently written special pamphlets containing cleverlyhidden advertisements, for clients to whom ho supplies copies on order by the million, thou succeeds in selling as many more to the public at ten cents a copv for their literary beauty. He lectured throughout America to overcrowded audiences, and was probably on route to Europe with tho sumo objoct. His avowed “religion’ was work, plav, breathe, blithe, live, laugh, and love.” and his beliefs may he shown hy tho following extracts gathered in tho course of reading his “Little Journeys.” of which 1 am the happy posscssor of sixteen volumes bound in modelled leather presented to mo hy this singular personality;—”l believe that no one can harm \is hut ourselves; that sin is only misdirected energy; that the universe is planned for good; that death is just as good as life. J believe in the NOW and the HERE. 1 believe in you, and in tho power that is in ourselves to make for righteousness wo are punished by our sins, not for them. Tho world only needs more, kindness.” Then this gem, which 1 have previously quoted, tells much to those who understand: “A man and ft woman onco lived a fool s paradise. most folk said. They just lived, and loved, and planned, and worked, and road. Thou they died and went to Heaven, only to find that they had lived in Paradise all their lives.’ Ho possessed the gift of analysis to an unusual degree, and transformed and beautified tho moaning of wellknown phrases thus: “Whom tho gods love die young—no matter how long thov live.” “Give us this day oui dailv work that we may earn our bread ” His knowledge enabled him to give interest to everything ho touched. For instance, that “ivullur liy which he lost his life is associated by every writer known to me, except Hubbard, with n corruption of our own “culture” or refinement; but ho at once pointed out that, correctly used, it is a German word, and its only meaning is “organised efficiency.” # Health plays a prominent part in his radiant outlook, and ho admonishes the men of sickly body ns severely as him of unclean mind. Ho says: ‘.Get the health habit, and forget it. Health is a habit—cultivate it, you lobster, it you are sick you probably deserve to be. It is more disgraceful to bo in the hospital than to ho in gaol, for if you are in gaol it is for breaking .some common statute made hy man; if you are in the hospital it is probably because you have broken God’s good laws. Every man should know how to live a hundred years—provided he is not run over hv a benzine buggy. Anything to drink out of a bottle or to rub on is merely a subterfuge by which we, dispose of a timely warning symptom. His prescription is, “Equanimity, moderation, mix.” “God must dearly lovo the fools or be would not have made so many of us.” Friendship in , its true sense is an outstanding characteristic in all his work. His definition of a gentleman is ono who is gentle to tho friendless. “Bo a man and a friend to everybody. Do your work as well as you can—and he kind. Let what thou hearest in the house of thy friend ho as though it were not. Sympathy saves more souls than threats. Do not keep the alabaster boxes of your love and tenderness sealed up until your friend is dead. Bring flowers to your friend when ho pets well instead of when he doesn’t. Tho Devil gave us relatives,

but, thank God. wo choose our friends. The only way to make friends is to ho I one. When any good comes our way.j let us enjoy it to the full and p«H»s it | along in another form. Do not keep-*, kindness in a watertight compartment —if it runs over a bit it will do no harm.” Good Cheer ho sots forth as the duty of every man, and makes it rank with virtue and charity. “A good laugh is sunshine in the house. 1 hold this truth to ho self-evident; that man was made to be happy. Lie has jtchieved success who lias lived well, laughed often, and loved much. Lie who jives but to enjoy never enjoys anything. 0 God, help me to win; but iT in Thy inscrutable wisdom Thou wiliest me not to win, then, 0 God, make me a cheerful loser. You have not fulfilled every duty unless you have compassed that of being plea«ant. I am an old man and have had many‘troubles; but the worst of them never happened.” Education.—As in business and in his beliefs he was not orthodox, so in regard to education was ho quite original, ilo says: “A business education is economic freedom. An educated man is one witli a universal sympathy. I live to love, laugh, and learn. It is what wo think and what we do that makes us what we arc. .Recipe for educating your children: Educate yourself. That man is the best educated who is the most useful.” in a scathing criticism of throe well-known Americans whom ho plainly named, and who were considered to have abused the privileges of their positions, ho said: “They belong to what men deem to be noble professions; but the doctor removed the last remnant of my friend's bank balance with a sharp knife. The lawyer only knew one way to get money; that was. to get yours. The clergyman, when his humanity was appealed to, only buttoned his collar behind and looked backward.” This incisivencss when dealing with all but the poor and the friendless led to a tacit boycott of the man; but a lew English) and American magazines have lately paid him a.s much as £IOO a page for an article. And this is the man who with 1500 others died as lie said he desired to: “Live vour life to the full and plan to die suddenly; do not take it too dam .seriously, been use you are passing through life for the last time and can never leave this world alive. ' He j would be the last to curse the German methods which led to his death, ior he tsays that to curse your enemy is no more effective than to pray for your friends unless you give them a hand. Hubbard’s “Message to Garcia” has been translated into nine languages, and within three years reached a circulation of sixteen million copies a world’s record. The concluding words of Robert Barr’s eulogy; ”1 do not say he is the greatest man —that is altogether another question,” admittedly have reference to episodes oi younger clays, such as ■would appear to ho inseparable from the lives of men of outstanding genius, and which the .world generously overlooks; One oi Hubbard’s droll characters is made to pray thus: “Lord, 1 thank Thee for the blessing of a scarcity of brains, and the faculty of guessing that it’s wetter when it rains.” t It will be noticed that the title ol this brief article includes Alice, the name by which Hubbard affectionately | and unaffectedly wrote of his wife, who was his helper and business manager. Her book Work” and her many able articles in one of Hubbard s magazines, “The Fra,” are worthy contributions to America’s literature. One favourite theme, like her husband s, was perpetual good cheer, and her happiness was a habit. Addressing an audience of eight thousand women, she concluded in the vernacular thus: I'J a streak o’ sunshine hits yo ycr fooling mighty proud, don't fcrglt to up and lling at a friend that’s feolm bine; for the minute that yc sling it, it's a boomerang to you.”