Social Moods.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 392, 12 November 1903, Page 2

Social Moods.

MISERABLE HAPPINESS. : SfAH HAT do J mean by ' miserable .SlWift happiness ?' It sounds cobwMfimP tradicioTv, does it not ? Bat it is a matter of fact that t uch a state of things exist, and tuat there are many people, chiefly womeß, 1 believe, who are never so happy as when they are miserable, and the more they can find to moan and groan about the happier they are. It seems indeed that they 'would hot if they could be gay,'for however happy or pleasant their experiences, they always find them overshadowed by trouble. The trouble may be past, future, or even purely imaginary, but there it is, as a sort of garnish or set-eff to happiness, without which it is not to be partaken of by these misery-hunters. If you say to one of these good people' What a perfect day it is!' she will probably reply, • Yes, it's a nice day, but I am afraid it is really too fine. I always notice that weather like this comes before a storm.' Or you may say to a young mother of this type . ' How well baby ib looking!' and she will show at once her love of misery by replying, ' Yes, he does look well, but when I see him looking like this I'm always afraid it is too good to last, and he is going to be ill again. You know how frightfully ill he was a little while ago,' and forthwith she launches out into a recital of all her maternal anxieties, and enjoys herself enormously in the contemplation Sf miseries past and fears for the future. These hunters of misery are always on the lookout for troubles' ahead, and, if they ecjoy themselves, their dismal way of doing so effectually pravents enjoyment on the part of those who are with them. A grievance is an absolute necessity to I them, and if they have nothing elee to grumble at they fall back on the weather. It is too hot, or too cold, too wet or too

dry s and the rain of the crops or the outbreak of some fever or other disease is only what is to be expected. So they worry themselves and their, neighbours, quite forgetting that , * Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof/ and that if they have such a morbid taste that they enjoy misery, they have no right to sadden the lives of other people for their self-gratification. After considerable study of the case I have arrived at the conclusion that a love of sympathy added to a love of sensation is generally the cause that makes people enj >y being miserable, It is an utterly unhealthy habit of mind, and is sure to make the person who indulges in it really unhappy in ihe course of time, and to alienate the affections of her friends and elatives.

'There are so many real troubles for each cf us to bear that it is only natural that we should shun the society of those gloomy people whose happiness seems to consist in reciting their real or imaginary noes to all with whom they come in contact. It is simply an instinct of self-pre-servation whica makes us do this, and if people will gloat over their miseries and insist on being wet blankets, they folly deserve unpopularity and loneliness, i