Quit Your Worrying! | Page 7

suckle her child,
for she directly injures it by the poison secreted in her milk by the
disturbances caused in her body by the worry of her mind. Among the
many wonderfully good things said in his lifetime Henry Ward Beecher
never said a wiser and truer thing than that "it is not the revolution
which destroys the machinery, but the friction." Worry is the friction
that shatters the machine. Work, to the healthy body and serene mind,
is a joy, a blessing, a health-giving exercise, but to the worried is a
burden, a curse and a destroyer.
Go where you will, when you will, how you will, and you will find
most people worrying to a greater or lesser extent. Indeed so full has
our Western world become of worry that a harsh and complaining note
is far more prevalent than we are willing to believe, which is expressed
in a rude motto to be found hung on many an office, bedroom, library,
study, and laboratory wall which reads:
Life is one Damn Thing after Another [Note: this is outlined in a block.]
Those gifted with a sense of humor laugh at the motto; the very serious
frown at it and reprobate its apparent profanity, those who see no
humor in anything regard it with gloom, the careless with assumed
indifference, but in the minds of all, more or less latent or subconscious,
there is a recognition that there is "an awful lot of truth in it."
Hence it will be seen that worry is by no means confined to the poor.
The well-to-do, the prosperous, and the rich, indeed, have far more to
worry about than the poor, and for one victim who suffers keenly from
worry among the poor, ten can be found among the rich who are its
abject victims.
It is worry that paints the lines of care on foreheads and cheeks that
should be smooth and beautiful; worry bows the shoulders, brings out
scowls and frowns where smiles and sweet greetings should exist.
Worry is the twister, the dwarfer, the poisoner, the murderer of joy, of
peace, of work, of happiness; the strangler, the burglar of life; the
phantom, the vampire, the ghost that scares, terrifies, fills with dread.
Yet he is a liar and a scoundrel, a villain and a coward, who will turn

and flee if fearlessly and courageously met and defied. Instead of
pampering and petting him, humoring and conciliating him, meet him
on his own ground. Defy him to do his worst. Flaunt him, laugh at his
threats, sneer and scoff at his pretensions, bid him do his worst. Better
be dead than under the dominion of such a tyrant. And, my word for it,
as soon as you take that attitude, he will flee from you, nay, he will
disappear as the mists fade away in the heat of the noonday sum.
Worry, however, is not only an effect. It is also a cause. Worry causes
worry. It breeds more rapidly than do flies. The more one worries the
more he learns to worry. Begin to worry over one thing and soon you
are worrying about twenty. And the infernal curse is not content with
breeding worries of its own kind. It is as if it were a parent gifted with
the power of breeding a score, a hundred different kinds of progeny at
one birth, each more hideous, repulsive, and fearful than the other.
There is no palliation, temporization, or parleying possible with such a
monster. Death is the only way to be released from him, and it is your
death or his. His death is a duty God requires at your hands. Why, then,
waste time? Start now and kill the foul fiend as quickly as you can.

CHAPTER II
OURS IS THE AGE OF WORRY
How insulting! What a ridiculous statement! How ignorant of our
achievements! I can well imagine some of my readers saying when they
see this chapter heading. This, an age of worry! Why this is the age of
progress, of advancement, of uplift, of the onward march of a great and
wonderful civilization.
Is it?
Certainly it is! See what we have done in electricity, look at the
telephone, telegraph, wireless and now the wireless telephone. See our
advancement in mechanics,--the automobile, the new locomotives,
vessels, etc. See our conquest of the air--dirigibles, aeroplanes,

hydroplanes and the like.
Yes! I see, and what of it? We have done, our advancement, our
conquest, etc., etc. Yes! I see we have not lessened our arrogance, our
empty-headed pride, our boasting. _We_--Why "_we_"?
What have you and I had to do with the new inventions in electricity or
mechanics or the conquest of the air?
Not one single, solitary thing! The progress of the world has