g.

We know we can sit down and run ideas through our brain without words
and we can use a lot of words without ideas.

You have read whole pages in a book without receiving an idea. One can
rattle off words and not have ideas. When the fountain of words flows in
a desert of ideas, it's Verbomania.

People in all walks of life have the disease; they talk together too
much without any reason other than to take up time or make themselves at
ease.

Pink teas, receptions and society functions are great rookeries for
these Verbomania birds to gather and indulge in their gabfest.

The pianist through long practice is able to play a difficult
composition without thinking about it; it's automatic; it's habit in
action.

The society dodo bird is just as dexterous in spinning words without
thought, as the pianist with his difficult piece.

Our rapid mode of living, our conventions and customs are responsible
for much of the Verbomania.

I should like to take my Dictophone to a fussy "afternoon" and record
the word evacuations, the footless conversation, the forced
pleasantries, the set sentences that mingle into a hum and buzz. A
wilderness of words in a barrenness of ideas.

This useless abuse of the use of speech makes headaches, weariness,
worry, unrest; it saps strength, lowers pep, and lessens resistance.

The cure for Verbomania is to keep away from these butterfly buzz bees;
put the clothes-pin of caution on your lips; spend more time alone with
your thoughts. Nourish your idea plants that have been starved; prune
your word plants.

Read the first few chapters of "PEP," particularly the chapter in the
book about solitude and sizing up things.

Don't expose yourself to the crowds where the Verbomaniacs gather. The
disease is contagious; it's easy to acquire and hard to retire.

These are ideas put in type to convey a truth for the benefit of all who
read these lines, and it is some truth, too.

HOME

Don't Mistake a House for a Home

Love builds homes, gold builds houses. The home has a mongrel dog which
is called Prince, and all the family love it. The house had a pedigreed
bull pup that is kept in the barn.

There is all the difference between the family which has a home and the
family which has a house.

In houses we find broken hearts, worry, nervous prostration, because
there is idleness, artificiality and aimlessness. In homes we find warm
hearts, happiness and love, because those in th