Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1872-07-25
Youths Department.
{" DOING NOTHING is DOING ILL.,"

"Jamee, what are you doingfn
"Nothing, sir."
"who's that hoy with you?"
"Charley, SIR"
What's he doing?"
Helping me, sir"
"Well, never let me catch either OF
you doing it again."
Now that is rather an absurd dialogue,
but dare say you have heard many like
it. There is no such thing as doing
nothing for, rs the text says, doing that
is doing i'll.
1t would not, therefore, be difficult
thing to prove that a ado-notbing is a ne'er-
do-well, and as James and Charley belong
ed to that order, they got wellnerited
reproof.
shall endeavor to show you in this
brief discourse that there are two classes
of fdo-nothings, and that both are i'll
doers
L. Active do-nothings. That is, those
who have the appearance OF always do
ing something, but in reality do nothing.
We read long letter, crossed and re-
crossed, and after we have come to
''yours affectionately," we say, =" a very
nice letter, but nothing IN it "
We hear a gentleman give an address
or make a speech, and when he has con-
c1uded. we say, "Wonderful mani he
spoke for an hour and said nothing"
We hear people complain about being
very tired sometimes, and find ON inquiry
that they are tired of doing nothing
a party of travellers started on jour
ney through the brush. They walked on
and on for many hours, now up hill and
now down valley, and they broke twigs of
brushwood, and blazed the trees with
their hatchets as they passed along, but
after two days hard walking they found
themselves at exactly the same spot from
which they started
/ knew a man who was nearly eighty
years old, and when he was asked one
day, "Where are you now, and what are
you doing ~ he replied, with a woe-be-
gone shake of the head, al am where /
was when ! was lad, and doing just the
same thing" The fact was, his life had
been a failure. He had always been
busy, but had done nothing; had always
been jogging on, but came back to the
same place from which he started.
There are some people who are always
going to do something. 81 mean to be
regular dabster at painting" says boy.
And he folds his arms, and chuckles over
the idea. He surrounds himself with
paper, brushes and pencils; reads chap
ter of DAubigne to see if he will throw
any light on his subject; makes elaborate
preparations, but never really begins
He seems to think the painting will do
itself. He grows ill-at ease with his easel,
and does not stick to the cololing half so
well as the coloring sticks to him. He
thinks the ''lines have not fallen in pleas
ant places" and at last decides that ma
ture should draw him to paint, rather
than that he should draw nature. And
SO his ambition dies away.
moan IN hp a m anthOr " saws another
and he begins to write an essay on
Things in general" but he exhauts him
self long before he does his subject, and
soon decides that essay-writing is, unfor-
tunately, not his forte.
And you have, perhaps, determined a
great many times, to do something grand
something that shall make your future
bright and glorious, and perhaps you
have hustled about a great deal over 1t;
but if you look back upon the past 1t is
possible you may see that after all you
have done nothing. If this is the case,
never do it again.
2. Passive do-nothings. That is, those
who have the appearance of doing
nothing, but really do something.
John had got into a scrape-appear-
ances were against him, and he saw the
schoolmaster was about to address him.
self to the work of giving him dressing;
Edward sat there, and knew that John
was innocent, but he never spoke word.
He might have screened his friend, and
saved his character and his back, but he
did nothing.
Yes, boys, you are right; he was
mean, cowardly rascal. He was pas
sive do-nothing.
Let me give you few instances in
which a passive do-nothiDg does evil.
There is rick, and a spark of fire is
smouldering al its side, and he does not
put it out; a play-fellow is in trouble,
and he does not say word TO cheer him;
a lad is drowning, and he does not jump
in to save him; horse is starting off
without its driver, and he does not try to
stop it; man has been run over, and he
does not staunch his wound. And when
he is blamed, he says, Really, have
done nothing" No, but this is the evil;
he ought to have done something.
We judge people as much by what they
do not, as by what they do; and when, at
last, the great reckoning-day comes, do
nothings will be judged by the same stand
ard. Inasmuch as ye did 1t nOt.-ISu1lddy
School Scholar.