The Baltimore County union., 1875-02-06
Room at tie Top.


ssss.ot ySuns eneh annually mak:rg their en-
trance upen active life, with great ambitions,
conscious capacities and high hopes, the pros
pect is, in niney-nine cases in a hundred,
most perplexins. They see every avenue to
prosperity thronyed with their superiors in ex-
perience, in socia advantages, and in the pos
session of all the elements and conditions of
success. Every lost is occupied, every Office
filled, every path crowded. Where shall they
find room? 1t is elated of Mr.. Webster that
when young lawyer suggested to him that the
profession to whicI he had devoted himself
was overcrowded, he great man replied -
"Young man, there s always room enough at
the top" Never wa wiser or more sugges-
tive word said. Thee undoubtedly is always
room enough wher, excellence lived. Mr..
Webster was not trdbled for lack If ROOM
Mr.. Clay and Mr.. Clhoun were never crowd
ed. Mr.. Evarts, Mr. Cushing, and Mr. 0'Conor
have plenty OF spacearound them. Mr.. Beech
er, DR.. Storrs, DR.. Hall, Mr.. Phillips Brooks
would never know in their personal expert
ence, that it was lard to obtain desirable
ministerial charge The profession is not
crowded where they are. DIR. Brown -Sequt,d,
Dr. Willard Parker, DR.. Hammond, are not
troubled for spacelor their elbows. When Ne
laton died in Pals, he died like Moses on
mountain. When Won Graefe died in Berlin,
he had no neigh bor at his altitude.
1t is well, first, that all young men remem-
b5r that nothing will do them SO much injury
as quick ard easy success, and that nothing
Will 90 theii so much good as struggle which
.1ssslSs he:sa lyzzsiaI thare IS an tha'D5
edS- ---@sslem gradually to its use, instructs
them IN PERSONAL economy, drills them into
patient ami persistent habit of work, and keeps
them at tie foot of the ladder until they be-
come strong enough to hold every step shey are
enabled togain. The first years of every mans
business OF professional life are years of edu-
=; ;,,N. lid ka l. ~1a~
Of nature and Providence. Doors do not open
to a man until he is prepared TO enter them -
The man without wedding garment may get
in snrrepttously, but he Immediately goes out
with flea in his ear. We think it is the ex
perlenee of most successful men who have
watched the course of their lives in retrospect,
that whenever they have arrived at point
where they were thoroughly prepared to go up
higher, the door to higher place has swung
back of itself, and they have heard the call TO
enter. The old die, or voluntarily retire for
rest. The best men who stand ready to take
their places will succeed to their position and
its honors and emoluments.
The young men will say that only few can
reach the top. That is true, but it is also true
that the further from the bottom one goes, the
more scattering the eighborhood. One can fan
cy, for illustration, that every profession and
every calling is pyramidal in its living constit-
uency, and that while only one man is at the
top, there are several tiers OF men below him
who have plenty of elbow room and that it is
only at the base that men are so thick that
they pick the meat out of one anothers teeth
to keep them from starving. If q man has no
power 10 soU OUT or TdbUIe at Cne DVGtouI, {,
then he is self-convicted of having chosen q
calling or profession to whose duties he has no
adoption.
The grand mistake that young men make,
during the first ten years of their business and
fa ic in, k1air
chance. They seem to forget, do not know,
that during those ten years they enjoy the on
ly leisure they will ever have. Alter ten years,
in the natural course of things, they will be
absorbingly busy. There will be no time for
reading, culture and study. If they do net be-
come thoroughly grounded in the principles
and practical details OF their profession during
those years if they do not store their minds
with useful knowledge; if they Go not pur-
sue habits of reading and observation and
social intercourse, which result in culture,
the question whether they will ever
rise to occupy place where there is room
enough for them will be decided in the mega
tive. The young physicians and young law
yers who sit idly in their offices, and smoke and
lounge away the time waiting for something to
turn up" are by that court fasten ing them
selves for life to the lower stratum, where their
struggle for a bare livelihood is to be perpetual.
The first ten years are golden years, that should
be filled with systematic reading and observa-
tion. Everything that tends to professional
and personal excellence should oe an object Of
daily pursuit. To such men the doors of sue
cess opec of themselves at last. Work seeks
the best hands, as naturally as water runs
down hill and it never seeks the ha nds of the
triier, or of one whose only recommendation
for work is that he needs it. Young men do
not know very much any way, and the time al
ways comes to those who become worthy, when
they look back with wonder upon their early
good opinion of their requirements and them
selves.
There is another point that ought not to be
overlooked in the treatment of this subject. =
Young men look about them and see great
measure of worldly success awarded to men
without principle They see the trickster
crowned with public honors, they see the swind-
ler rolling in wealth, they see the sharp man,
the overreaching man, the unprincpled man,
the liar, the demagogue, the time-server, the
trimmer, the scoundrel who cunningly mana
ges, though constantly disobeying moral law
and trampling upon social courtesy, TO keep
himself out of the clutches of the legal police,
carrying off the prizes of wealth and place.
All this is demoralizing puzzle and fearful
temptation and multitudes of young men are
not strong enough to stand before it, They
ought to understand that in this wicked world
there is great deal of room where there is iu-
tegrity. Great trusts may be sought by scoun-
drels, but great trusts never seeks them ; and
perfect integrity is at premium even among
scoundrels. There are some trusts that they
will rever confer on each other. There are oc.
casions when they need the services of true
men, and they do not find them in shoals and
in the mud, but alone and in pare water.
In the realm of eminent requirements and
eminent integrity there is always room enough.
Let no young man of industry and perfect hon
esty despair because his profession or calling is
crowded. Let him always remember that there
is room at the top, and that the question wheth-
er he is ever to reach the top, or rise above the
cided by the way in which he improves the
first ten years of his active life in securing to
bimsef thorough knowledge of his profess
sion, and sound moral and intellectual cul-
ture.--Dr. j. G. Holland Scribner for Jan.