Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1875-01-01
ROOM AT THE TOP
BY DIR. J. &. HOLLAND.

e'i> y hiNii
king their entrance upon active life,
with great ambitions, conscious ca
pacities and high hopes, the prospect
is, in ninety-nine cases in a hundred,
most perplexing. They see every av
enue to prosperity thronged with
their superiors in experience, in So
cial advantages, and in the possession
of elements and conditions of sue
cess. Every post is occupied, every
office filed, every path crowded.
Where shall they find room? 1t is
related of Mr.. Webster that when Il
young lawyer suggested to him that
the profession to which he had devot-
ed himself was overcrowded, the
great man replied: "Young man,
there is always room enough at the
top" Never was a wiser or more
suggestive word said. There un-
doubtedly is always room enough
where excellence lives. Mr.. Webster
was not troubled for lack of ROOM
Mr.. Clay and Mr. Calhoun were new
er crowded. Mr. Everts, Mr.. Cush-
ing and Mr.. O'Conor have plenty of
space around them. Mr.. Bcecher,
DR.. Storrs, DIR. Hall, Mr.. Phillip
Brooks would never know, in their
personal experience, that it was hard
to obtain desirable ministerial
charge. The profession is not crowd
ed where they are. Dr. Brown-Sc-
guard, DR.. Willard Parker and DR..
Hammond, are not troubled for space
for their elbows. When Nelaton died
in Paris, he died like Moses, on
mountain. When Won Gracfe died
in Berlin, he had no neighbor at his
altitude.
1t is well, first, that all young men
remember that nothing will do them
so much injury as quick and easy
success, and that nothing will do
them so much good rs struggle,
which teaches them exactly what
there is in them, educatcs them grad
ually to its use, instructs them in per-
sonal economy, drills them into pa
tient and persistent habit of work,
and keeps them at the foot of the
ladder until they become strong
enough to hold every step they are
enabled to gain. The first years of
every mans business or professional
life are years Of education. They
are intended to be, in the order of
nature and Providence. Doors do
not open to Il man until he is pre-
pared to enter them. The man with
out wedding garment may get in
surreptitiously, but he Immediately
goes out with flea in his ear. We
think it is the experience of most sue
cessful men who have watched the
course of their lives in retrospect,
that whenever they have arrived at q
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 best men who stand
ready to take their places will sue
ceed to their position and its honors
and emolumcnts.
The young men will say that only
few can reach the top. That is
true, but it is also true that the fur
ther from the bottom one goes, the
more scattering the neighborhood.-
One can fancy, for illustration, that
every profession and every calling is
pyramidal in its living constituency,
and that while only one man is at the
top, there are several tiers of men be-
low 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 anothcr's teeth
to keep them from starving. If a
man has no power to get out OF the
rabble at the bottom, then he is self
convicted of having chosen calling
or profession to whose duties he has
no adaptation.
The grand mistake that young men
make during the first ten years of
their business and professional life,
is in idly waiting for their chance
They seem to forget, or they do not
know, that during those ten years
they enjoy the only leisure they will
ever have. After ten years, i'll the
natural course of things, they viii be
absorbingly busy. There will then
be no time for reading, culture and
study. If they do not become thor
oughly grounded in the principles
and practical details of their protes-
sion during those years; if they do
not store their minds with useful
knowledge; if they do not pursue
habits of reading and observation
and social intercourse, which result
in culture, the question whether they
will ever rise to occupy aplace where
there is room enough for them will
be decided in the negative. Tho
young physicians and young lawyers
who sit idly i'll their offices, and
smoke and lounge away the time
"waiting for something to turn up
are by that course fastening them