Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1876-04-14
Failure
BY Wilma BREEZE.
Sioux City journal.

Sioux City Journal.
There are some subjects whose very
announcement seems to carry with it
sense of pain. 1t IS pleasant to
think of success; in imagination to
hear the fire of cannon, to see the
flags floating on the breeze, to listen
to the loud huzzas that proclaim vic
tory, but the greater part of the sum
total Of human life is not SUCCESS
Our liabilities to error proclaims of
kinship. Everyone has had hours
when they were conscious of failure.
Oftentimes this consciousness carries
with it a keen sense Of regret, that
amounts almost to bitterness.
Why cheeks grow pale, why eyes o'erhow,
Or heads are white, we need not know:
Enough to denote by many a sign
! That every heart hath need like thine.
When one achieves success and is
able to endure the laudations of his
fellowmen without vanity or egotism,
there is something granl in it; but
when one having toiled with patient
endurance and self.sacrifice for some
specific end meets with failure and
suffers it with bitterness and stands
up courageously to breast the tide of
public opinion against him and dares
to be, dares to try again, there is
something heroic in that.
A man starts upon business Ca
reer. He is faithful, constant, honest
and economical. He will generally,
on euch conditions succeed, but all
men are fallible. Worthless mining
stock is offered on such fattering
terms, and rapidly succeeding come
unlocked for seasons of grasshoppers
and then of draught, he becomes in
volved and all the accumulated sue
cess Of years is swept away. Now
comes a real test OF character. Many
at some such point have settled down
in despair. The rest of their lives
has been soured, effective effort never
again put forth. If, rising from the
hopelessness and sting Of failure, he
learns lessons Of wisdom from it, and
with increased modesty and renewed
energy resolves to retrieve all, he
shows himself worthy of success.
There are failures more sad than
this. They are moral failures. How
confidently we see young person
start upon life with noble sentiment
of purity, truth and integrity of life
and purpose. In an evil hour he has
listened to the siren voice of tempta-
ton and lost his title to his own self
respect. He finds himself an object
of scorn to his former associates
Was there ever an hour of more
severe trial; was there ever one of
greater danger2 His all for time
and eternity may rest upon the force
of character that is thrown into the
decision at that critical hour. Will
he set his face as flint against the
allurement to evil, battling with a
strong will and with undaunted cour-
age the scorn of others and the sting
OF self-reproach and fight right man
fully his way back to honor, esteem
and confidence, then indeed will fail
ure be robbed of her fruit and the
man a man for a that.
The greater ones ambition, and
the higher the value they place upon
the praise or blame Of their friends,
the keener their sutferings in case of
defeat. We pity one who fails; we
cannot esteem HIM for failure, but we
can give undoubted honor to one
who, failing to be conquered by de-
feat, uses it only as stepping stone
to an increased largeness of nature
enabling him to give truer SYM
pathy to others who are crushed by
their frequent falls and save them
despair. More people stand IN need
OF generous praise for their successes
than Of severe reproof for their tall
ures. Whenever we fail, there is Il
keen inner consciousness of the same
whatever may be the external deport-
ment. Not so many people are con-
ceited as the world generally sup
poses. Many an air Of complete self
satisfaction is assumed to keep others
from suspecting the emptiness with
IN. Perhaps many lives prove fail
ures or fail to be marked with the
success they might be from the lack
OF the appreciation of their cotem-
poraries. Would it not be better to
infuse a little life-glving hope and
courage into toiler's work while he
lives than to erect granite monuments
to his memory when he has passed
the possibility of either enjoying or
proiting by it? That soul which is
the most susceptible to benefit by
just praise is likewise the most kecnly
sensitive to unjust criticism or neg
lect.
There is, however, one class of
people who never fail. 1t consists of
those who never undertake anything.
There is a morbid sensitiveness to
ridicule, keen sense of modification
in case of failure that leads some to
stand shiverlng on the threshold of
any enterprise lest it should end in
disaster, which completely cripples
their powers. When the future is
wrapt in oblivion, as it is to all of us,
and we can never know with mathe-
matical precision the possibilities
that may come from some unseen
source to undermine or overthrow
the best laid plans, we shall accom-
plish nothing, unless we dare even to
fail, if it becomes inevitable, rather
than waste life without an effort
Does the failure of any undertaking
prove that the effort was 4 mistake?
think not. Ones failing is often 4
stepping stone to another's success.
Perchance our wrecked hopes may
| Law the foundation of anOthpr's oditice-