Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1878-07-12
B2 in Advance.
FnSsiIs.

Don't be fossils; old logs lying bv the
wayside for moss and fungus to grow
uRon; for worms to honeycomb and
spiders to weave nests around. Be a
man among men, with purpose and
strength to accomplish. Don't be afraid
of resistance-the more the better.
Friction cleans the bark and rubs down
the knots. Don't be afraid of failure.
You will be certain to find it, if everlast-
lngly seeking. If it must come, let the
day lind you and not you the day. No
man can succeed in all his undertakings,
and 1t would not be well for him to do
so. Things easily acquired 90 easily.
1t IS by the struggle it costs to obtain
that we learn to rightly estimate the
value.
Don't be fossils. They are content to
rot out; to let matters take their course,
and the sooner they are out of the way
the better. They simply occupy the
room needed by better men; BY men
who are vigorous, thriving sprouts of the
great human tree; men who will take
and keep a place in the world; who
make business and attend to it; who
amount to something; do some good to
their race; men of bone, sineW and
nerve; men of thought and action, with
the will to do and the heart to dare;
men who would be missed and regretted
not old, mouldy, worthless trunks by
the side of the stream, tossed up high
and dry by one freshet to remain motion
less until the coming and swelling of
ANOTHER.
Don't be fossils of as little use to man
kind as century buried logs. In the
great world there is a place for everyone
and he should be found in it. Fossils
never are. They are simply drones in
the busy hives, and sloths in the field,
living upon the toll of others, or lazily
cing1ng to one branch until driven by
starvation to another. Morning sees
them idle and night finds no generous
deed, no kindly act, no noble thought
accomplished. They IRE mere hangers
on in the business mart, and make no
sacrifices within the temple For all it
is known they might as well be name
less; for all the good they do, never
have been born. 1t is not life with
them; nothing but mere drawing of
breath-an existence. Cumbering the
earth they are regarded not except with
scorn, and dying would not be mourned
or remembered. Earth they indeed are
and that is all. There is nothing of
the spiritual, and it may be questioned,
without iTeverence, fthey have any soul.
Don't be fossils. Better die in the
struggle than rust out uselessly. Want
of success with effort is better than no
striving for the prize. There is more of
honor even in failure than to never have
endeavored. He who perishes bravely
in the combat receives the reward of
praise, though he fails to grasp the
crown. There is pleasure in effort, in
excitement, in the trying, though the
end is but dream. Life Is made up of
trial and no wise man shrinks from or
seeks to avoid it. Strike for the Truth
and the Right, and if the glory of the
Victor is denied, you can at least gain
that of the Martyr.
Don't be human fossils miserable
nothings Be up and doing Glory waits
the seeking, and wealth the toilfng for,
and neither will come without the
earnest seeking. Do something. If the
great slips through your grasp, hold
firmly on to the less. Be anything, if
honest, rather than human nonentity.