Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1881-05-26
xeeping the Mind In Order.

riiStN engine. bOat covered Win
barnacles, a ricse.y plow. cranky
windmill. a creaky water-wheel. each
OF these illustrates the condition of a
mind that is not kept in order 1t is
impossible to get Il fair amount of work
out of either of them. Irregular ac-
ton always indicates disorder or dis
ease. You cannot rely upon pump
that will sometimes bring water and
sometimes not A man who works
only when he feels ike it is apt. after
while. TO give up working altogether.
Those who accomplish much in this
world do it by keeping their minds in
order.
How is this effected?
/. BY working systematically. 1t is
n very bad thing for one to get in the
way of working hap putting
everything OFF to the last minute,
trusting 10 the inspiration of the mo-
mcnt. when the inspiration may not
come running for luck" when the
work ought 10 have been methodized
and digested in due season. No man
is sure to succeed who has not fixed
habits of labor. When you come TO
associate certain task with certain
hour OF the day, il NAV be easier to
work than il would be to lie Idle.
There is story told of an old mer-
chant. who. after he had retired from
business. found it essential TO his COM
fort that he should go to the counting
room every morning. and add up few
columns of figures and strike a balance
in his LEDGER. Whatever task is faith
fully performed at the appointed time,
however hard it may have been at first,
soon becomes comparatively easy, if
not positively agreeable.
,. BY doing everything Thoroughly.
This cannot be done unless we work
systematically. A workman must adj
just the foundation stones of great
building with great care, If he would
not have it tumble down. Want of
thoroughness is charged upon our age
as one of its peculiar defects. We are
ia desperate hurry, and this leads us
TO slight our work. We are introduce
ing iabor-saving processes into the re-
gion OF mind when the labor itself, as
a discipline. may be of more import
ance than anything else. l DOUBT
whether the children of this genera
ton start in life with as thorough a
knowledge Of the fundamental prin-
ciples oil education as they did fifty
years ago. Reading and writing,
grammar. arithmetic, geography, are
slipped over in order 20 make way for
more advanced studies. This, in a
measure, accounts for the fact that so
many people find it difficult TO master
any subject satisfactorily. No one can
study a profound proposition to any
advantage the postalates of which he
does not understand.
8. BY working steadily and persist
eHfiy-not always in the same line, or
in any one line too long AT time-but
steadily enough to accomplish ali that
needs TO he accomplished. The more
one does. the more he is able 10 do
The joints of the mind are wonderfully
iimbcred b. exercise. You begin your
work reluctantly and with an etfort-it
is task and a grievance-but it must
be done. and so YOU address yourself to
il with as good a grace as possible. and
it soon grows easy and light. even
plcasureable. and you may be sorry
when it is over "How is this thing to
be done" asked young John OF his
father ..By doing ii, was the reply.
No one can tell what he is capable of
doing until he has bnckled TO his work.
aud stuck TO it persistently. If the
mind is for the time thrown off its bal
ance by any petty troubles, the best
way to bring it right is to go to work.
Long intervals of inertia are fatal to the
health and vigor of the mental powers.
Some of the grandest thoughts that
ever electrified the world have come
from the minds of those who. in the ex-
ercise of an indomitable will. have
lifted themselves up out of the deep to
.'soar in the empyrean."
4. BY keeping the mind clear Of rub
1rsa. The working capacity of the