New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1881-04-20
"lt Can't Be- l.elHa:% :

anything that tt W.:o IN our power to do,
there is nothing more to be said; it be-
comes US to accept the inevitable with
the best grace vouchsafed to us. wheth-
or it bring with it veal or woe. Some
things cannot be escaped which are not
altogether agreeable; but it does not
help the matter for us to fight against
them, or allow ourselves to be over
come by them. If we live long enough,
we must grow old, and after 4 while
comparatively useless; and if we do not
live on, there is no other resource but
to die. All this, however, does not
trouble us much, because it is the COM
mon lot of humanity; if one-half of the
human race could escape either old age
or death, the other half might be very
much discontinued. And yet it is Won
derful to see how resigned and even
cheerful one may be under some special
calamity, like blindness, when it has
fairly come upon him and he knows
that it cannot be helped. The con-
firmed copsumptive is usually not an
uncheerful person. Very often the
groaners and grumblers are those who
have least to complain of. While the
crisis is impending and everything is
trembling in the balance sleep may de-
part from the eye-lids; but, after the
mans fortune is all gone, he manages
somehow to conform himself to the Sit
uation and make the best of it. It is
always a comfort, when we are visited
with any great misfortune, to feel that
nothing we could have done would have
averted it. If, on the contrary, we are
compelled to say, eff had only been
on the alert might have prevented it,"
the trial is sorely aggravated. If the
pilot was asleep when he ought to have
been awake, and his vessel IS wrecked;
if the farmer is dilatory, and loses his
crop when it might have been saved; if
the mechanic is careless, and the house
that he has Quilt tumbies down, SELF
reproach adds a new sting to the ca
lamity.
People often tell you, when thing
has gone wrong, lit can't be helped;8
when, if they would only take hold in
the right way it might soon be rvctified.
Because we have made one great blum
der, it is no reason for our making an
other. If we 60 upon the principle
that we are foreordained to fail, we are
quite likely to do 50. A discouraged
man is very deplorable sort of being.
A strong man is never discouraged. If
you say to him: "The thing can't be
done,' he replies: "The thing shall be
done, whether or no." He is the sort
OF man to contract for the rebuilding of
his store while the old one is still burn
ing, and to advertise in the next morn
ings journal that ''his business is tenn
porarily removed to No. 10 Cheapside,
where he will be happy to receive his
customers" He is man of expedients,
and if the machine does not work RIGHT
ne finds out what is the hindrance and
removes it. In any great emergency it
is comfort to have such a man near
you; ne never seems to lose his wits, as
most people do; he is as calm and co..
lected as he is prompt and energetic;
IN tire or a freshet, or great storm
at sea, one such man is worth a thou
sand.
One of the main secrets of success is
never being discouraged. A man who
keeps on trying is almost sure to sue
coed in the end. The most prosperous
of our citizens have met with a great
many rebuffs. When an inventor finds
that there is hitch in his experiments,
if he amounts to anything, he does not
say: " 1t can't be helped" If aman
of brains breaks down in his first
speech, he is rot disheartened, but
perseveres until he can command him.
self in the presence of an audience. If
his first essay at writing is a failure, he
goes on writing until he has the public
| at mis- foot
The pictuts comes before me of
boy in little country school, sitting at
the low desk, with his elbows wide
apart, and his brown hands pressed
upon his two cheeks, anxiously bend
ing over book that seems to swim be-
fore his eyes, which are for the moment
somewhat dimmed with tears. He has
a hard task before him-a language to
learn, or problem TO solve, or a drearv
list of names to memorize, and, with a
suppressed groan, he whispers to him
self: 8. 1t can't be helped--I must give
it up!'
But then he remembers that others
have done it, and that he must do it,
or take the consequences, which he has
cause to dread, and so, after STRUGGLE
or two, he gives his mind resoluteiy to
the task. until he has mastered it, and
is ready to go out to his play with a
light heart and a good conscience. It is
thus that he begins the discipline of life
and lays the foundation of his future
success.
There is more desperate case. A
young man is entering upon his career,
who has wasted his early opportunities
and got into bad company and acquired
evil habits, and if he goes on as he has
begun he is sure to prove failure. But
some glimpse of purer light creeps
through the narrow crannies into his
poor, dark soul-he is not quite content
to sell himself finally to the devil; he
sees others prospecting and doing well,
and the question comes to him: ssWhv
should I 60 to ruin?" The enemy whis-
pers, 1T is too late now. Your habit
| of life is fixed" and it can't he ho1nod