The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1881-07-05
EARNEST THOUGHTS.
Bill Nye" Talks to Young Men in
Regard to Career.

Young man, what are you living for?
Have you an object d. ar to you as life, and
without the attainment Of which you feel
that your life will have been a wide, shore
less waste of shadow peopled by the spectles
Of dead ambitions? Is it your consuming
ambition to paddle quietly but firmly up the
stream of time with manly strokes against
the current Of public opinion, or to linger
along the seductive banks, going in swim
ming, or, careless Of the future, gathering
shells and tadpoles along the shore? Have
you distinct idea OF a certain position in
liie which you wish to attain? Have you
decided whether you will be great man and
die in the poor-house, and have a nice, CON-
Portable monument after you are dead for
your destitute family to look at, or will you
content yourself to plug along through life as
a bank president? These, young man, are
questions of moment. They are questions of
two moments. They come home TO our
hearts to. day with terrible earnestness. You
can take your choice in the great battle of
life, whether you will bristle up and win
deal hless name and owe almost every
body, or be satisfied with scabs and
medioclty. Why do you linger and
tritter away they heyday of life when yeu
might skirlnish around and win some laurels?
Many of those who now stand at :he head OF
the nation as statesmen and loglcians were
once unknown, unhonored and unsung. Now
they saw the air in the halls of Congress, and
their names are plastered ON the temples of
fame.
They were not born great Some Of them
only weighed six pounds to start with. But
they have rustled. They have peeled their
coats and made Rome howl. You can do the
same. You can win some laurels too if you
will brace up and secure them when they are
ripe. Daniel Webster and President Garfield
and DR.. Tanner and George Elliot were all,
at one time, poor boys. They had to start at
the foot of the ladder and toll upward. They
struggled against poverty and public opinion
bravely on till they won name in the annals
Of history, and secured 10 their loved ones
palatial homes, with lightning rods and mort
CAGES on them. SO may you, if yuo will make
the effort. All these things are within your
reach. Live temperately on SO per month.
That's the way we got our start. Burn the
midnight oil if necessary. Get some true no.
minded young lady, of your acquaintance,
to assist you. Tell her ofyour trouble and she
will tell you what to do. She will gladly ad-
wise you. Then you can marry her, and she
will advise you some more. After thai she
will lay aside her work any time 10 advise
you. You needn't be out of advice at all I'LL
less you want to. She, too, will tell you
when you have made mistake. She will
come to you frankly and acknowledge that
you have made iackass out of yourself. As
she gets more acquainted with you, she Will
be more candid with you, and in her unstud-
led, girlish way, she will point out your er-
rors, and gradually convince you with an old
chair-leg and other arguments, that you were
wrong, and, after she has choked you while,
your past life will come up to you like pam
orama and will tell her so, and she will let
you up again. Life is indeed mighty strug
gle. 1t is business. We caH't all be editors,
and lounge around all the time. and wear
good clothes, and have our names in the pa
pers, and draw princely salary. Some must
do the work and drudgery of life, or it won't
be done.