Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1882-11-11

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entered at tho Postonicc Mt Alexandria Virginia as
second-class ma.crl
Serious Truths Told in Humorous Way.
In all democratic countries the great bulk
of the population seem more interested in
politics than anything clse and consequent
ly the natural talents Of many men have
been buried in napkins by allowing them
! selves to become run mad over political
issues which so often, directly or indirectly,
i'll no way affect their rcai interests There
arc also myraids of characters full of vain
ambition. but fortunately for them devoid of
genius, who litter away the short summer
OF their existence in endeavoring to evade
the humble occupations for which nature
has so perfectly qualified them. So few seem
willing to carry tent pins in the grand
march of life, and so many aspire TO be high
priests, that the machinery Of the world is
always clogged by incompetent people
thrusting themselves forward and longing
to be what they We're never intended for.
The following from the Harkeyc philoso-
phcr will doubtless cxaspcrate many a
person who has wondered why nature cir
cumscribes his talents by compelling him to
perform physical labor:
think, my boy, that just about at your
arc is the time for you to learn what YOU
are good for. And when you have found
what it is, go nj it and stick to it. | want
TO sec you at work.
L have no secret said Turner the great
painter "but hard work"
Nothing" said Mirabeau, lis impossible
to the man who can will. This is the only
law Of success"
There is but one method says Sidney
Smith, ''and that is hard work.
The difference between one man and
another" says Dr. Arnold. ''iS not so much
III talent as in energy
And do you direct your energy in one
channel. Don't be diiusirc nyour work.
There is power i'll concentration. 4 hand
tul OF ,.orr,l.. eu UII the ground makes
Il great smoke when it is fired but nothing
more. 1t is the few ounces compressed in
the blast or gun-barrcl that counts for some
thing when ii goes of. If ycu are q lawyer
4 physician. or a carpenter, and make up
your mind that you will know as much
about one particular line or branch or spec
iality Of your profession or trade rs other
men, YOU do well. Because if you know as
much on any point as any other man, sure
ly rs the heavens are above lis YOU know
much more about it than thousands, and
mmcasurably more than millions of other
men, and this makcsyou an authority.
BE ambitious as you will but be ambitious
in some particular direction. You can make
any sphere Of labor honorable A good,
honest, earnest man can shovel sand with
credit to himself and profit to his employer,
and honor TO his country. Many good
blacksmith and harness maker have been
spoiled by schools Of law and medical col
lcgcs: and let me tell you. Telemachus, right
here, that society, your country, humanity
and God need good carpenters and shoema-
kers and stonc-cutters and farm hands, more
than poor doctors and poor preachers and
poor editors. If you have to choose between
Il poor lawyer and Il good deck hand, be IL
good deck hand every time.
once knew Il man who could make shoes
He could build you pair of glovc-litting
boots with cunning little closets for all your
corns, and Il lovely bay window for your
bunons He could sew on an invisible
patch with yellow thread, so that it looked
like sunset on the Mississippi. How he
could make shoes. And he sat with his
mouth full of pegs and sung and whistlcd,
happy and content, and he pounded leather
and smote the inscnsate lapstone with many
mutIlcd blow, and pegged and stitched rs
though that was the chief end of man.
But one day he stopped whistling, laid
down his hammer, dropped his wax into the
pan full Of pegs, threw the lapstone into the
water bucket, blew all the pegs out of his
mouth and got to telling what congress
ought to do, and what the government
should do, and what he would do if he were
| there, and he said it so often and said it so
| well that everybody saw the country was
going to ruin, and he was the onlyman who
could stop it, and the first thing he knew
the people took him off his leather bench
and sent him to congress.
Now, that man used to charge only ten
cents for sewing 4 patch as big us q fifty
cent piece, and twenty cents for new heel, /,
and only fifty cents for half soles. And
day in and day out he earned about $2.1O a
day.
And the very first week he was in Con-
gress ha introduced bill for the free coin
age Of S900,e00 900 in one dollar-grccnbacks,
with proviso that this issue should be
doubled if it should appear that the amount
originally specified should BIZ found insutfi-
cient to meet the demands of the shoe trade.
And vet that man was Il good shoemaker
The community missed him sorely when he
went to Congress. 1t was hard to fill his
place--on the shoemakers bench. Other
cobblers came and went, but not one OF
them nor all of them cobbled SO we'll and
acceptaby as he, cobble they never so cob
ble-y. He was good shoemaker, my boy
a most excellent and worthy shoemaker.
1,o,.s