The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1883-05-24
Why Not :

1t is the ''open secret which, as Car
lyle insisted through his long life, most
people fail to read; the obvious truths
which most people continually overlook.
They are always looking into the dis
tance for the succor which lies in their
own surroundings, to others for the
help lodged in their capacity, to those
richer, stronger or wiser for the power
in their own strong hands, to the wide
world for the opportunity which lies
hidden in their own neighborhood. We
can not learn too soon nor too well that
In ourselves is lodged whatever force is
needed to send us along the path of
successful life; that close beside us is
the work which our hands are to do;
and that right before our feet is the
path in which we are to walk.
In every community there are men
and women "waiting for something to
turn up" They think they are willing
to work, but they fail to find anything
to do; they are looking for opportuni-
ties, but somehow the opportunities
elude them. Every successful man is
overrun with applications for positions;
every vacant place is crowded with peo-
pie who are anxious to fill it; every ed
itor is overwhelmed with the manu-
scripts of those who aspire to success in
literature; and yet thousands of these
seekers for positions do not find them,
or if they find them do not keep them.
Numberless manuscripts go back every
year to those whose desire for literary
work will never bear fruit in any salts
factory results. What is the trouble?
Most people want to begin at the top.
Instead of taking hold of the first piece
of work that comes to hand, and driving
it through as if it were the grandest
thing they ever expected to do, they
either decline it because it does not
meet their tastes, or they do it in half
hearted way because they take no real
interest in it. Their thoughts are so
far in advance of what they are doing
that the thing in hand is only half done.
1t is the use of the first opportunity that
makes a second opportunity, but thou
sands are always waiting for the second
to come first; they are expecting mira
cles when they ought to be working
along the normal lines of success. 1t
is the boy who takes a place in the
country store and puts brains, strength
and heart into the weighing of sugar
and the measuring of potatoes, who
finally sits down in his Office in a great
warehouse and telegraphs his orders to
the ends of the earth; the other boy,
who wanted to be Il great merchant, by
emitting the sugar and potatoes contin-
ues in the obscurity of his native village.
These small duties, these meager oppor-
tunities, are the training schools of sue
cess, and no one gets the prizes who
does not take his degree in them.
The world is full of people who do
things .tairly well;" it is in daily and
pressing need Of those who do them su-
premely well. There are thousands
who would like to write, who make no
grammatical blunders, are guilty of no
solecisms, and can strike off sentences
that read fairly well; every editor reads
hosts of manuscripts from such writers.
The article which is always in demand,
for which there is always a place, no
are, is the article which is rich in vital
ity, tense with earnestness, instinct
with fresh thought. The men and
women who write such articles do not
pass at once from school composition
to the pages of the first magazines and
papers; they think, feel. live, suffer and
work until the gift of insight is matched
by the gift of speech Paul already
had the training of the schools and the
early vigor of a splendid intellect when
the heavens opened over him on the
road to Damascus, and great new
truth was flashed upon him. but he did
not at once become teacher; he went
into Arabia and spent three years in ST.
lent meditation before he took up the
pen that was to address Jew, Greek and
Roman with a wealth of thought, a
glow of conviction and splendor of
speech such as they had never had be-
fore.
If you want success, do not expect to
get it by chance, but seek it through
the open doors of the things that lie
next you; and seek it as if your soul de-
pended upon your finding it.-Chris-
Tan Union,