The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1884-06-12

| Your own business, and wait In pat eEcC
for the reward of your diligence. II
may be little slow in coming. The
mills 81 the gods grind slowly. so does
a hand-Grgan on the Last Rose OF
Summer stop. but il always gets there.
And don't pay more for the reward than
the reward is worth. A man who lives
on twenty-nine cents day will be apt
TO die wealthy, but he won't die very
fat. 1t is the liberal soul that shall be
made fat
AND HAVE ONE TO MIND.
Again, my hearers, yoc will observe
that the eNaltation is promised the man
who is diligent in business" Then
man or woman who labors diligently
for years, until the ability to write
forty-four chapters of the Bible on a
postal card does not stand before Kings
because that sort of a-thing isn't bust
ness. The man who spends all his life
trying to invent a perpetual motion
machine has nothing to do with bust
ness. The Inventor" so to speak, OF
the Kelley motor will not stand before
Kings; be will not even stand before
his own stockholders, although they
have often tried to get behind him.
| The man who is diligent in construct
ing one hundred and nine sentences
and three hundred and fourteen words
out of "ConstantinOple' will not stand
anywhere save at the head of the
spelling class. and even there he is in
| danger of denunciation and overthroS
by the 'speling relrm acociachin. -
The man who diligently educates his
| feet until he can waltz an hour and
seventy-eight minutes without stopping.
does not stand before Kings, because
''as snow in summer, and as rain in har-
vest, so honor is not seemly for a man
who wears his brains in his shoes.
| THE SECRET OF SUCCESS.
1t seems to me, beloved, that the sue
cess of the dilligent people who stand
before Kings of various degree. is in a
measure due to their successful dill
gence, and furthermore. this successful
| diligence indicates the existence of GER
tain qualities essential to success. True,
there are Captains who creep in through
the cabin windows and there are Cen
erals unfit to be Sergeants, but these
pampered pets of unjust favoritism do
not stand before Kings; they bow
and crouch before them. But when one
is successful in spite of adverse criticism
and sharp competition, am inclined to
think there must be some reason for
| his success. You ask me, for instance,
what is the secret of Mrs. LaDgtry' 5
success? Well, think it is her success.
| But you say There are twenty girls in
Brooklyn more beautiful than she.n /
don't doubt it, think there are twenty
one. And they are more gifted, and
blessed with better education?" Yes, |
know that. And their social position
is higher" / should say so, my
brother. and they have greater his
trionic TALENT Indeed they have; I
agree with you. They can act all
around her?" OF course, they can
"And they ought to have her place OF
the American stage" Well, then, why
don't they have it?
Is SUCCESS.
Verify, beloved, when people talk like
that, and often they do, | begin to be-
lieye that none but unsuccessful peo-
pie succeed in this country As I
wander up and down the land | find
about all the real talent and merit in
the back seats, picking up scanty
crumbs that fall from the groaning
tables of successful pretenders, while
the sad, voiceless spirit of Justice sits on
the front fence and brOods with a ten
der mystery over the devious ways of
man and the uncertain favors of tickle
fortune and pitiless fate.
IrNSrENC vi I-SrrrS
Scarcely village do enter but the
villagers proudly point out for my adj
miration Young man WHO'S ..funnier"
that ever Mark Twain dared to be.
Many of Twain's best Jokes, indeed.
they assure me. were stolen bodily from
young "FunnbOy.' Why, he keeps
the debating society in roar of laugh
ter all the time he is on his feet He is
called 1.-The Artemus Ward of Gullivan
County," and the Northwestern B,snl-
blejOhn has predicted for him a future
equal to none. | have been introduced
in nearly every State in the Union, and
usually, too, in the smaller towns. some
distance from any railroad, to ministers
of the gospel who could preach the
boots off Mr.. Beecher; who were more
original, more eloquent, possessing a
keener faculty of observation and
happier vein of humor and more fertile
and felicitous in illustration. And they
resembled Mr.. Beecher, too. their
friends told me. And so they did l
could see that for myself. They wore
soft felt hats and long hair. And in
some instances | learned that Mr..
Beecher resembled and copied the vii
lage pastor. 1 have met many, very
many eloquent lecturers, without audi
ences, who could teach John b. Cough
the rudiments of temperance lecturing,
and there they were, pegging away at
everybody's shoes, orselIing dry goods,
groceries and hardware in a country
store, while Cough, the shallow pre-
tender, usurped their rightful places
on the rostrum. People have shown
me women who could sing more divine
ly than Patti. and know plenty of men
who can walk right away from Fitz-
gerald.
ABUNDANT, But HARD TO FIND.
Now, believe in hidden pearls. I
have no doubt the deep unfathomed
caves of ocean are so full of them that
their feet stick out of the dormer win
dows. think some of them are rarer
and finer and purer than any that have
graced the diadem of an Empress up
to the date of this writing. Down in
the gloomy caverns of the earth, there
are diamonds. l firmly believe, that
would make the Kohinoor hide its di-
head and sell itself for a pebble.
But. dearly beloved, we don't know
where they are. If we did, we would
dive and dig for them; we would bring
them out, and by them gain wealth and
glory and the envy of our neighbors.