The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1884-08-01
Odd Minutes.

The amount of work that may be ac-
complished by the improvement of odd
minutes Is greater than one who has
not tested the matter would easily be-
lieve. Five minutes day amounts in
year to thirty hours, or three hours a
day for ten days, and in that time a
great deal of work can be done. In
thirty years it would be three hours a
day for three hundred days. Looking
at odd minutes thus one can easily see
how the "learned blacksmith Elihu
Burritt, became versed in SO many
languages. Every moment that he was
not busy pounding on his anvil or its
equivalent, he was pounding away at
his studies, and between times was let
ting the knowledge he had gained be.
come part and parcel of his mind. Had
he waited until he could sit down at
leisure and devote himself to the study
of Greek and Latin and Hebrew and
Sanscrit, the likelihood is that he would
never have learned even the alphabet
of those languages. A single earnest
purpose running through his life served
as cord on which all his odd minutes
the only jewels he ever had-were
strung; as cement to bind them into
q coherent, harmonious whole. The
ordinary Interruptions of daily life did
not interrupt him. They aided HIM,
rather, for the same mental impression
was renewed and renewed until it be-
came fixed and permanent.
Our great novelists and some OF our
historians prefer to publish their works
in serial form. They give us IN one in
stallment only enough to occupy brief
space of time in the reading, and then
let us wait for the next Meantime we
have opportunity to think over and ana
lyze the characters and to live in the
scenes and society portrayed. They
prefer that our reading of their works
should be fragmentary rather than con-
tinuous, for they know that thus they
make deeper. a fuller and more
lasting impression on our minds. The
principle involved here is equally APP
plicable to the pursuit of many studies
and of some courses of reading. "FOr-
ty minutes day." says the founder of
the Chautauaua Literary and Scientific
Circle, will enable one to 90 through
the four years course of reading pre-
scribed, and give one an outlook on the
world Of knowledge similar to that
gained by college course. The mind
set in a certain direction by ten min
utes' reading will retain that set
during intermediate hours of work,
sshd be ready to receive an additional
impulse in the same direction. These
successive impulses, in the course of
time, produce astonishing results. A
lad of our acquaintance has read
through all the plays of Shakespeare
in the course of year, by simply Occu-
plying himself with the great dramatist
while going on cars and ferries to aud
from his place of work in the city. The
very Interruptions of his reading have
served to fix the plots and the characters
more firmly in his mind.
One who employs all the intervals of
waiting and of leisure in some handi-
craft has in a short time great deal to
show for the industry. A lady we know
has in the last year or two knit her odd
minutes into very handsome counter
pane, and knOtted them into some yards
of handsome macreme lace.
To rest we need not so much entire
cessation from work as a change of
work, and those accomplish great
deal in this life who provide themselves
with various occupations, and so have
something agreeable and useful to fill
every passing moment. Those who
"gather up the fragments that nothing
be lost" often have more to show than
others who have full ..loaves" to feed
from. If we take care of the minutes,
the hours will take care of themselves.
If to the full web of our lives every mo-
ment furnishes one single thread, how
rich and varied q fabric may we weave
in the course of a lifetime!
Minutes and hours when the hands
are at rest and the mind sinks into per-
feet calm are not to be counted idle.
Only the still surface of the lake re-
fleets the depths of heaven. There are
truths we can not see when the current
of life is swift, truths whose outlines
are blurred and dimned and totally OBJ
scutcd 10 the toll and MOL of daily
struggle, but which shine out clear and
beautiful when we sink into voiceless
repose. ODD moments such as these
come but rarely, but they brighten
many days of labor and answer many
a weary quest of the aspiring SOUL
NJ Ts~.k,