River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1885-02-26

pew. Before Medical Students in New
York.
In our vocabulary and popular phi
losophy everything almost is ascrIbed to
luck and opportunity. The country is
crowded with men whose careers have
been wasted or wrecked by the specu-
lations, feverish anxieties, lack OF fixed
purpose and persistent industry, and
the hopes and disappointments thus in
Cured. While these elements form
part of the phenomenal successes which
astonish the world of business. the
prizes in the profession belong only to
those who honestly win them.
Applause. Crowded as are all the
avenues, there is always about as
much room for man as he is able to oc-
cupy. Failures are due to two causes; !
one that you have mistaken your calling,
the other that you will not or cannot
work. The men who are early and late
at their vocation, who are alert to TAX
ing advantage of every opening, who
are not swerved to the right or left by
WEAKNESS or desire for change, who do
the best they know how, whatever they
attempt at all, form the minority which
invariably wins. Applause. Commo-
dore Vanderbilt once remarked to me
in regard to an exceptionally brilliant
man, who fell continually exasperating-
ly short of what his friend expected,
"There is q cog loose somewhere in his
machinery. "The old commodore was not
metaphysician or mental philoso-
pher, but with his usual keen, hard
sense he pointed out the difficulties of
the mass of professional failures. Their
mental equipment is for some other
purpose. The moment man discov-
ers that nature intended him for some
thing else, let him stand not on the or
der of his going. but go at once, before
starvation drives him and orders him
up. Applause The sooner poor
doctor, lawyer or clergyman recognizes
that his genius is for merchandise or
types, the skilled trades or accounts,
the better for himself, the profession,
and the world. I have secured posi-
tons for two lawyers, one as q brakes
man and the other as freight clerk,
and both are advancing with earnest
strides and confident anticipations to-
wards the presidency of the road
Laughter The disappointments and
heart burnings in a career, come large
lY from or false standards of sue
cess. We are over educated In the
views that wealth, income and expendi-
ture are its only induces. In the absorb
ing rush for more money, come the tam
pering with trust funds, speculations,
and suicides, which are the sociological
problems of the hour.
But when properly trained and fitted
rs certain as the rising and setting of
the sun, so sure is the doctor of position
and income sufficient for clean and
healthful life, and it's opportunities for
usefulness and honor The first few
years of self-denial and struggle are
not the dreaded evils they are pictured,
but rather the athletes training, the
soldiers discipline, their hardships for
gotten, their experience and value hap
PLY remembered after the victory.
lApplause.
More Brain Power on the Farm.
About the best use farmer can
make of himself is, to devote the
present long winter evenings to an in
crease of his mental activity. Farms
differ in their prodHctiveness, mainly
according to the amount of intelli-
gence that is brought to their cultiva-
ton. Brain-power may be increased
by thorough knowledge of the pres
ent condition of the farm, and its
worth as machine for making money.
What crops have paid, and what have
been raised and sold at lossP What
per cent has it paid on the capital in
vestedp In the case of the grain, what
secured it? Was it the manure APP
piled or the frequent tillage, or the ex-
ira amount of rainfall? In case OF
loss, was it the want of fertilizers, was
the crop choked by weeds, or was the
seed poor, and the crop damaged by
late planting? This accounting for
failures is as profitable as Dragging
over big crops, without making any
record of the process of obtaining
them. Brain power may be increased
by planning improvements. There
NAV be several acres of peat-swamp
or bog meadow, producing only brush
ana Dog nay, HdIul1 WIZ" 3
There is a good outlet. and II can be
drained three feet or more deep.
Cipher out the cost of drainage, and of
making it produce three tons of clover
or Timothy to the acre. Would not
the sight Of the waving heads of the
grass be more pleasing than the cat
tails, flags, and skunk-cabbages, that
now waste their sweetness upon the
desert ARP There may be an acre OF
swale, underlaid with hard-pan, over
which ferns, weeds, and aquatic
grasses run riot during the whole sum-
mer. Is it not time the bottom was
knocked out of it, by tiles laid three
or four feet in the ground, and the su-
perfluous water compelled to go out
through these instead of creeping
lazily over the surface? 1t can be
made the best grass land on the farm.
Why not make it so. and handle the
dollars that come from maximum
crops? Brain power can be increased
by reading and digestiDg the instruct
i've contents of agricultural papers
I'm. C7sTl in american AgrscssIsursR tor
February.