Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1885-11-12
.. NO TIME"
4 Miserable Plea Given ~ an Excuse Tor
DerelictiOn of Duty.

"NO TIME"
Miserable Plea Given ~ an Excuse Tor
DerelictiOn of Duty.
Many devices have been put forth to
economic time, to ward off old age
and to avert an early death. There is
, peculiar contradiction involved in the
conduct of certain persons who COM
plain of the brevity of life; who excuse
heir sins of omission by the trans
parent plea that they have mo time"
and vet who are continually devising
means .'to kill time" and bridge the
hours that intervene between their busi-
ness engagements. Red Jacket. Door
Indian chief, made wiser reply than
any philosopher" says Emerson, when.
N reproving some one who complained
that he had not time enough. he said:
"Wen. l suppose you have all there
IS" 1t is with time as it Is with wealth.
Men of means, who buy gold plate,
costly equipages, contribute to CAM
paign funds, pay their club dues and
give fetes and banquets. have certainly
40 money for furthering any active
ohilanthropic work. So the indolent
person. as well as the Woodworking.
industrious laborer, appropriates his
time to certain ends which yield him
more or less profit as he values the uses
Of time and the rewards which are con-
tingent upon his labors. before he has
fairly considered the value of time and
its utility.
No., Of - ~
article of little value, save as means
of prolonging life and enabling them
to buy and sell at profit. When the
shop keeper counts his cash. puts up
the shutters. blows out the lights and
turns the key in his shop door, does he
open the door of his thinking-shop and
retire his mind from his business. or
does he foot up imaginary columns of
figures, and wait on spectral customers,
with few snatches of sleep ct inter-
walls, until he opens his day-books in
the morning? What a weary routine.
where there are no books nor compan-
ionship, no music, pictures. nor inno-
cent diversion, no rest for the mind. no
serious thought, no desire to know the
real meaning of life, because one has
no time! In the impatient desire to
get rich men are cheated by time out
Of their just reckonings. They waste
SO much time in amassing wealth that
they have no time left for enjoying it.
Their early habits teach them false sys-
TENS of computing time, and in after
years they gaze in blind and stupid
amazement at their calendars. Old age
comes before they have suffered any
loss of vitality in their dull, calculating
brain, and Yields them no resources for
enjoying their latter days. They lack
the ingenuity to kill time. Having
neglected, when the mind was young,
to improve the spare hours, and having
made even these an excuse for money
getting, they can not draw as it were
Oh early deposits, so die like Midas in
the midst of their wealth.
Thackeray, while in this country, re-
marked one evening to friend of the
writer that he had met a great many
men and women in the United States,
but no children. Incredible as it-may
seem. this terrible evil of money getting
takes possession of the minds of the
young before they know anything of
thC NdAuC VI llIllC Va VI u1OutN. lECN
mature in the ways of the world and
catch the feverish spirit of the times be-
fore they have attained their stature
The great lesson of life. as exemplifed
on every hand, is money-making. They
are hidden to emulate the men who
have risen from Obscurity to be uer-
chant princes and money kings. Boys
are sent to preparatory schools with
this sole end in view; they obtain sham
fits. are rushed through college, are
drawn or driven into business, and
thence follow in the footsteps of their
fathers, all of whom are practical men,
and wish their sons to be practical men
after them. In the hurry and worry of
business ard professional life they sell
dom learn the uses of time and its
value. "HOw little leisure can 1 con-
tent myself with?" is asked self-inter-
negatively. What real. practical in
terest have in affairs that do not per-
tain directly or Indirectly to my BUSH
ness?" ''What are you reading now
adays?" we will ask business man.
Reading! Bless you. l never get
time for reading. Haven't read a book
in years. No leisure in the daytime;
when night comes on am tired and
sleepy. It's all can do to skim the
Life is too short to devote
much time to books"
L" No timer shameful and a sor-
rowful excuse for men who have time |
for making money. Bunyan was a |
poor travelling tinker; what time had |
he for reading? What time had Bur-
rift, the blacksmith? What time had |
q now venerable editor and successful |
man of affairs, who, when a boy, did |
his reading at night by the light of a
pine knot while feeding the sap kettle
of sugar mandatory? Ignorance |
is not the result of no time, but of
misspent time. 1t would be as absurd |
to say that laborer has no time for
eating his dinner as to claim that a
man of whatsoever occupation has no
time for reading.
TIE plea of mo time" is a miser-
able. shutting plea when given as an
excuse for the dereliction of duty. II
we do not take time now it NAV be too
late. for soon time will merge into
It is doubtful. too. whether
mn 1o,, 1;fo h., I;~;u, |