The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1885-05-08
GENIUS.
A Schoolmaster's Address to His Stu
dents, Who Were Going Home for the
Holidays.

| A Schoolmaster's Address to His Stu
dents, Who Were Going Home for the
Holidays.
O. tell you, boys" said the school
master, /" it doesn't depend half so
much on special talent as on energy
and ambition, for success in life.
You've got to work, work, work, and
dig, dig, dig, right at thing if you are
going to succeed. If you have a special
talent, all the better; but the finest tai
ent in the world will not amount to
much without invincible energy and in
dustry along the line in which your
talent leads. There are few who have
special talent; but, boys, there are none
who have ordinary abilities but can so
direct and cultivate them as to make of
them success.
" AS for genius-genius has been de-
fined as AN immense capacity for TAX
ing trouble which means, simply, ca
pacity for work.
"There were two boys at school to-
gether. One could draw and caricature
anything; the other could not. But
one day one twitted the other.
"'You couldn't draw a cow so it
could be told from the side of house
=" / can!' said Morgan Gray.
"Let's seer' cried Elliot Mandall
Oh! such COW! Is it cow? or horse?
or dogp or a cat? or the side of a
house! See boys see this COW! Ha,
ha! Morgan Gray's cow! o, boys, this
is too killing. Ho! no! ha! hal My
kingdom for cow!'
"He didn't mean to be cruel, but he
could take a pencil and switch off a
COW, OF any other creature he had seen,
| in minute.
81 can! and | will-some day. said
Morgan Gray; and from that moment
though with no special genius Except
| for labor), he worked in that direction,
until to-day he is one of our leading
artists. He just went right into the
work. Why, he would go down to the
slums of cities to study the staggering
gait, or drunken leer of drunkard, or
into our penitentiaries for lines of vari-
Gus passions depicted on convict faces
to the opera--the theater-anywhere
He studied anatomy to get the right
direction of veins and muscles-all for
his work. He would sit for hours be-
| fore 3 glass distorting his face in
various ways and then trying to get the
lines on paper as he struggled for some
particular facial expression. It was
solid, hard work for him-but he sue
ceeded.
Gone other thing, boys, don't divide
your energies Decide on what you
want to do, aud then do that one thing.
Don't dabble 10 half a dozen different
lines, trying this and trying that.
Where is Elliot Mandall to-day Oily
dallying between literature, art and
music-able to do little in each but
not much in any one. He claims that
the world does not appreciate his
genius, when the fact is he has done
no worthy work for the world to ap-
preciate.
"Now, boys, you are going home for
the holidays. Many Of you will not re-
turn, but will 60 into the world to sue
coed or fail, according as you work.
Use the talent God has given you. De-
eide on what you want to do or become.
Make your mark. then aim for it. Con-
centrate your energy. But above all,
work, work, work, and dig, dig, dig!
Be not discouraged, but persevere, and
surely success of the best kind will at
tend YOU, for you will have done the
best of which you are capable. And
the Lord asks no more-neither any
less-of any man. '-Morniaag Star.