Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1886-03-10
(" NO TIM G."
A Miserable Plea Given rs nm Excuse for
Derellction OF Duty.


A Miserable Plea Given ms nm Excuse for
Derellction of Duty.
Many devices have been put forth TO
economic time, to ward of old ago
and TO avert an early death. There is
q peculiar con tradiction involved in the
conduct Of certain persons who COM
plain of the brevity of life; who excuse
their sins of omission by the trans
parent plea that they have mo time"
and yet who are continually devising
means ITO kill time" and bridge the
hours that intervene between their bust
ness engagements. Red Jacket, a poor
Indian chief, 'made a wiser reply than
any philosopher. says Emerson, when,
in reproving some one who complained
that he had not time enough, he said:
We'll. l suppose you have all there
is" II is with time as 1t 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
no money for furthering any active
philanthropic 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.
Men speak of time as If it were an
article OF little value, save as a means
of prolonging life and enabling them
to buy and sell at a profit. When the
shop keeper counts his cash. puts up
the shutters. blows out tho 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 at inter-
walls, until nc opens his day-books IN
the morning? What weary routine,
where there arc 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
10 time! In tho impatient desire to
get rich men arc cheated by timo out
OF their just reckonings. They waste
so much time in amassing wealth that
they have no time left for en- Dying 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 elds them no resources for
enjoying their latter days. They lack
the ingenuity TO kill time. Having
ncglec ed, when the mind was young,
to improve the spare hours, aud hav ny
male even these an excuse for money
eating, they can not draw as it were
Oh early de osits, so die like Midas in
the midst OF their wealth.
Thackeray, wnll, in this country, re-
marked one even ng 10 friend of the
writer that he had met great many
men and women in the I'm ted States,
but no children. Incredible as II may
seem. tn terri BILE evil of M 1ney- letting
takes pos ession of the minds OF tho
young before they know anything of
lhe value of time or of money. They
mature in the ways of the world and
Catch the foversh spirit of the times be.
fore they have attained their stature.
The great lesson OF life, as exempltied
on every hand, is money-making. They
are hidden to emulate the men who
! have risen from obscurity to be mer-
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 sci.
dom learn the uses of time and its
value. "How little leisure can l con-
tent myself WITH" is asked sclf-inter-
negatively. What real, practical in
terest have in affairs that do not per-
tain directly or Indirectly to my bust
ness9" ''What are you reading now
ada, sP" we will ask u business man.
Reading! Bless you, / never get
time for reading. Have2't read book
in years. No leisure III the daytime;
when night comes on am tired and
sleepy. It's all can do to skim the
newspapers. Life is too short to devote
much time to books"
I" No time"--a shameful and q sor-
rowful excuse for men who have time
for making money. Bunyan was
poor travelling tinker; what time had
he for readingp What time had Bur.
rift, the blacksmith? What time had
O now venerable editor and successful
man of affairs, who, when a boy, did
his reading at night by the light of q
pine knot while feed ng the sap kettle
OF sugar manufactoryp Ignorance
is not the result of no time, but of
m sspcnt time. II would be as absurd
J to say that a laborer has no time for
eating his dinner as to clam that
man of whatsoever occupation has no
tine for reading.
To plea of "no time" is a miser-
abe, shutting plea when given as an
excuse for tho dereliction of duty. If
We do not take time now it may be too
late for soon time will merge into
eternity. II is doubtful, too. whether
we lcngthcn life by living fast. and
crowding as many incidents and events
into the day as the day will hold; for
it Is impossible to interfere with tho
laws of nature and set back her clock,
as we regulate tho hands of our own
timcpieccs, They live the longest who
make tho best use Of time; and when
good deeds are made tho links OF the
chain which constitutes mans tenure
or tie to the things of tbs life. he Is
happier and moro secure than the man
of the world, whose life is "a series of
broken links" or a rope of sand.--
| Christian at Work.