Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1888-08-29
LIFE RECOI,LECTIONS.

Who is there that does not regret many
of the lost opportunities of life. We would
fain bring them back again, but alas! we
cannot do so. There are many who re;er
to the celebrated couplet of Shakespeare,
"There is a tide in the affairs of men,
which taken at the flood, leads on to for
tune" without once thinking Of the neces-
sity of making any practical use of the
suggested action. There was once large
manufacturing establ shment, five or six
stories in height, which employed watch
man at night to protect the building from
fire. His duty was to take a covered Ian
tern, and every half hour to visit the main
room in every story to see if all was well.
To guard against sleepy sentinel and a
sham service, there was clock placed in
each room, in the front of which projected
a number of small wooden pegs, so ar
ranged that one was to be pushed in every
half hour of the night. When the half
and thus it notified the manager in the
morning of the fact that during that par
ticuar interval of time the watchman had
been missing from his post or failed of his
duty.
A writer commenting on this incident,
remarks: ave have often thought that if,
on the face of times dial, each of US had
our system of pegs, representing the SER
vice committed to our charge, the number
at the close of each day of outstanding
monuments of our failures would startle
US, provided we gave any serious consid-
Grafton to the subject There is an init
mate relation, which many seem not to re-
alize, between duty and privilege, obliga-
tion and the reward that follows faithful
ness. TO not few itseems as though the
call of the hour may remain unanswered
ifindolence suggests it, without more than
a passing injury to their own fortunes,
and even then with only delay in the
seizure of some good that may be secured
as we'll by little extra diligence thereaf-
ter. But the machinery is inexorable as
fate. No future proptious hour will give
the golden opportunity to make amends
for present neglect. Penitence after the
projecting peg, nor has contrtion, hoWev-
er much it may plead with it's binding
tears, any power over the unfinished task.
TO superficial observers the hours are all
alike. Sloth or self-indulgence pleads that
the next half hour is precisely like this
which is counting its pulse beats while the
call to service is ringing unanswered in the
ear and he fondly dreams that duty
neglected now may be taken up when the
hands on the dial come round again with
the same ease and promise of success. But
lost opportunities never return. The slug
gard, once aroused, may seize the present
moment and give hostages for the future
but he cannot redeem the past, which has
gone forever beyond the reach of his now
eager hand.
This cannot be too vividly impressed on
all who would make anything out of life
but sad series of miserable failures.
Every moment has its golden chance of
glorious service, with promised need
that surely awaits the faithful. They
seem so trivial to many, these little hints
of the worlds great need, that the call is
wholly ignored. If the fate of a nation
hung in the balance, or the welfare of a
whole people depended on their faithful
ness, then the occasion would be bless
ed privilege, and it would be easy, they
think, to practice any amount of self-de-
nying vigilance for an object so vast and
fraught with such mighty results. But
merely to push in peg, with no one to
watch the act but a ticking clock, is not
sufficient incentive to eXertion, and they