The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1888-04-25
Failure.
"Of all sad words OF tongue or pen

"Of all sad words OF tongue or pen
The saddest are these: it might have BEEN"
How sad these words are, only those can
know who have had to say, cit might have
been" in relation to some pet project, to
some cherished ambition. or to some life
long plan destroyed. Many of us, aye.
most if not all of us, have to say, as we
look backward, and say with sadness. cit
might have been" and we sigh, and say ours
is hard lot. Yet it would be more correct
for us to say, I'VE have made our lot a hard
one-we have failed"
Failures there are in all the walks of life.
The broker, the banker. the merchant. all
are liable to failure and do fail. Yet their
failure may be only partial. Riches may
take TO themselves wings and fly away, and
yet the life of him whose riches have flown
may not be a failure. Misfortune is not
always failure.
Every man here. if he is honest, will adj
nit that he has failed. He has failed to
do honestly by all men. or he has failed to
control hmself-has failed to say mo"
when no was the only word to say. And
many one is ready to say:
1.-The wind is raving; the night is chilli
Drearily drips the rain;
And sit and think in my prison cell,
Looking out through the misty pane,
Of the days that were once so joyous and glad,
The days that now sorry and sad,
And wish for them back again"
Yet this thinking of days that are past,
and wishing for them back again, will not
bring them. 1t is to the future we must
look to redeem the past TO sit and wish
for dead days is worse than useless. 1t
won't bring them back. 1t is simply adding
to the already too long list of days that are
dead 1t is adding to the time that is to be
regretted, and making the failure cOntnu-
Gus one. Now. although some one has said
that failures are the stepping-stones to sue
cess. no one has ever said that continuous
failure ever led to success. And it
never did. 1t is not the man who falls
down and lays there, wishing that
he hadn't fallen, who achieves success. 1t
is he who. if he falls. rises at once and
pushes on. Such a man looks to the past
only to recall the lesson which it has taught.
The paths OF failure and success lie side
by side. perhaps may be the same for a
short distance, but the time comes when they
part abruptly and are never more within
the sight of each other. The one is upward
and onward to the heights, where Self-res-
pect and honor abide, and where the glOri-
Gus sunshine of Gods approval sheds its re-
viving rays over the wearied traveller. The
other leads downward into the mists and
darkness of the valley haunted by the ghosts
of unfultilled promises and broken resOlu-
lions, and the traveller. chilled with the
dampnesS of despair, sinks hOpelessly down.
and gazing toward the ar-Otf heights of
success, YEARLY signs. cit might have
BEEN" and lies there until death takes him
away.
A part of the distance through life the
traveller may change from one path TO
another and many do change. Some. alas.
well started in the path OF success. through
sheer Obstlnancy, take the other path. Some
in the path of failure, realize with alarm
whittier their path is leading them, change
their steps and enter the path of success.
But there comes a time when final choice
must be made, and to many of us the time
is now. the place is here, where we must
give our final decision as to the road we
take when we leave this refOrmatOry. The
path of failure brought us here. but from
this point we can step into the path of sue
cess. Let us think carefully and choose
wisely. Fathers. mothers, brothers, sis
tiers, wives, children, friends. are all look
ing anxiously to see which path we shall
take, and are all involved in our decision.
Both paths are before us. WeMUsT choose.
We CANNOT travel Doth.-Our Paper,
Warnerville, Mass.