Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-09-13
AN OBJECT IN LIFE.
HOWARD DISCUSSES THE CUES
TON, WHAT ARE WE HERE FOR?


ents Make-An Aim. However Humble,
Is Good Thing.
The average man is e fool And he dieth
as the fool dieth.
Quietly sitting in your New England home,
contented with your breakfast, comfortable
in your surroundings, peaceful atmosphere
suggesting an everlasting freedom from I'M
pleasant activities, take piece OF paper and
write on it the names Of the great of the
earth. Put down men and women great in
any line mental, moral, physical, financial.
Include statesmen, financiers, writers, ora
tors, inventors, explorers, humanitarians,
aye, and if you will, put in those who are
noted simply for length of days, or personal
proves, or height or weight.
How many have yous Oughtn't that list
to be longer!
What are we here fora Oughtn't there to
be an aim for every human being besides the
mere getting of bread and butter, providing
of shelter and clothes! Parents may with
some degree of justice say: Nv ell, 1t is toe
late now for me to have an aim" But If
seems to me, when they have gotten that far
III the sentence. the faces of their children
should rise before them, and the thought
born on the instant. that their aim should be
to give their children an aim, should be
thenceforth their guiding star, the very
helm Of the voyage OF life.
The parents make great mistakes. They
have an idea that to refuse this, that or tie
other to their children is an unllindnesS. AS
a matter of fact, it is the truest kindness
often to refuse A majority of parents hest
foS. 70 70 fbai. obiifSrar
the most selfish motives, unrecognized, but
existing. all the same. Discipline requires
strength of mind. II requires not only men,
tai strength, but moral strength and phys
ical endurance Very few of Us are endowed
with all of these, and the great ma jority of
us have little of either. 1t takes time and
patience to train a dog, therefore 1t is very
much cheaper TO pay trainer $40 month
than it is to bother ones self about il. Pre-
cisely so with children. We spoil them at
home and send them TO school for their edu-
cation. There is so much in us that is I'M
used, so much that mi ght be made available,
to put it selfshIy, for our own comfort, for
our own happiness, for our own delight and
appreciation of the bounteous gifts which
are showered upon our path, but which we
have not the sight to see.
A man who goes through life with no other
ambition than saving money is a mean man;
but after all he has an idea. He wants to
die rich man, and he does die rich. Every
body laughs when lie dies: but he has had the
solid satisfaction, all his life long, of pursu-
ing O course designedly and deliberately
marked out. The fact that it is an ignoble
aim has nothing to do with the case. He has
an aim, and be follows it the end. \ man
who desires to become good public speaker
may fail in convincing others that he is u
good public speaker; but he, having marked
out that line of endeavor, educates himself,
reads books, practices oratory, yells behind
the barn, shouts over the bounding pillows,
talks in the seclusion of his study, speaks as
he walks the crowded streets. Do you mean to
tell me that he is not having a good time?
Do you mean to tell me that be is beside him
self when he does thatf Can't you see that
he is a better man, a more useful man, even
if he never succeeds in reaching the goall
The very fact that the moment we begin
to consider the subject of aims, our minds
divides them into classes, proves conclusively,
first, that it is an interesting thought, and
second, that it is one which. outworked, will
do US good. don't mean to intimate that
the average man, the ditch diggers, the day
laborers, the slaves of capital, the Indians in
their forests, the vast hordes in jungle,
swamp or glade, need be expected ever to
stand upon mountain tops and view the pros
pect Ger, hoping by expert eye to detect
some glittering point toward which to shoot
the arrows of their desire, but | DO say, if
ambition could be implanted in their breasts,
lowly, humble, poverty stricken though it
be, the man would be happier, more useful,
more contented, and the race would be-
elevated many points.
The ditch digger who means to have his
ditch straghter and cleaner than that of any
other man has an object in life. The man
who builds stone fence and regards its
neat, regular surface, its direct course, with
satisfaction, and compares or contrasts il
with the fences of others less careful abou.
him, has an ambition, and he is a better man
for the fact. The express clerk whose tally
book is legible and whose crate list and
drivers books are neat, with readable adj
dresses and decipherabie figures, is a better
man, better servant to his company, q
more acceptable public worker, than his fell
lows who scribble the scrawls we ordinarily
find in express delivery books, the only legi-
Bile feature about it being the cabalistic sign
of C. o. d. Go into any great printing estab-
lshment and you viii find that there are Ger
tain clerks in the advertising department
with whom the public prefer to deal Whyt
Because they are DESTROYS not only of serv-
ing their employer by pleasing his patrons,
but Of advancing themselves in their en-
ploy. 1t is their aim to be CIVIL TO be oblix
ing, TO be helpful and to be correct.
Go into the city editors room and talk
with him If he viii cordescend, between
his cigarette puffs to open his oracular lips,
he will tell you Of the twenty or thirty re-
porters under his control three or four are
the group upon whom be chiefly relies.
Why's Because they arc ambitious along
their line Of work; because they are al
ways on time; because they have a quick
nose for news; because their copy is clean;
because they don't spend an hour in revising
and interlining and crossing out and chang
ing expressions.
l went to school once to q man whoe
finger nails were always dirty. BE produced
profound impression on me, and don't be-
iieve l have ever had dirty finger nail
since. lie little knew what his object in life
was, but so far Is an c0Dcernsd, the only
thing l. ever learned from him was by OBJ
servation Of his excessively dirty finger MALTA.
Joe Howard In Boston Globe
Car Horses il Cabs