Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1888-01-14
EVILS OF REPRESENTATION.
Truth Of the Saying 1.-The Road of BY
and-By Leads to the House of Never"

and-By Leads to the House of Never"
The Spaniards have a proverb-"The
road of By-and-By leads to the house
of Never" 1t is profoundly true. If
the old Jewish custom of writing some
sentence of hoy writ on piece of
parchment and wearing it on the fore
head or over the heart could be revived
the phylactery should be inscribed with
the words OF the proverb the writer has
quoted and put upon the brow of every
youth in the land.
Procrastination is not only the thief
of time, as the poet hath it, but it is
the besetting folly of the time. 1t is
the laziness Of the mind as distin-
guished from muscular laziness. Bodily
Discrimination for exertion may be the
result of physical weakness or of inca
pacity. But the putting off until to-
morrow, or the next day, or the next
week, or the next year, of things that
may be done to-day is an operation of
the will.
As small children put off their EASY
tasks for the violent delights of play,
so children of larger growth put off
study and all the irksome labor that
must be undergone in the requirement
of knowledge, and as they grow older
and find they must bring up the ar
rears of past neglect they keep on i'll
the old habits by falling behind their
immediate duties in all the relations of
life.
They die in arrears, owing service to
their friends, to their associates and to
society. If they do not also leave be-
hind them unpaid debts of honor and
trust, it is because they have lived long
enough to wear out their credit.
If the boys and girls could but be
brought to see and believe what the
grandmothers and grandfathers knew
by sad experience, there might be a
salutary change. If doting parents
could be induced to insist on the
prompt performance of proper tasks,
not so much on account of the neces-
sity OF the labor as in order to the for
nation of the habit of doing at once
whatever itmay be proper and possible
to do without delay, what future pain
and modification might be avo ded
The proverb is true. By-and-By
leads to the house of Never. There is
absolutely no such thing as recovery OF
lost time and lost opportunity What
is put aside one day pushes aside some
thing else the next day, and so on I'M
til the final day is reached. Every
procras nation works an irrepressible
change in the life OF the procrustinator.
what he should do" is continually car
ried forward in the book of the record
ing angel in order to make room for
what he does do" AS no day comes to
any of us that does not bring its full
share of new responsibilities, the to-
days are never adequate for the neg
lected business Of the yesterdays. Once
in debt to time the debt remains to
eternity.
The schoolgirl who does not learn to
read and write and spell and sew and
do housework, neglecting her oppor-
tunities to acquire such useful knowl-
edge, is fitting herself for washer
woman ii there be no money left to her
by her parents. If they should have
money to leave her, she would not
know how to take care of it, and would
probably be some mans incompetent
wife, and possibly drudge or dupe.
The schoolboy who neglects h stud
les and prefers fishing, baseball and
inordinate play to the requirements of
rudimentary knowledge VII not be fit
oven to sell tape. He will not make a
competent weaver or blacksmith. He
must enter the fields of unskilled labor
and take his chances of doing the rudest
work for the smallest pay If he should
have fortune left HIM he would only
know how to spend it, and he would be
in great danger OF degenerating into q
tramp or fall into that ever open path
way where, so to speak, o man walks
down his own throat until he brings
up in the gutter.
That the writer is putting down the
evil ways of procrastination with q
black pencil it is evident. Not every
one who procrastinates is in danger of
perdition.
Reconstruction in things proper and
necessary to be done is only spoken of
here. 10 deliberate upon what is
proper to do is the part of wisdom. To
hesitate after the proper course has
been determined, in accordance with
ones reason and conscience, is the peril
Gus thing which it is particularly de-
sired 10 warn young people against.
The writer knows of no single thing
which is so threatening to the future of
American youth.
We have arrived at that condition of
national opulence when there is no
longer hard necessity to drive young
people forward in the struggle for life
Cur children enjoy permissive option
to do or not to do which was not PEI
missible to the children of their fore
fathers.
The result is most apparent in the
half-knowledge and halfhelplessness
which is becoming a distinguishing
characteristic of this generation. We
have too many oilers who need to be
pushed into industrial and mental &C.
Invites. If they should be allowed tc
wait until hunger and nakedness would
push them the fault would be only
partly theirs. Men and women are re,
sponsible for the men and women who
come after them.
That "By-andBy leads to the house
of Never" is II proverb and a trutl
that none of us may with safety ignore
-Phildd, lphia Re ord.