Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1889-02-21
The Things That Seem Hardest for the
Young to Bear Often Prove Their Great
est Help in Later Years.

The Things That Seem Hardest for the
Young to Bear Often Prove Their Great
est Help in Later Years.
There comes time in every boy
and girls life when the duties required
of them seem irksome, unnecessary and
even cruel. They get out of all SYM
pathy with their lives at home, and feel
themselves ill-used or unappreciated.
This feeling comes generally when
marbles, top and velocipede, dolls and
child's books and amusements, have
lost all attractions. The father and
mother feel that it is quite time that at
least a limited amount of work and re-
sponsibility take the place and time of
the outgrown toys. Here and there we
! find a boy or girl who cheerfully ac-
cepts the change, who puts on the new
duties and responsibilities as they would
the long dress in place of the short one,
or the long trousers in place of the
knickerbockers; but the majority of
boys and girls feel themselves martyrs
if they are compelled to do certain
things that minister to the family life
and comfort. They go to school every
day willingly, and perform their duties
there more or less faithfully. If they
were asked ''Why?" they would be sur
prised at the question. Education was
necessary. A man Or woman could not
amount to any thing if they did not
have an education of some sort. OF
course they would go to school, to pre-
pare for being men and women in the
worldr'
The education out of school is some
times far more valuable for living than
any acquired in school. Mis- Alcott,
just before she died, wrote 'sRecollec-
lions of My Childhood'' for the Youths
Companion. Many of you, no doubt,
have read it. She tells, in her own de-
lightful way, of the naughty pranks of
her childhood, the thoughts and feel
ings of her girlhood. In describing
the family life after the return to Bos-
ton, she says:
"Anna soon found little pupils, and
trudged away each morning to her
daily task, pausing at the corner to
wave her hand to me in answer to my
salute with the buster. My father went
to his classes at his room down town,
mother to her all-absor bing poor, the
little girls to school, and / was left to
keep house, feeling like a Gagged sea-
gull as I washed dishes and cooked in
the basement kitchen, where my pros
pect was limited to procession of
muddy boots"
Could any girl live life that caused
more self-sacrifice than this? With
Miss Alcott's intense love for all things
beautiful, love of the freedom of out
door life, every minute must have been
trial. What does she say of it? ''GOOd
drill, but very hard" 1t was that very
experience, no doubt, that enabled Miss
Alcott to write Polly" a story that
has made little economies noble to hun
dreds of girls. 1t is so hard for us to
learn that every day is just a prepare
ton for the day to follow, that we can
not separate our lives into pigeon
holes numbered from one to three hun
dred and siXty-five, or into groups of
twelve, or separate years from each
other. Life is like building having
several parts but all under one roof.
and to be symmetrical, sound, beauti-
full, every part must bear it's right re-
lation to every other part.
Sometimes the things that seemed
hardest for us to bear will prove our
greatest help when we become men or
women.
The writer, when twelve years old,
wanted dress of a certain kind. The
woman who acted the part OF mother to
her told her she could have it if she
would make it. Such Il proposition
staggered her, and all thought of the
dress was given up. During the week
she was sitting under tree making a
polonaise for her doll; she thought: eff
can make clothes for my doll that fit
and look pretty, why should not make
clothes for MYSELF" She ran into the
house at once and announced that she
would make the dress if she could have
the materials. They were bought and
carried to her room, and there was
fought tremendous battle. The skirt
of the dress was sewed on and ripped
off thirteen times before it was pro-
nounced right. During the week the
little girl cried oceans of tears, it
seemed to her, and she felt that all
kindness and goodness had gone out of
life Years after, when she was wo-
man, it became necessary for her to
earn money, and the first money she
earned was for making a dress for a
rich, kind woman. If she had not
learned to work for herself, depend on
herself, she would have been helpless
when necessity came. Like Miss AL
colt. she says: Good drill. but very
hard"
Men testify again and again that it is
the learning to do things that seemed
hard and unnecessary that fitted them
to be men in the business world. Doing
drudgery is the best way to master any
business, any profession. A. T. Stewart
knew how to sell goods over a counter
before he built up business that sup
ported hundreds. The founder Of one
of the largest publishing houses in this
country learned to set type There is
m apprenticeship that must be lived