Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-10-31
CAN'T YOU WAIT.
BY HARTLEY HARKER.
New York Weekly.

grew impatient, lost my courage entirely.
and took fools risk of haste. | lost ALL
Yet had I had waited sixty-one days more
| should have won the prize of a life
time =
Sixty-one days more! Only that. after a
man had had the pluck to wait ten years.
| looked at the gentleman, well-known
political manager, and wondered that he
should have had the self-command to con-
fess the story to me. Had it been my
case, my chagTin and self-reproach would
have made me keep the shameful defeat
buried ten thousand feet deep In my own
heart. So near to success! So grand a
fight! Defeat because | could not wait
course, that only sixty-one days more re-
of men and things would, of course, have
held his grip. Still, no man can see the
future. The waiting quality that had car
ried him. like a good steed on a long
march, $3.50 days ought to have had the
wind for 81 days more.
This story is everybody's story Who
has not given up just at the wrong time?
Who has not let go even ten days-yes
ten minutes, too soon? The history of
The Last Ten Minutes would be the most
thrilling tragedy in human history. Had
the old guard of Waterloo been able to
hold on their charge ten minutes more in
to the face of the hollow square of Eng
hshmen around Wellington Had the
engineer, under the caisson of the East
River Bridge, when it was burning, failed
In his long fight with the hidden flames
ten minutes more of breathing the smoke
and gas. Had the switchman with "a
raging blind headache, he now says, held
on at his post even five minutes more; but
he tainted, so he claims, and fell at the
left of the track; and that IS how my
nelghbOr came to mourn a lovely wife
killed on the express just there.
Does the head ache, is the foot very
lame, the back most broken? Hold
steady. Better suffer a little more, bracing
up to it, dear, dear heart, than by letting
go lose the labor of months. You will not
remember this headache when you get
your Joy. Can you hold on? Can you
wait a day more? Let this line put new
strength into you. Would to God | could
see your face. I can only write to you.
Yes, | can see your face, your eyes swim
ming in tears as you read, your lips
trembling, your hands nervously working
But you will not surrender, | am sure. By
the memory of your promise to the absent;
by your VOW on your knees; by all you have
endured thus far, all you have worked out
with untold struggle; by the cost of this
present hour, freely paid by a generous
friend you believed in your plan; by
Heaven, who has spared your health, your
reason itself through enough to have
crushed a soul without faith; by all the
good that will come to yourself and to
many, the happy days that may be-Oh,
reader, let me hear your stout response,
Yes, | can wait little longer"
One evening of a stormy March day,
three years ago, | met friend on Fulton
street, in New York. His haggard look,
his swift rush almost past me without a
pect so startled me that | cried: ''What
are you going to do with yourself mad
man?' ''Going to lie down in the gutter
of banlruptcy!'
It was hard time with me also | had
not dollar to loan; my credit was shaken.
[ could only say, as | grasped both his coat
lapels, Promise me you will hold on until
Thursday This was Monday. what
the use of promising?" Il don't know,
only promise Is it Thursday?" He man
aged to smile grimly, and reply: ''Well, |
yes, I'll fight till Thursday morning at,
pulling out his watch, ''eleven o'clock.
Then | shall make an assignment. It's all
folly Might as we'll do it tomorrow.
But you have made me promise to endure
few hours more of striking the air, and
he shot away from me over to Brooklyn.
That man is to-day in affair way to be-
come a millionaire. Thursday morning
stepped across his threshold just long
enough to hear him say, ''God bless you.
l can see a way out!' Yet | only acted on
general principles in exacting that prom
Use. | knew Time was a wizard. Who
could tell what might happen in few
hours more?
| believe in Time. Time is not a god
with me. There is one God, good and over
ALL But Time is to me almost beautifed In
the splendor of the results | have seen
come from his hand Time is the best
friend man ever had. know all that can
be said on the other side. But If you
think carefully you will agree with me that
Time is the most tremendous power that
you, a finite man, can ever hope to grasp.
Only get Time in your hand, like ham,
mer and you can crush anything. 1t is
when Time hammers us that it is our enc
my. Most men do not know how to ham
die it, it gets against, not for them. Look
out for that But if you can be the mas
Think of it, the Almighty Himself throws
down every other weapon as failure
the lightning, the earthquake, light and
heat, fire and water; none of these will
serve His purpose, when He wishes to de
stroy an empire. for instance. Heaven said
to the throne of the Caesars: 81 will
crush you with the weight Of twelve hum
dred years. That did it.
Wait, and you will see your friend once
more. Wait, and you will see your energy
die. You must not, you need not, strike.
Wait, and your health will improve. Wait,
and your fortune will change for the bet
ter. Wait, and the leaden sky will
brighten, the sun will rend the veil and
salute you. Can you wait? Waiting is
far drawer than they may think, who never
have been through it. Many think,
vauntingly boast, that they know what it
is to wait. Foolish boosters. have they
any man say: II know what waiting Isl
OF all earth S millions, few have ever been
through this mighty secret. Here there Is
one worthy to be crowned.
Crowned, did | say? Oh, yes, it Is a
coronation. When, after years of this
sublimity, at length, eyes meet, hands
clasp. heart knows heart to be true. When, |
through storms of half ones lifetime, at
overtime it is light! The west is aglow. |
The orihamme sky is spreading wider. The |
ugly wind changes at last What a trans
ition. Every blade of grass bears pearl. |
Every leaf drops It's prism of diamond /
light The sigh of nature, wear1ed out by |
your courage, becomes your manhood S !
Iaudation. Things, mere things, that OPP |
posed your daring, patient soul, creep out