Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1891-11-11
THE REWARDS OF HUSTLING.

A Writer Who Thinks There Are Many
Instances Where it Does Not Pay.
It's somewhat peculiar world, this
one we reside in, my masters, says Kate
Fields Washington, and there are a
great many people to give advice as 10
the best methods of employing our two
hands SO that we may become fore
handed in the shortest possible lapse of
time.
It's busy old shell-round, like an
apple or creditor, and fattened at the
poles; and just how to make haste and
other little articles of vertu, without jog
Cling some Of the best eggs out OF our
basket, is a question which puzzles a
good many of the wisest of us.
We are all hustling, and the more we
hustle the more we may, seemingly;
but the man who hustles the most, and
keeps ahead of his struggling, toiling,
stralning competitors, has the clearest
view of the track, crosses the shaky
bridge first, breathes the air when it is
the freshest and least contaminated
and can stop and rest occasionally when
he gets far enough ahead.
He hurries and digs and looks so in
tently before him that he doesn't have
which beset his mortal frame. In
short, he ''gets there"
He has to try the shaky bridge first,
and, if it goes down, his followers eau
shun it. He does not see the slippery
place, and falls with great splurge,
and all those who come after see him
do it, and raise their hands, and heap
derision upon him, and go carefully
around the spot. He is always in such
hurry that he doesn't have time to
think about his health; and he eats too
FAST and acquires quarter-sectlon OF
dyspepsia which makes his inward man
feel like the four-pound stone inside
the scrawny turkey at Christmas time.
If he gets SO far ahead that he can at
ford to rest and look around little, he
can't enjoy it much. He has hustled
SO long that he doesn't feel happy. He
misses the jolt and jar and rattle he
has been used to so long. So he hurries
on and on, and maybe is going so fast
that he can't stop when he comes to the
precipice, and over he goes; while the
man who is following after in an old
fogy, take-it-easy sort of way. comes up
to the edge by and by, looks over,
shudders, drops tear, stops to enjoy
the view and have his bushes card
painted on the cliff, and moves along by
easy stages toward the lovely land at
the top Of the hill, which he will know
how to enjoy-when he gets to it.
Enterprise and push and good hard
work are all right, fellow-worms of the
dust. We mustn't think that we can
make our way, or our salt, without
them. Someone must be at the head,
and struggle if he keeps there, and 9TH
ers must bring up the rear of the pro-
cessiOn. Why won't it be better for us
TO jog along about the middle of the
line? Perhaps people won't point at
Us and say that 1t is wonderful what
hustlers we are; but we can eat our
three meals a day on time and enjoy
them, and rest in the cool Of each even
ing under our own vine and fig-tree-or
vine and fg-tree that we rent-and
our families will get acquainted with us.
and We'll not cross bridges until they
are built, or risk our lives swimming
the river to stake out big claim before
the rest of the people cross comfortably
in the new ferryboat
Our lives are what We-and the men
who write our autobiograp piles make
them. But we can't live but one
apiece; and it strikes the subscriber
that, if we try to live at a 2:0S4 gait
when we are built for the 3 % class, our
lives will be full of trouble-yea, even
though, when we come to die, and the
places which knew US once shall know
US no more forever, the waiting genera
ton may make exceeding haste to di-
vide a great patrimony worth many
messes of pottage.