Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-10-15

There Is an cd, well-worn, and IN soma
respects pathetic story Of an urchin lean
ing YEARLY on his hoe in the potato field
one dull spring morning, when the sky was
overcast, the freshly stirred earth gave out
its lanCuorOus odors. and the hard and un-
inviting toll seemed almost insupporta ble.
The spirit of unrest was at WORK in the Lad.
LOngings Tor a day of, for little fun for
change, If nothing more, stirred in him.
Monotony depressed him. his special work
was distasteful TO him, and the young blood
III his veins struggled for variety and for
freedom.
Dad" said the bov. as he looked up at
the cloudy sky and then at the silver SHIN
mer OF the stream flowing by the foot of
the meadow, dad, | guess the fish would
bite good to-day"
We'll, sonny" said the practical parent,
you keep right on hoeing taterS, aud they
won't bite YOU"
Cnfeeling as the answer may appear it
brings up into sharp outline the supremacy
of duty over inclination, of fortitude over
dependency, of fidelity and conscientious
ness and grit over vain imaginingS and fool
ish regrets, and indolent repinings. Keep
right on hoelng taterS' is uupalatable ad-
vice to many weary worker in the field OF
life insurance who would fain do some
thing else One thinks he ought to be =
general agent when he Is only solicitor;
another thinks the company's rules alb
surdly strict; another that its demands on
him are too great; another that his field is
too small; another that his commissions ars
too low. One man thinks he knows more
about his own business than the officers do,
another that his abilities are undervalued,
another that the work he is set to do is all
wrong, another doesn't see why everybody
doesn't see things just as he does, another
that he is hampered and restricted and
still another that somebody is down on him.
To all those the story is applicable. TIC all
these its moral comes: You are what you
are; you have your work to do-do it; you
are one of the cOgs on one of the wheels OF
a great machine; you have your place and
your functions; ill your place, fulfill your
function.
1t may be haru 10 be told to hoe potatoes
when we had rather be raising orchids or
going fishing, but duty is duty. We may
think the work not worthy of US, we may
feel that our energies and our abilities are
wasted il servile toll, but if we have taken
the contract let US carry it out like men.
Courage and self-control and tenacity of
purpose are the attributes of manhood. and
are often best eXemplified when possibly we
think them the least called for. All of us
are ''hoeing taters'' in one way or another.
The earth TO all of US is sometimes dreary
place enough. but ''tickle it with hoe and
it will laugh with a harvest"
William Gray, formerly one of the wealth
lest and most respected merchants of Bos-
ton, came of very humble origin. AT
directors meeting. in his later years, he
advocated some measure opposed by
pompous and overbearing capitalist, who
tried to discomfort him by interrupting his
remarks, and cried out: 'Billy Gray.
knew you when you were drummer boyr'
'You did," said Mr.. Gray, land didn't I
drum weil?'' That sounds the keynote.
Billy Gray drummed well when he mad to
drum: when he imported China silks and
teas he did that well, and he managed well
the largest manufacturing plant in New
England when the time came to him to do
likewise.
Act well your part-there all the honor
lies" bravely, cheerfully if may be, put
aside your natural yielding to doubtfulness,
TO dependency, to hesitancy; brace your
self for your task, do it to the best of your
ability, and then, some day, as it happened
once of old, perchance one shall come unto
you and say, ''Friend, go up higher