The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-08-11

| Joy Allison. in YOUTHS Companion.
TWO NECESSARY QUALITIES.
Energy to Be Effective Must Be Joined
to These.
Energy, to be effective. must be
! joined with Judgment and decision,
without which man is qualified only
| to be a clerk or foreman for others,
who can do the scheming and planning
| for which he lacks capacity. See to it
that your judgment is cultivated by
study of thoughtful books, observation
and meditation. Do not make the mis-
take which SO many youths do, Of cul-
tivating the lower faculties of the
mind-fancy, wit, etc.-instead of the
higher; the auxiliary ones instead of
the principal. There is an applause
that follows the display of the former
which is flattering to youthful vanity;
but let the brilliant, snowy youth be
pitted in the arena against an antago-
mist who has aimed chiefly at strength
Of mind. and sought to discipline his
faculties of reasoning and Judgment,
and you will soon see the sparkling dia-
mond reduced to carbon and pounded
to dust.
Next in Importance to a sound judg-
ment is decision. He who combines
the soundest Judgment with the great
est rapidity of decision and energy in
executing his plans will push his way
the fastest and climb the highest up
the sleeps of success Thousands of
men who are possessed of every other
qualification for getting on in the
world fail from lack OF decision. Bacon
Justly complains of them that through
Righteousness, timidity or mental slow
ness they object too much. consult too
long. adventure too little, repent too
soon. and seldom drire business home. The
world was not made for slow, squeam-
ish. tinid people, bat for those who act
instantaneously and with power. Bet
ter decide wrong occasionally than be
forever hesitating and vacillating, with
the weakness, misery and disaster that
follow from chronic habit of doubt.
ITO do anything worth doing in the
world" says Sidney Smith, 1--WE must
not stand shivering on the brink, and
thinking Of the cold and the danger,
but Jump in and scramble through
as well as we can. 1t will not do to
be perpetually calculating risks and
adjusting nice chances. 1t did all very
well before the flood: but at present a
man waits and doubts and hesitates
and consults his brother and his
uncle and his first cousins and
his particular friends, till one day
he finds that he is sixty-6ve years of
age: that he has lost so much time in
consulting friends that he has no time
left to follow their advice"
The victories and defeats in life often
turn on minutes. Crises are ever and
anon occurring, the selling of which is
triumph, the neglect of which is ruin.
Too many young men who might other
wise succeed in life are like the ALI
ance that fought the French revOlu-
ton, which, as Chamfort said, was al
ways behind day, by an army, by an
idea. In critical moments they vacil-
late like Louis XVI, whose pitiful lack
of decision and nerve prevented him,
in his escape from Paris to the
frontier of France. from passing
round the barrier in the highway
at Varennes. Instead of acting prompt
ly he hesitated. and discussed the fine
quality of the Burgundy offered him at
the village inn, and that hesitation was
his ruin. In twenty or thirty minutes
he might have been safe among his
friends, but through his delay in the
little parlor outside events shaped
themselves in the fatal grooves of that
long procession of shame and suffering
which ended with the guillotine.
How many generals have lost the OPP
portunity of victory through their ex-
cessive anxiety to be perfectly prepared
for battle? How different Napoleon's
conduct in his Egyptian expedition.
Hardly had he olsen barked at Alexan-
dria when he advanced against that
CITY and assaulted it with mere hand
full of his troops. without waiting for
his artillery. 1T is a principle of war"
SAYS he. "that when one can use the
thunderbolt, it should be preferred to
cannon" Who does not admire the
intrepidity and decision of that hard
fighter. Admiral Farragut, in Mobile
bay. when. despite the torpedoes
that had just sunk the Tecumseh, he
ordered the feet to press on. go on"
he shouted. -Four bells Capt. Day
ton. go ahead! Jouett, full speedG' and
the dread line was passed. The tor
pedoes snapped, but did not explode.
and disastrous defeat was converted
into a brilliant victory. Promptness
OF decision allied to invincible courage
and energy was leading quality of
the eminent man of business and phi
lanthropist. Sir Thomas POWELL Bux
ton. When he advocated the abolition
of slavery in the British West Indies
he encountered a bowling tempest OF
opposition. All the artillery OF prayers.
entreaties. batteries and threats was
directed against him to induce him to
POSTPONE his motion in the house OF
commons. but in vain wv hat shall
say wh:n hear people abusing you?"
asked one of his friends when the storm
was fercest- Say. he replied. snap
ping mis- fingcrs-''say that
wiz you tell me that decision, like
bodily vigor. is God-given. and can not
be created by iint OF effort? answer
that some men. no doubt hare consti-
tutionaily decision OF mind; but does
this prove that this quality may nos DC
acquired by those who lack 1t, or
strengthened by those in whom Il Is