Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1893-10-12

eO Olleu anu SO pOS1UlY6ly
that they have at last taken a
sort Of brevet rank as facts, but which
are nevertheless absurdly false and often
very stupid. 1t is one Of the funny fash
ions of this very funny world to enunci-
ate these maxims with the air of having
just originated some especially smart
new maxim, the brilliant result of our
own superior wisdom. | do not know
anything more comically provoking than
this air unless it is the earsplitting
cackle of a hen over q new laid egg. The
egg is no better and no different from
that which Ewes favorite pullet laid in
paradise and that pullet's daughters
have been laying ever since. But to hear
the cackle one would imagine that sDe-
cial hen had invented eggs and wished
to call the attention of the world to the
fact.
For instance, if young man shows a
tendency to go away from home and see
something Of the world, become "a globe
trotter" to a greater or less extent, he is
warned that "a rolling stone gathers no
moss"-that is to say, the moving man
will not acquire money and position.
Now, we all know that this is a prodi-
gious falsehood. It Is the moving man,
the pusher, the hustler, the rustler, or
whatever else he may be called, who
succeeds and makes for himself position,
money and influence. The human bowl
der gathers moss indeed, but it is the
moss of decay and the rust of inaction.
But opposed to this is another proverb
equally false, "Homely youth have ever
homely wits" statement perhaps true
in Shakespeare's time, but not at all
true now, for it is in quiet and seclu-
sion, at home, or college, or in some sort
of retirement, that ''wits," if wits mean
intellect and mental processes, go on
the best, and the scientist, the chemist,
the philosopher, the lecturer OF the
preacher would come to great grief if
he had not some sort of ''home' to shut
himself into.
But the popular saying which just
now annoys mo the most is one that your
friends always present to you in times
Of trouble and perplexty, generally offer
ing it with sort of benevolent and per-
functory air, as if it were piece of re-
igious consolation or well proved
recipe for happiness, sort of panacea
for every i'll Of spirit, mind or body. 1t
is sometimes expressed in one form,
sometimes another, but the idea is, ''All
things come round to him who will but
wait"
Now, I appeal to you, my dear reader,
to say if that promise has fulfilled itself
in your life. 1t certainly has not in
mine. We all of us, suppose, start in
life with some faroff ideal Of happiness
or at least pleasure glittering like star
in our future, either remote or close at
hand. 1t is like the golden cup which
we were told in our childhood is to be
found hanging on the end Of the rain
bow. Probably most Of us have once or
twice set off full of hope to find that cup,
but have yet to hear Of any one who
has achieved it. And do we generally
gain these early ideals? Have you?
Think bit Of what you wanted most
at Is, at 20, at 25, and SO on. Have you
ever really and fully obtained it? Prob
ably you have changed that ideal many
times, you have set tho goal where you
were to rest satisfied farther and farther
away, but have you ever reached it? In
one word, have you found in your own
experience that ''all things come round
to him who will but waltz
Doubtless we have often derived COM
fort from the phrase, for most people
are very ready to take words for things.
Some older person has said it to us with
that assured and benevolent manner Of
which I spoke but now-some parent or
friend or clergyman to whom we have
applied for counsel and comfort-and we
have received it as a sort of prophetic
promise and gone away with the feeling
that all is now going to be set right and
we have only to wait q bit to have our
hearts desire fulfilled in the completest
manner.
And does it?
It is about as rational a belief as that
we attach to the words of a fortune
teller to whom we have furtively applied
in some terrible muddle Of our affairs
She has 'prophesied smooth things" in a
very impressive manner, and even while
jeering at our own credulity we go away
with sort of shamefaced faith that per-
haps, after all, she is right, and at any
rate we feel little encouraged.
And how common sense insists upon
reminding us Of the failure Of various
other similar venturesl
The young girl fixes her affections or
perhaps only her fancy upon some man,
who in turn has fixed his upon some
other woman, or, as is more likely, upon
himself and his own interests. "All
things come round to him who Will but