The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1895-05-02
Labor the Price of Success.

Baltimore SUM
Men are continually seeking short
cuts to fortune, fame or other kind
of success in life, but seldom, i. ever,
succeed in their quest. Fortune, in
deed, may bewon by some lucky turn
of the wheel, but without the prepar-
atory training involved in earning it
the supposedly lucky gambler" is
not fitted to use or retain it. So that,
even in the matter of fortune hunting,
labor is in the long run the price of
success. For success in other fields
labor is indispensable. Easy roads
to learning are prepared by educa-
tional quacks, but they all prove de-
lusive, and in the nature of things
must be so, for an art or calling that
can easily be acquired must be of
little value. The economic law of
supply and demand applies even to
learning, and where the supply of any
kind of knowledge exceeds the de-
mand, as is sure to be the case when
it can be acquired by anybody in a
few weeks, the knowledge itself
becomes of little commercial value.
Moreover, knowledge easily acquired
is easily lost, like the winnings of
CANISTER. There must be O certain
amount of labor devoted to study if
that which is required is to remain in
the mind and be of service. This is
perhaps the reason that the brilliant
pupils in school are seldom heard of
in after life and why the supposed
dullards become famous. The bril-
liant fellows do not study. They
manage to get through examinations
almost by intuition or with the
merest hint from the books, and for
get lesson as soon as it has been
recited. Not so with the dull fellow,
who has to tax his brain to acquire
knowledge. He may be slow, but he
is sure. Having fixed a thing in his
mind by hard labor, it becomes a
part of himself he never loses it,
And by constant accretion he builds
| up fund of knowledge sufficient to
make him successful if not famous. 1t
is the labor, however that has bought
success. Young people who do not
see the value of training try to find
some means of avoiding study or
plodding exercise. Their only aim
is to "get through the present task,
and this they may do by some short
cut, such as a key to mathematical
problems, or translation from a
foreign language, but it is at the ex-
pense of knowledge. They have ex-
pended little labor on their studies
and they achieve little success. It is
as though the principles governing
physical forces extended to the mental
processes, so that man should be lin
tied to getting out of his mind only
that amount of energy which he had
applied in storing it. Without taking
such radical view of the subject, it
would be we'll for young people to
recognize the general truth of the
position that labor is the price of
success, and the other fact that any
thing which can be easily acquired
must be of little value. Substantial
knowledge Of the kind that the world
pays for literally is acquired only by
long study, aud it is the purpose OF
education not merely to impart in.
formation, but chiefly to train the
faculties SO that they may acquire
and use knowledge. The mental ex-
ercise is as necessary as the scale ex-
ercise which young musicians seek to
avoid. But without labor of this
kind real success In life can never be
attained.
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