Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1896-06-02

UloDoHS FolceS JOIN IN Missing.
Many also make a failure in the
drama of life through Incidence. They
are always making calcula lions how lit
tie they can do for the compensation
they get. There are more lazy min
listers, lawyers, doctors, merchants
artists and farmers than have ever
been counted upon. The community is
full of laggards and shirkers. I can
tell it from the way they crawl along
the street, from their hardness in meet
ing engagements, from the lethargies
that seem to hang to the foot when
they lift it, to the hand when they put
1t out, to the words when they speak.
Two young men in a store. In the
morning one goes to his post the last
minute or one minute behind. The
other is ten minutes before the time
and has his hat and coat hung up, and
is at his post waiting for duty. The
one is ever and anon, in the afternoon,
looking at his watch to see if it is not
most time to shut up. The other stays
half an hour after he might go, and
when asked why. says he wanted to
look over some entries he had made
to be sure he was right, or TO put up
some goods that had been left out of
place. The one is very touchy about
doing work not exactly belonging to
him. The other is glad to help the
other clerks in their work. The first
will be prolonged nothing, and he
Will be poorer at sixty years of age
than at twenty. The other will be
merchant prince. Incidence is the
cause Of more failures in all occupa-
tons than You have ever suspected.
People are too lazy to do what they
can do, and want to undertake that
which they cannot do. In the drama of
life they don't want to be a common
soldier carrying a halberd across the
stage, or falconer, or a mere attend
ant, and so they lounge about the
scenes till they shall be called to be
something great. After while, by
some accident of prosperity or rcum-
stances, they get into the place
for which they have no qualification.
And very soon, if the man be
merchant, he is going around asking
his creditors to compromise for ten
cents on the dollar. Or, if clergy
man, he is making Trades against the
ingratitude of churches. Or, if an at
torney, by unskilled management he
loses a case by which widows and or
phans are robbed of their portion. Or,
IL physician, he by malpractice gives
his patient rapid transit from this
world to the next. Our incompetent
friend would have made a passable
horse doctor, but he wanted to be pro-
lessor of anatomy in a university. He
could have sold enough confectionery
to have supported his family, but he
wanted to have a sugar refinery like
the Havemeyers. He could have
mended shoes, but he wanted to amend
the Constitution of the United States.
Towards the end of life these people
are out of patience, out OF money, out
of friends, out of everything. They go
to the pcor-house, or keep out of it
by running in debt to all the grocery
and dry goods stores that will trust
them. People begin to wonder when
the curtain will drop on the scene.
After a while, leaving nothing but
their compliments to pay doctor, under
taker, and Gabriel Grub, the grave
digger, they disappear. .Exeunt! Hiss
ed off the stage.
Others fail IN the drama OF life
through demonstrated selfisrness. They
make all the rivers empty into their
sea, all the roads of emolument end at
their door, and they gather all the
plumes of honor for their brow. They
help no one, encourage no one, rescue
no one. How big a pile of money
can l get?" and How much of the
world can absorb" are the chief ques-
tons They feel about the common
people as the Turks fell towards the
Asaphi, or common soldiers, con-
sidering them of no use except to fill up
the bitches with their dead bodies
while the other troops walked over
them to take the fort. After a while
this prince Of worldly success is sick.
The only interest society has in
his illness is the effect that his pos
sible decease may have on the money
markets. After awhile ne dies. Great
newspaper capitals announce how he
started with nothing and ended with
everything. Although for sake OF ap-
pearance some people put handker-
chiefs to the eye, there is not one genu-
inc tear shed. The heirs sit up all
night when he lies in state, discuss
ing what the old fellow has probably
done with his money. 1t takes all the
livery stables within two miles to
furnish funeral equipages, and all the
mourning stores are kept hnsy in sell
ing weeds of grief The stcne-cutters
send in proposals for monument
The minister at the obsequies reads of
the resurrection, which makes the
hearers fear that if the INSCRIPTIONS
financier does come up in the general
rising, he will try to get corner" on
tombstones and graveyard fences. All
good men are glad that the moral
nuisance has been removed. The Wall |
street spectators are glad because
there is more room for themselves. The |
heirs are glad because they get |
DOSseSSiOn of tha Ionp-daIovpd inharit- |