The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1896-06-20
SOME RAMBLING THOUGHTS.
Written for the Democratic Advocate.
BY MEMO.
[coPYRIeHrED.l

a busy layman. The aim is to lead in an
optimistic way to better understanding
OF life, its grandeur and responsibilities.
Can the way to success on the part of a
young man be written down in one hun
dred words? Let us attempt it.
1t your home be good acquire moral
strength there; if bad, seek it elsewhere.
When master over bodily impulses, leave
hcme; standing alone will strengthen your
moral fibre and broaden your mind. Use
spare moments acquiring general informa-
tion. Before thirty have definite plan
in life; then chew to the line. Stop
whining if disappointed and start again.
Entertain good will towards mankind. If
you gain knowledge or power that would
benefit the world, pass it along. Honor
your mothers sex. Avoid frivolity with
girls; it perverts your purpose and endan-
gers them. Love the woman truly who
stimulates your best impulses
Not single word about money? Ger
tainly not; morals and mind are more i'm
portant than money, wholesomeness and
wisdom are better than wealth. We young
men need to set up in our minds huge
pair of philosopher scales. We shall not
weigh thereon either coffee or tea. but
actions and thoughts and deeds. We shall
then concede that patient day-laborer
earning his living by the sweat of his brow,
providing things honestly in the sight of
men, turning each day to his hopeless toll
till his back is bowed and his heart is al
most calloused is more of good, indeed
more of a real success from lofty point
of view than the various s'barons who
aim to control the necessities of life. But
they make money. Most decidedly they
do; but how? By grinding the faces of
their toilers and reducing them to condi-
ton verging on british savagery; and also
by concerted raising of the prices of the
commodities they control, the poor again
being the chief sufferers. They are true
friends to the country they fatten on
much as lion is friend to lamb. We
need to get it scOrched into our souls that
success bought at such a price is no sue
cess at all.
We will weigh the motive that sends
some overworked country doctor or minis
ter scurrying through the night to the
house Of sickness and we shall find it a
thousand times more ponderous than that
which actuates whole shipload of stock
gamblers. Truly they make money AND
THEY LOSE IT and it is deep tarnished
in their hands in the passing.
But we must not use our whole space
in this manner. The thoughtful young
man can improve on the above suggested
line of thought and think of many stand
ards of success that are absolutely false.
If we young men find no pleasure in
reading and mental training and successful
life except as means for enabling us to
''do' our fellows, we would better throw
books and careers to the winds, for all the
real goood they will do either to us or to
others. l like the principle that pervades
the German colleges and universities.
There the instructors advance step by step
only on condition that they make some
new contribution to the sum of human
knowledge To that one circumstance
more than any other do we owe the con-
slant outflow of wonderful discoveries and
great ideas from Germanscholarship The
monetary aspect of life is entirely subor-
dinated with them; for many of the NEST
coveted educational positions in the Empire
carry with them no more of stipend than
81, 800 Surely such view of life is the
right one, since the moment we get the
money fever in our veins selfish considera-
tions blind our eyes to the needs of those
in our paths; we will even trample them
down if we can but stretch our eager hands
one particle nearer to the elusive Fortune
dancing along just ahead of us.
A father is said to have advised his boy,
'sMy son, make money; if you cannot make
it honestly, make it anyhow That,neys
worst enemy was the father who gave him
life. We even hear it fippantly said that
the Golden Rule of the 18th century is,
''Do others or they will do you. If we
give laughing approval to that sentiment
we are blind to the signs of the times.
You young men whose blood is tingling,
like mine, for the moment when you shall
be ''up and DOING you who are prepar-
ing your minds and your bodies for the
strain to which modern high tension life
will subject them; you whose heads will
scarce be touched with gray before the
year 1925, have you felt the pulse of this
present-day world? It will tell you that
the heart is beating steadier and truer each
day. outer indications to the contrary.
Its message is-ss Success is no longer reck-
oned by the accumulation of wealth, but
by the scattering of deeds The life lived
for self Is not lived at all Thinking for
others, suffering for Others. working for
others are and must be forevermore the
supreme forces within the man who is in
touch with the spirit of the age.
The dawn Of the twentieth century is
almost upon us. The eastern sky is al
ready rosy with its coming By what
moral standard will the world welcome it?
By the standard set up in the first. All
the accomplishments of all the master
minds that have blessed our planet; all the
conquest of earth and air and sea; all the
accumulated progress of nineteen centuries;
all, the tremendous advancement Of the
last of them have not led us away from,
nor back to but up to the teachings of the
first, ''Do unto others as you would they
should do unto you That is success;
that is life. IF you pile up your millions
they will drop from your nerveless hand;
if you take pride in your houses built out
of wronged laborers, your soul will pass
out of them naked; if you keep your eyes
intent on the raking Of muck heaps, they
win become blind to the true glories Of life;
but if you neglect all these that erroneous
thought has called worthy and live instead
a life of good will towards man, beneyo-
lenee, your name win be treasured though
your body be resolved into dust.
Station d., Nese York