The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1896-11-21
PULL FOR Il SHORE.
Sam Jones Speaks Of Lies Ideals
and Struggles.
Five Elements That Ente- Into the Max
ting of a Successful Charaotcr-Hopa,
Faith, Energy, Courage and
Endurance Nemed.

D. E&@ S0I - 49, ANAAS = 81
their ideals and their struggles. Young
manhood and young womanhood feed
upon their ideals, and are developed by
their struggles. Middle age finds us
still with ideals unreached and strug-
giles unabated. Old age finds us far from
the goal, and struggles still perpetu-
ated.
A man without ideals and aims is
either an idiot or a vagrant. Ibelieve
tramps look forward to something.
Footsore, dust-covered, hungry and
weary, they are struggling toward
something and somewhere. What a
strange medley humanity isl How all
are struggling day by dayl Some with
lighter burdens than others, some NOV
ing quietly along, some going at the
gait that kills. St. Paul said he had
learned in whatsoever state he was
Herewith to be content. But this is not
the age of contentment. I scarcely
know q contented man in the world to-
day. Ambition in the political, fnan-
cial, commercial, industrial or social
world claims the aim and energy of
every man who is worthy to live. The
little boy has an ambition to be a
man. The little girl waits and strug-
giles as she climbs towards long dresses,
long hair and womanhood. The young
man has his ambition to marry the girl
of his love. The young lady sits dis
c~ontentedly and impatiently, and waits
for the man of her choice. When the
two are united and become one, then
the struggle begins in a little cottage
home, with an ideal reaching towards
a mansion. From poverty to comforts,
from comforts to luxury, from lux
ury to prodigality, we see them climb.
So with the little merchant with but a
lapful of goods. His ideal is to be like
the merchant prince, a. T. Stewart
to excel all his competitors. He works
and watches and waits, struggling to-
wards his ideal. The little lawyer
whose practice scarcely earns him meat
and bread looks forward to the day
when a Choate or an Erskine or a Mar
shall will be overshadoMed by his nro-
fessional career. The little circuit rider
preaching TO the country people who
gather to hcar him looks forward to the
day when he will outstrip a Parker, or
a Sturgeon, or a Phillips Brooks ii pull
pit power. The little farmer, with his
40 acres and little stiff-eared mule,
looks forward to the day when the
broad acres Of a fertile farm shall yield
/ him. -amnlaS~I, Pv1vHTneS, rvOns
ward to the day when he viii be presl-
dent Of the road.
It is these ambitions and hope that
underlies them that tide humanity
along in it's struggles. Really no mar
is fit to be a brakeman on a rail-
road whose ambition is less that that
which looks forward to the presidency
of the road. No man is fit for a mer-
chant whose ambition does not reach
upward to the limit. No man is fit 20
preach who does not look forward to
the day when he will be a preacher in
deed. No man is fit to be licensed to
practice law if he aims to be less than
q Choate or a Marshall. No farmer is
fit to plow if he has not before him the
ideal which would make the biggest and
best farmer in his state. AS the old
adagegoes, a man never hits higher than
he aims. We don't fall upward, and he
who succum5s to gravity must hit the
grit. God made it SO, and God made
us as we are in this respect. h little
bow whose ambition is to be a man,
and when manhood is reached bis ideal
Is higher than angels go-that is, the
man on whom wings do grow, and ne
will fly instead of walking.
In pulling from the landing, it Is
hope that sees the star, or in other
words, it is hope that sees the pillar OF
cloud by day and the pillar of fire by
night, which guides the most unerring'
" toward the goal. But for this eie'
ment. or whatever we may define hope
> to be, men would go down under theil
first failure and sink to rise no more
But it lis true that:
l Tit wretch condemned with life to part
Still, still on hope relies,
? And every pang tina rends the heart
. Bids expectation rise.
! Energy is the motive power playins
T upon the machinery like steam agains
: the piston heads which propel the driy
ing wheels of a locomotive. Energy j
like electricity. We cannot measure it
4 power or locate its origin. Energy vii
make a feeble body strong. 1t develop
7 the muscles; it fosters endurance; !
defes obstacles. The relentless old Al
lautic ocean, with its Gibbs and flow:
a it's waves and whirlpools, is but a pie
II ture of struggling humanity with hop
o. and energy on deck.
= Another element which nerves nj
/ man character and defes opposition
"a ~faith-faith that turns possibilities il
to realities, that converts failures int
II successes. Faith laughs at impossible
ties and cries: 1t shall be done! Fait
i in the sunshine and in the showers ths
they will come is the inspiration of tt
farmer boy. Faith in the truth
breaches makes the preacher omnip
t tent. Faith in your cause and in yol
le own ability to do the work furnish'
We the genius that makes the task cas-
r. Truly it is written, he who dallies is
t. bastard and he who doubts is damne
n If a man doesn't believe he a do it
had better turn to one side en5 give Il
If right of way to the man who does belle
IN he can do it. If a man believes there
power in steam, in the possibility of
m belief ten thousand locomotives appe
before him pulling their freighted loa
no