The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1897-01-21
LIFE'S REALITIES
MADE UP OF LITTLE THINGS.
CHAT WITH BOYS AND GIRLS,
Some Rambling Thoughts.
BY "NEMO."
Copyright

| "
Union. In this county they will be
found week by week In the columns o1
this paper only, as we have made ar
rangements with the author for theil
exclusive publication.)
Why not strive to make this the most
satisfactory year of life? Eyes, you
say, "but failure is found in many that
haye gone before" Well, let us talk it
over, for know too we'll what it is to
mourn over bad execution after good
Intention, trif1lng results alter great
purposes, aud ignoble acts after high
ideals. Two things are holding you
back you regret the wasted past and
lose heart because of it you are careless
in the present because you and it's duties
seem insignificant to yourself.
As with the slow boy in class, whose
chance to spell has passed him
before he knows it has reached
him, SO 1t is with us. The
hurrying years tarry for nothing.
We are not afflicted with feeling un-
COMMON to men, when we rub our eyes
to see if it is fact that a whole year
has passed since the blare of horns
frightened off the ghost of 1895. All
the generations before us have felt the
same alarm. sYet the past and the
present are filled with lives that have
accomplished much, though subject to
the same onrush. Bear in mind then
for your encouragement, that what has
been done can be done again.
They accomplish most, who spend no
time replning at circumstances. See
Ing things around them to be done,
they take hold aud do them we'll. just
because they come next to hand. /
verify believe the secret of all true
greatness is found in falthfulness to the
present duty no matter how small and
insignificant. Peter Cooper made good
glue and from small beginnings grew
great, used his greatness we'll f; and the
glue-maker ranks high among the
worlds philanthropists. Even as the
caterpillar in physical sense comes to
the wider, freer sphere by doing the
things necessary to growth day by day,
so shall we in moral sense. To be
falthless and complaining over little
duties is certainly no guarantee that
greater duties will be better done
While it is not fair to say that all faith
full ones become prominent, it is fair to
say that patient, out-of-sight WORK, must
be done to ensure prominence of last
ing character. Humanity itself is our
teacher; twenty-five years of body
building pass before we are mature
enough to stand the strain of real life.
We must try to take a saner view OF
life. Then can we understand that the
little acts make up in large part the
worlds progress. Thus will our own
work take its proper dignity. A few
great deeds show forth in history here
and there but built OF them only the
worlds total gain would stand up like
the naked frame work of a lofty build
ing. AS matter OF fact, clustered
around every monumental deed are
innumerable small ones that have been
we'll done and that have made the
greater deed possible. No general ever
wins with an army of disaffected SOL
diery. No wide stretching bridge is
built merely by the mind of the engi-
neer: to his aid is brought the sulen
strength of stone and iron that winter,
in and out, will steadily do its work.
No great onward step is taken in any
country unless there is an upheayai of
public-opinion. You and I, obscure
ones, are public opinion. We are In
all great progress if the spirit of progress
is in us just as the boiler is a thing of
power because OF the steam within and
the steam is thing of power because
Of the boiler without.
Pray mourn no more over your hid
den state. Do your ''little" and do it
well Then whether you come to great
ness or not, you can not be robbed OF
one great thing, the real usefulness of
your life. 1t needs but few words to
remind you that our great nation is like
huge body, with interdependent parts.
Let me emphasize your possible impor-
tance from your own bodies. A drop
of blood, moving hlther ana thlther in
YOUR veins is a small thing. Yet your
health as whole Is closely related to
its duty-dolng. It carries oxygen from
the lungs, or nourisment from the stom-
ach and the intestines f; then gives that
up somewhere-brighte the eye, pei
hape, or strengthens the bralr. Once
more 1t loads itself this time with the
poisons that come from wasted muscles