The record-union., 1897-01-17


read in five hundred thousand homes, scat
tered in every State of the Union. In this
county they will be found week by week
in the columns of this paper only, as we
have made arrangements with the author
for their exclusive publicationO
Why not strive to make this the most
satisfactory year of life? Yes" you
say. but failure is found in many that
have gone before" Well let us talk
it over, for l know too we'll what it is
to mourn over bad execution after good
intention, trif1ing results after great
purposes, and ignoble acts after high
ideals. Two things are holding you
back: You regret the wasted past and
lose heart because of it; you are care
less in the present because you and its
duties seem insignificant to yourself.
i Il y
As with the slow boy in class, whose
chance to spell has passed him before
he knows it has reached him, SO it is
with us. The hurrying years tarry for
nothing. We are not afflicted with a
feeling uncommon to men, when we
rub our eyes to see if it is a fact that
a whole year has passed since the blare
of horns frightened off the ghost of
1888 All the generations before US
| have felt the same alarm. Yet 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 encourage
ment that what has been done can be
done again.
They accomplish most who spend no
time repining at circumstances. See
ing things around them to be done,
they take hold and do them well, just
because they come next to hand. l
verify believe the secret of all true
greatness is found in faithfulness 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;
and the gluemaker ranks high among
the worlds philanthropists. Even as
the caterpillar in a physical sense
comes to the wider, freer sphere by do
ing the things necessary to growth day
by day, so shall we in a moral sense.
To be faithless and complaining over
little duties is certainly no guarantee
that greater duties will be better done.
faithful ones become prominent, it is
fair to say that patient, out-ofsight
work must be done to insure promi-
renee of a lasting 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 tina t
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 his
tcry here and there; but built of them
only the worlds total gain would
stand up like the naked steel frame
work of a lofty building. AS a matter
cf fact, clustered around every monu-
mental deed are innumerable small
ones that have been we'll done and
that have made the greater deed pos
sible. No General ever wins with an
az my of diSaffected soldiery. No wide
stretching bridge is built merely by the
mind of the engineer: to his aid is
brought the sullen 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 upheaval of public opinion.
AOu and |, 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 sttam is a
thing of power because of the boiler
without
Pray mourn no more over your hidden
state. Do your little" and do it we'll
Then whether you come to greatness or
not, you cannot be robbed of one great
thing, the real usefulness of your life
1t needs but a few words to remind you
that our great nation is like a huge
body, with interdependent parts. Let
me emphasize your possible Importance
from your own bodies. A drop of blood,
moving hither and thither in your veins.
is a small thing. Yet your health as
whole is closely related to its duty
doing. 1t carries oxygen from the
lungs, or nourishment from the stomach
and the intestines; then gives that UP
Observation-Disclosures the eyes, per-
haps, or strengthens the brain. Once
more it loads itself; this time with the
poisons that come from wasted muscles
and nerves, and. for your maintenance
in health, it discharges those poisons in
the breath you exhale. or the secretions
that leave the body--then, dear man.
dear woman. disappointed often. perhaps
neither eye nor brain of this great coun-
try. may you not possibly be globule
of its most essential blood, or a mi
mute lung cell, working to save il from
wasting consumption, weakness of
character, loss of liberty. Further