The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-12-27

is to get mad. 1t jangles the nerves. en-
larges the spleen and sets the heart into
a wild humping. Many a man and
many a woman has in time OF such
mental and physical agitation dropped
dead. Not only that, but ii makes enc
mics out OF friends, and makes enemies
more virulent, and anger IS partial or
consummate suicide Great attorneys.
/ cause by wilfully throwing the opposing
counsel into a rage. There is one man
you must manage or one woman you
make life a success, and that Is your
self. There are drawbridges to every cas-
tie by which you may Keep out OF your
defense against himself unless 1t be a
| divine defense. Out OF the millions Of the
human race there is only one person
ing harm, and that Is the being that
walks under your own hat and in your
own shoes.
THE CONQUEST OF SELF.
The hardest realm that you will ever
have to govern Is the realm between
| your scalp and heel. The most danger
Gus cargo a ship can carry Is dynamite,
and the most perilous thing IN ones ma
ture is an explosive temper. II your ma
I ture is hopelessly irascible and tempestu-
Gus, then dramatize placidity. II the
ship is on fire and you cannot e~xtinguish
the flames, at any rate keep down the
matches. When at some injustice infiict-
ed upon you or some insult offered or
some wrong done, the best thing for you
to say is to say nothing, and the best
thing for you to write is write nothing.
If the meanness done you is unbearable
or you must express yourself or die,
then 1 common a plan that / have once
or twice successfully adopted. Take a
sheet Of paper. Date 1t at your home or
office. Then put the ~wrongdoer's name
! at the head of the letter page, without
any prefix of Colonel of suf1x of ID.
sy, but a bold and abrupt Sir" Then
follow it with a statement Of the wrong
he has done you and of the Indignation
.x-. =. D.% .s~ 1. 49,
terms of execration you can employ
without being profane. Sign your name
to the red hot epistle. Fold it. Envelop
it. Direct it plainly to the man who has
done you wrong. Garry the letter a week
or two weeks if need be. and then de-
stroy it. In Gods name destroy it. 1 like
what Abraham Lincoln said to one of
his cabinet officers: That cabinet officer
had been belied and misrepresented until
in a fury he wrote a letter of arraign-
ment to his enemy, and in tersest posi-
BILE phraseology told him what he
thought of him.. The abine officer read
it to Mr.. Lincoln and asked him how he
liked it. Mr.. Lincoln replied: 1T IS
splendid for searcasm and scorn. l never
heard anything more complete in that
direction. But do you think you can
and Christian interrogation of the pres
ident stopped the letter, and it was never
sent. Young man, before you get far on
in life, unless you are to be an excep-
ton among men, you will be wronged,
you will be misinterpreted, you will be
outraged. All your sense of justice will
be in ~conflagration. Let me know how
you meet that first great offense, and I
will tell you whether your life is to be
a triumph or a failure. You see, equipoise
: at such a time means so many things.
1t means self control. 1t means a capac
ity to foresee results. 1t means a conf
dence in your own integrity. 1t means
a faith i'll the Lord God that he will see
you through.
Again, if you would be master of the
situation put the best Interpretation on
| the character and behavior of others.
Do not be looking for hypocrites in
churches, or thieving among domestic
servants, or swindlers among business
men, or malfeasance in office. There is
others, and when that characteristic of
! suspicion becomes dominant a man has
l. secured his own unhappiness, and he
has become an offense in all circles, re-
ligious, commercial and political. The
man who moves for a committee Of in
| vestigation is generally a moral derelict.
fated trying to discover something NAL
odorOus is not a man, but a sleuth-
hound! The world is full of nice people,
generous people, people who are doing
their best-good husbands, good wives,
good fathers, good mothers, good Off
GERS of the law, good judges: good gov
lators, good rulers. Does some man
! growl out, THAT has not been my ex-
perience, and think just the opposite"
Well, my brother, / am sorry for your
affective circumstances, and that you
had an unfortunate ancestry, and that
you have kept such bad company and
had such discouraging environment. I
notice that after a man has been max
ing a violent TRADE against his fellow
men he is on his way down, and If he
live long enough he will be kin you
for a quarter of a dollar to get a drink
or a nights lodging. Behave yourself
we'll, oh. young man, and you will find
life a pleasant thing to live and the
world full of friends and Gods bene-
diction everywhere about you.
LOOK NOT FOR LUCK.
Again, If you would be master of the
or haphazard, or gaming adventures. In
this time, when it is estimated that
gambling exchanges md money to the
remark may be useful. There come
times in many a mans life when he
hopes to get something for which he
are fifty kinds of gambling. Stand aloof
from all of them. Understand that the
gambling spirits is a disease, and the
more successful you are the more GER
ain you are to go right on to you own
ruin. Having made his thousands, why
does not the gambler stop and make a
and spend the rest of his life in quiet or
less hazardous style of occupation? The
reason is he cannot stop. Nothing but
death ever cures a confirmed gambler:
Or. keeley's gold cure rescues the
drunkard and there are ~antitobacco prep
a~rations that will arrest the victim of
. iAENollllS, ohd . Soh ooN oAS ohS
except a gambler. The fact is he is ir-
responsible. Having got the habit in
ing on than a man falling from the root
of a four story house can stop at the
window of the second story. Here and
there you may find an instance where a
gambler has been reported or reports
himself as being converted, but in that
case the man was not fully under the
heel of the passion. The real gambler
is a through passenger to death and per-
dition. The only use in referring to him
is in the way Of prevention. He began by
taking chances on a bookcase or a sew
ing machine at a church fair and ended
by getting a few pennies for his last val
liable in a pawnbroker's ship. The only
man who CANDLES successfully is the
man who loses so fearfully at the start
that he is Disguised and quits. Let him
win at the start and win again, and i;
means farewell to home and heaven.
Most snerciless of all habits, Horace
Walpole says that a man dropped dowr
at the door of a club house in London
and was carried in and the gambler