Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1902-01-31

thought all that was necessary for
success was to put on your shutter
the sign of physician or dentist or
attorney or broker or agent and you
would have plenty of business. How
many hours you sat and waited for
business, and waited in vain, three
persons only know-God, your wife
and yourself. In commercial life you
have not had the promotion and
the increase in salary you antici-
pated, or the place you expected to
occupy in the firm has not been va
Gated. The produce of the farm with
which you expected to support your
self and those depending on you and
to pay the interest on the mortgage
has been far less than you antici-
pated, or the prices were down, or
special expenses for sickness> made
drafts on your resources that you
could not have expected. In some re-
spects the hardest decade of life is
the thirties, because the results are
generally so far behind the anticipa-
tions. 1t is very rare indeed that
young man does as did the young
man one Sunday night when he came
to me and said: 81 have been SO
marvelously prospered since I came
to this country that I feel as a mat
ter of gratitude that ought to dedi-
cate myself to God" Nine-tenths Of
the poetry of life has been knocked
out of you since you came into the
thirties. Men in the different profess
sions and occupations saw that you
were rising, and they must put an es-
toppel on you or you might somehow
stand in the way. They think you
must be suppressed. From 80 to 40
is an especially hard time for young
doctors, young lawyers, young mer-
chants, young farmers, young me-
chanics, young ministers. The strug-
gle of the thirties is for honest and
helpful and remunerative recognition.
But few old people know how to treat
young people without patronizing
them on the one hand or snubbing
I them on the other. Oh, the thirties!
Joseph stood before Pharaoh at 30;
David was 80 years old when he be-
gan to reign; the height of Solomon's
temple was 80 cubits; Christ entered
upon his active ministry at 80 years
of age; Judas sold him for 80 pieces
of silver. Oh, the thirties! What a
| word suggestive of triumph Or disas-
| ter!
Your decade is the one that will
probably afford the greatest oppor-
tunity for victory, because there is
the greatest necessity for struggle.
Read the worlds history and know
what are the thirties for good or bad.
Alexander the Great closed his career
at SO; Frederick the Great made Eu-
rope tremble with his armies at IS;
Cortes conquered Mexico at 80; Grant
| fought Shiloh and Donelson when 3S;
Raphael died at 81; Luther was the
hero of the reformation at 35; Sir
Philip Sidney got through by 50.
The greatest deeds for God and
against Him were done within the
thirties, and your greatest battles
are now and between the time when
| you cease expressing your age by
putting first figure and the time
when you will cease expressing it by
putting first figure 5. AS it is the
greatest time of the struggle, I ad-
jure you, in Gods name and by Gods
grace, make it the greatest achieve
ment. My prayer is for all those in
the tremendous crisis of the thirties.
The fact is that by the way you de-
eide the present decade of your his
tory you decide all the followin 6
decades.
Next I accost the forties. Yours is
the decade of discovery. I do not
mean the discovery of the outside,
but the discovery of yourself. No
man knows himself until he is 40.
He overes Inmates or underestimate
! l.: ha To-
what he can do or what he cannot do.
He thought he had commercial
genius enough to become a million
aire, but he is satisfied to make a
comfortable living He thought he
had rhetorical power that would
bring him into the United States
senate; now he is content if he can
| successfully argue a common case be-
fore a petit jury. He thought he had
medical skill that would make him
a Mott or a Crosse or Willard Par
ker or Sims; now he finds his
sphere is that of a family physician.
prescribing for the ordinary ailments
that aff1ict our race. He was sailing
on in a fog and could not take a
reckoning, but now it clears uI
enough to allow him to find out his
real latitude and longitude. He has
| been climbing, but low he has got tC
the top of the hill, and he takes a
long breath. He is half way through
the journey at least, and he is in q
position to look backward or for
ward. He has more good sense thar
he ever had. He knows human ma
ture, for he has been cheated otter
enough to see the bad side of it, ano
he has met SO many gracious an6
kindly and splendid souls he also
knows the good side of it. Now, calm