The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-12-15
O. HOPE JONES.
he Lectures on the Subject of Per-
severance.

Lnere are 80 OF you III TINS hail TINS
evening. All but nine of you have
come in on dead-head passes. but 4 am
glad to see culture and refinement
spread out before me, even II Hose by
it financially.
AS per notices posted on the court
house door and in the postoff1ce yes
terday, the subject of my remarks thus
evening is perseverance. / observe that
the young man with the yaller hair on
the front row is somewhat the worse
for liquor, and seems to think ne mas
worked his way into a circus. trust
that there will be no necessity for es-
corting him to the door and throwing
him out with a dull thud-
Let us first ask ourselves what per-
severance is. We answer the question
by replying that 1t is a determination
in the human breast to follow the
woodchuck to his hole and dig him out
and let nothing prevent. A man may
be honest, truthful. ambitious ana all
that, and yet if he does not cultivate
and push the spirit of perseverance ne
will travel through a lifetime and brlng
up in a thistle patch. at last.
Do not confound the traits of self
will or obstinacy with that OF perse-
verance A man may be SO Stiff-necked
that he will live and die claiming that
Noah's Ark was painted blue, with ya1-
Ter trimmings, but at the same tune
he will never be heard OF OUTSIDE MS
own village. The spirit Of perseverance
spirit of obstinacy is kicked into US
by an old dun-colored mule when We
are young.
1 stin have my eye on the young man
with the yaller hair. and am PREPARED
for any move he makes, but let US cite
the case of Pliny. OF course, Pl1ny
lived and died without having heard or
this town of Gainesville and without
having read that you once raised a
prize hog weighing 700 pounds, but his
example is a good one to follow. He
was born tongue-tied and cross-eyed,
but early in life he determined to be-
come a great man. Some OF you may
have done the same thing. but unlike
Pliny you got a sore heel or were
crossed in love and gave it up. He
stuck. During his boyhood, when he
should have been going to school. ms
father had him out digging for CLAIMS
family larder. and threw many other
discoura gements in his way.
At the age of sixteen. when most
boys start for college. young Pliny
was cutting marsh hay and digging
potatoes on shares. Even at twenty
about all he knew was that twice five
are ten. and that a full moon will
make cucumbers grow an inch every
night. But perseverance was there. 1t
was born there. in the first place. and
in the next it wasn't charged any rent
to remain on hand till wanted. Pliny
had his idea, and he never let go of 1t.
1t laid down with him at night, and
1T rose up with him In the morning.
His mother wanted him to go to work
in a. cotton mill. so that she could get
her towels and sheets at 10 per cent.
off, and his father wanted to appren-
tice him to a shoemaker. so as to get
cement patches for nothing. but the
young man took the bit in his teeth
and started in to study and learn. You
all know what he made of himself by
the time he reached thirty. He stood
ia nd 10 for Inc
around fell over themselves to attend
his candy pulls and send him in Early
Rose potatoes. He stood on the pin
nacle before he stopped. and great
nation honored and respected him.
Perseverance put him there. Had he
stopped when he found that the wood
chuck had gone into his hole he might
possibly have turned out to be a good
have become Pliny. l don't say that
any of you will ever reach the exalted
station he did, and I couldn't guarantee
it even if there was So in the house,
a higher point than you occupy now if
you give her the chance.
1 am happy to see that the young man
with the yaller hair has got over look
ing for a. circus and gone to sleep, and
will therefore cite you ascase not quite
so ancient-that of Sir Isaac Newton,
the discoverer of gravitation. AT the
age of ten months, when he pushed his
cradle and saw it fall to the floor, his
face wore puzzled look and his moth
er wondered if he had struck a new
kind of collie. He was simply wondering
why it didn't rise up to the ceiling in
stead of falling to the floor.
Before he was three years old he was
spanked a dozen times a day for in
dulging in experiments, and but for the
spirit of perseverance the world would
have lost one of its greatest discoveries.
The more and the harder he was spank
ed, the more he experimental. From the
age of ten to twenty he was employed
in pottery and had to give up his
idea of gravitation to make gallon jugs
to hold cider and something stronger,
but at the latter age he cut loose from
his job and went back to his original
idea.
You have all read how he made his
discovery. He was lying on his back
under an apple tree one day when he
saw an apple fall to the ground. He
was amazed that it didn't go up into
the sky instead. He began to think
and ponder and reach out for an ex-
PLANTATION. and he finally decided that
gravity pulled the apple down instead
of boosting it up ] can't say that pre-
viOuS to his discovery barrels used to
roll up hill instead of down. and that
cocoanuts went sailing skywards in
stead of striking the earth. but 1 do
| know that since his time if you throw
a rock at a. dog it will be found lying
around loose somewhere after having
served its purpose.
Do not let your attention be dis
tracted By the boys peering in at the
windows or the antics of the Yaller-
haired young man who is now peering
about as If in search of the cage of the
Bengal tiger. but listen closely to my
next illustration. Who and what was
the great Napoleon at the age of ten?
Simply a sickly child coming along
with the last run of shad and being
fed on milk and sugar.
AT fifteen no one would say that he
would ever amount to shucks. One
! could name twenty things or more
| in which he was lacking, but there was
one certain thing he had in plenty
perseverance. If he went for the wood
chuck he got him. He had made UP
his mind. puny and sickly though he
boss of Europe. and it is needless to