The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-01-19

Take the case of Romulus. He had a
soft thing of it as young man-noth1ng
to do but drive around in a chariot and
buck the tiger, and an old dad who
paid all his debts without a kick. The
young man was being envied on all
sides when he suddenly got a longing.
He wanted to make speeches and lead
armies and boss nations, and he got
down from his chariot and started out.
1t is true that after years and years OF
hard work, and after making as many
enemies as friends, he reached a GER
tain pinnacle, but it was only to fall
from it in disgrace and be spoken of
by the riffraf as "Old ROM He died
at length of a broken heart, and five
years later no man could have found his
grave.
of course He was another young man
with rich old dad. He could not only
go to the circus every day in the week,
but buy the whole thing up down to the
two-headed hog if he wanted to- Even
pTinceSses made goO-goo eyes at him,
and no young man could have been bet
ter situated when longing came along
to kick over the traces He kicked. He
wanted to be general and king and boss,
and he. went at it and devoted twenty
years of his life to getting there. He
succeeded. as you know. but who can
point out his tomb today? Broken
hearted, discouraged and a physical
wreck he laid down his life just as
D
ing up their bank balance and settling
down on chicken farms.
In the case of Columbus, the longing
was of some little benefit to the world
lat large, though of no great help to
him. He got a longing to sail away
and discover new landas. He discover
ed this land of ours. He returned home
to have band play and brands of cigars
named after him, and then he dropped
out of sight behind the man who could
go up in a balloon and hang to ira
peze with his toes.
Diogenes had got to be an old man
before lis longing came He had
comfortable home, with harvest apples
in August and popcorn in January
and from all accounts his wife kept
his socks darned and his buttons sewed
on. He had income enough to square
up with the grocer and butcher on Sat
urday nights, and to go down to the
corner and drink beer and play doni-
noes twice a week but the longing
| came to be a philosopher and he obey
ed it. He left his good clothes and his
comfortable home for rags and a tub
and he began to philosophize. He GER
tainly did get off some philosophy, but
it would have come along later just
the same and been just as good. His
longing brought him only ridicule, and
after Tubing it around for year or
two and being made a guy of he got an
idea that the world was not fit to live
in and went off and died.
Let us have another case. Cato had
made his money in q, waterwOrl1s con-
tract, and at the age of thirty-five was
well heeled and ready to run for alder
man of the ward He had wine down
cellar and claret down stairs. He wore
russell sandals and his wife had three
or four bonnets a year. If the gas bill
came in ahead of time Cato had the
spondulicks to pay it, and if he was
asked by a friend for a .X' for a few
days he didn't have to lie about the
state of his finances. Then what hap
pened? Why, he got a longing to
| climb the tree of fame, and it WASH
two weeks before he was hustling like
a rabbit before a dog. After years and
| years he came to be known and ad-
mired. but it was fleeing fame. He
went up and he came down. He saw the
day when a whole world blowed before
him, and he saw a, night when the rab-
Bile came along and threw mud on his
front door and sung:
/ "Old Cato's gone and left no track
| Old Cato'S gone and won't come back.
| My dear friends, I could cite you a hun
dred other cases. but why do so? 1t is
the commercial value of it. longing
should not be mistaken for ambition The
| two are separate and distinct On the
one hand you set out to do something in
definite; on the other hand a tin peddler
makes uD his mind to own a dry goods
/ store before he gets through.
Coax, WOO and cultivate ambition all
you will. but when you are sitting on the
top rail of the fence some day with a