The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1904-01-26
ABOUT SOME EASY ERRORS.

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When | saw the word weird"
printed where the word three" should
have been the only thing | could do
was to invest it in this kind of a re-
port.
From past experience | have found
that investment Of trouble is an eco
nomic way of handling it.
A man sold me a dfty-cent micro
scope for three dollars. When | found
out the value of it I told the story
for a New York magazine and they
e n me $2.85.
That was fifteen years ago, and ever
since then ! have felt that trouble
might in some cases be a key which
would open a door to desirable oppor-
tunities.
Soon after the microscope expert.
ence found a log in a path which
led from a railway station to my home.
III the train happened to be late |
would use that path in the night, and
IL the night happened to be dark that
log was apt to make me trouble.
asked the owner of the log how
much he would take for it. He named
the price and / took him up; then l
asked a neighbor if he would turn
that log into stove wood and put half
of the wood in our shed for the other
hafo OF the wood for his own shed. He
said yes, and did so.
When my people found out about
the price of the log and the quality
Of the wood they felt that | needed
some kind Of an education that | had
not secured. But when that New York
magazine sent me go per cent more
for the written report than l paid for
the log, my people began to think that
! did know something.
The other day l wen to a suburban
station at 1880 p. M, and the day was
Thursday. ! soon found that the 1885
train which / had come 10 take ran
Saturdays only. This made me feel
like framing a sentence for my own
use, and | soon saw that the informa.
ton at the top of a column is as i'm
portant as the train time in the col
umn
What to do with the hour in hand
was the next question, and after max
Ing a couple of calls near the station.
made a third call on a gentleman
whom ! had met several times. II was
with some diffidence that | opened the
subject, but l believe that the forty
minutes spent with him we're as useful
to me as any forty minutes that / have
ever invested.
Recently, while at a hotel in a south.
western town, / went to the letter box
late in the evening to post some mail.
The box vas near the clerks desk In
the hotel. and on 1t hung a card. The
hook which held the card was a large
piece Of hoop iron bent at both ends.
| had read the card before. and vet
at the time was so thoroughly occu.
pied with some foreign subject that
with considerable effort l pulled down
the shutter and dropped in my mail.
With that act my mind dropped the
foreign subject, n seemed to be
ready to rest, and then l re-read the
card on the box. which said. Hand
mai to the clerk for trains east and
west"
Just how l could get that shutter
down and the bent hoop iron made IL
particularly difficult, Is something that
Is not very clear to me at present, but
teachers claim that one can be so
thoroughly occupied with an idea that
many things can be done unconscious.
ly. You may have heard Of the man
while taking a bath. who got to think
ing In an original way and continued
wiping one OF his feet for twenty min.
utes until he finished his line Of
thought and came to himself. heard
Cough say that during one OF his ora
lions he seriously injured his hand
by striking a railing near the table.
but that he did not know of the in
jury until after he had finished his
Grafton. One of the best business
men of Chicago left a basket of cranes
on the train and never saw them again
because he left the train In the midst
of ananimated conversation with a
friend. When we go to bed we want To
sleep and get rested. When we work
we wan to concentrate in a way to win
and when we start on a line Of origl-
nal thought we should have special
time for that kind of brain work. Can
we have a time of day for original
study and cause the spontaneous
thoughts and original helps to flock in
on us at that time? Is it a possibility
by practice?