Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1904-12-15
THE ROAD TO DEFEAT.
ELLA WHEELER WILCOX.

The road to defeat is a curious road;
Nobody thinks he walks there
Yet all day long molly throng
Pushes and crowds and stalks there.
Some are people of brain and worth
Who have wearied OF Truths long highway;
In the breathless after riches and place
They sought for a shortcut byway.
| And others have stumbled and missed the road,
And wandered of into Shining;
When they counted the cost the way seemed lost
Back into the Right beginning.
Some loiter through meadows Of Time enough.
Some rush through the gates of Hurry,
Some seek the defle of "waitawhi!e'
And others the fields Of Furry
There are many old women and many old men
Who think they wise as sages.
And in paths Of Defeat tread too, the feet
OF children Of tender ages.
They follow the motto Of DO as you please
They scorn to be led or guided.
And all kinds Of work they hate snd shirk
And they cannot endure to be chided
Down from the valley Of "Pretty-soon'
They suaggle along at leisure;
They tumble and drop from the mountain top
OF selfish and idle Pleasure.
OH very queer road is the road TO Defeat
Where the people all so knowing;
Yet never a soul knows the name Of hrs goal
Nor understands where he is going.
If YOU are the victim Of failure, and
ar. wondering why you have not sue
ceeded as we'll as many other less de-
serving people OF your acquaintance
it might be well for you to cast ret
respective eye over your past.
1t is, of course, more agreeable to
lay the blame OF all your misfortuDes
upon fate; but your future will stand
better chance Of being brighter II
you discover what part Of it lies IN
yourself and learn how to overcome
circumstances and change environ
ment.
Perhaps you started out on the
ouisk-rich method of fnancierlng'
You made up your mind that old
fashioned ideas of industry and pa
tient labor were all nonsencs IN this
rapid age.
You had examples of mulh-milllon-
aires to offer as arguments when any
one doubted your wisdom.
But not every man can be suo-
cessful villain, thief or liar. And the
man who undertakes to follow the
methods of great robbers, on a small
scale, usually finds himself in prison
or out of , position, instead OF rich
and popular.
In the present stage of our evolu'
tion the world temporarily Rdmire'
big .windler, but it sternally de-
,pises a little one
Better right about face and recon-
struct your life on wholly old-fa'h-
ioned basis of integrity and worth.
Perhaps you were meaning to walk
the right path, but went astray and
fell into the quagmireS Of error and
sin.
And now you know not the way
back, and feel that it is too late to
try and find the path.
But there il never a soul 80 lost
that it cannot get back into Truths
roadway if it cries persi'tently enough
TO the sentinels from the Invisible
Realms, who stand near to help those
who appeal to them.
Keep calling; they will lit you
from the quagmirs, but you must help
yourself at the same time. Gods an
gels help those who help themselves.
Perh.p, you have begun ten things
and never finished one, and have
formed slip.hod methods Of thought
and action, which are the real cause
of all your failures.
You can do twenty things after
fashion, and nothing well. Yet you
wonder why you have never found
your place in the world, and why
your many capabilities have met with
such poor reward.
You may be one Of the people who
no sooner begin piece of work than
they are seized with a feverish desire
to do something else, and so rush
through what they have started to
accomplish at break-neOk pace, slight
ing the work in hand for the work in
mind.
Or, still worse, you may be a victim
ofths"By.snd-by" and"Time-enOugh"
notices.
Ala, for the people who are always
"going" to do "thingsl" The Valley
of Pretty Soon is white with the
bleaching bones Of men and women
who died while telling how they were
going to do this and that.
Thought i, power, and when thought
is spent on the By-and-by instead Of
being used on the Now, it is as waste
full as to throw gOl into the sea, in
Il - 80 a;-anla4 4snr q,