The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1904-01-28
GOLDEN THOUGHTS.
Elements of Success for the Youth
by DR.. James Chalmers

by DR.. James Chalmers
Six Americans visited Europe.
Every hour OF the voyage over and
and of the months on the other side,
was filled with enjoyment for all of
them. Things they saw and learned
and suffered-fOr there isalways some
thing to be suffered-were all brought
up iu conversation in the evening as
a salad of instruction and fun. No
hour hung heavily; their food could
not help digesting with all the laugh
ing they did, for they saw the cheer
full side of everything, and they re
turned home richer for many friends,
declaring that they had had the time
of their lives. And as a result of
their glad summer together they
found themselves welded in bonds of
friendship that were ever afterward
unbreakable. There was young girl
in the company Of six, college grad.
nate, cultured and beautiful, accus-
toned to affluence and ease at home,
and yet who accepted every discOm-
fort of the journey with cheerfulness
and every new experience with laugh
ing eyes and enthusiastic expressions
of delight.
On the same boat was another cCm-
pauy In which was another young
woman, also college graduate, cul.
tured and refined, and yet who seemed
to have bargained with herself not to
smile at anything outside of America.
Nothing pleased or satisfied her; her
state-room was horror; the foreign
customs and service were atrOcious;
the railway service was unendurable;
the hotels were an abomination; all
Europe was poor affair. She made
no friends, sat alone many days nur-
sing a sick headache, and returned
home sick, pale and sallow, declaring
that the whole thing was an unmiti-
gated bore.
my hay crop is failure" said a
whining farmer, in drawing tone,
to his cheerful pastor. 'Is your pota-
TO crop a failure?" "No." "Your
oats?" "No." "Your corn?" "Ob,
no, no." "Well, brother, why not be.
gin with success and thankfulness
and then put your one failure in par
entheses at the end?"
Dreary people, like the lugubrious
traveller and the calamity.howling
farmer, go through life always ready
to borrow trouble and to make noun
tains out Of mole hills. They live in
moral dungeons.
Away with these fellows who go
bowling through life," said Beecher,
"and all the while pass for birds of
paradise. He who cannot laugh and
be gay should look to himself. He
should fast and pray until his face
breaks into light"
Happiness and unhappiness are
largely within our control. The man
who sees beauty, goodness, light and
Joy wherever he goes, lives in the
same world, and sees the same things,
and has experiences similar to those
of the man who sees only violence,
ugliness and misery on every side.
The different colOred spectacles
through which both men look account
for their different views. The one
sees only the deterioration Of the ace,
the marks Of vice, or the scars OF sin
in a human face, while the other
sees the image of divinity. A healthy,
normal mind sees perfection through
the i'm perfect; 1T sees rich yellow corn
in the wild Indian maize, the luscious
grape in the hard, acid berry, the
lovely apple in the crab apple, the
sparkling diamond in the dull pebble,
and the beauty and intense posi-
bilities oe the soul of man in the
most sodden and degraded creatures.
The habit of looking at things from
a distorted angle, of focusing the
vision on things that depress. and
suggest unhappiness and misery, is a
destroyer of happiness and success.
The man who goes through life with
a funeral face, thinking hard times,
fearing dull seasons, disaster, panics
and failure, is never happy man nor
a successful man. Pessimism is de-
structive force In mans life. Opti-
mism is a constructive power.
Our great inventors, discoverers,
soldiers, scientists, artists, musicians,
educators and leaders in every field,
those who have led the world up the
spiral stairs Of culture, from barbar.
ism to twentieth century ideal, were
optimists who saw, even while their
efforts brought on them intense physi-
cal suffering and pain and often
them into penury. that life
meant achievement or nothing. In
spite OF incredulity and opposition,
they have toiled away, keeping the
"vision beautiful" in sight.
There never was so much joy and
gladness and good cheer in the world
as to-day. The average of life has |