The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-05-11
Q. HOPE JONES.
He Delivers an Interesting Lecture at
GOOseberry Hill.

Friends and fellow countrymen: No
tees tackled upon the door of the coop
er and blacksmith shops and Whites
sawmill three days ago gave warning
that 1 would reach this unique and
romantic town of Gooseberry Hill this
evening and deliver lecture on
Grim Determination and 1 am here.
Although the price of admission
was fixed at 10 cents, and although
only four of you and the red-headed
boy who has charge of the hall, are
present, my lecture viii be delivered
just the same, and all it's incidents
painted the same luridness as if I was
talking to a S25 house. A cash capital
OF % cents brought me here, and a
cash capital of 80 cents will surely en-
able me to reach the next town.
MY friends, each and every human
being in this world is determined 10
DO something. That counts as far as
1t goes, but it is not worth much. -
thousand instances may arise to sway
and swerve that determination. The
young man who lies on his back un-
der an apple tree and determines to
become a great man if he don't have
the toothache or collie or get a stone
bruise on his heel. will never climb a
foot higher. The girl who swings in a
hammock and reads novels and says
10 herself that she will marry wealth.
will always be wanting a new pair OF
shoes.
1T is a comparatively easy thing in
this world to get to be the boss of a
village brass band or the owner of the
Dnly sawmill for five miles arounl,
but he who aspires to greater heights
has got his work cut out for him He
has got to get out and sit down on a
log and scratch his head and do some
thinking. 1t may take him all dav and
keep him from going a-fishing or be
Ing present at a dog fight, but he's
got to stick right here and dig his
his heels into the ground.
ITO what would he aspire? To be a
Justice n q rr,r. g
engine company, ticket-seller for a cir
Gus, mayor of a town. member OF Con-
gress or. worries or poet? The
world is before him. He has only to
make his selection and then shut his
teeth together and grimly determine to
get there or perish in the attempt He
may be kicked by mules. hooked by
COWS and rooted by hogs, but that de-
termination must never waver He
may begin with the humps and end
with the smallpox, but nothing must
change his aims. He may be cheated
by tin peddlers, swindled by lightning
rod men and taken in and done for by
sellers of windmills and barbed-wire
fences, but he must never rise from the
ashes and whoop 'er up again.
How was it with Alexander the
Great? He wasn't twenty years old
yet when he came to know that q trust
had been formed in the king business
and he was left on the outside. His
health was poor his hair off-color and
bis body ungainly, and he had been
disappointed almost every day of his
life. If he went fishing there was al
most sure to be an east wind that day.
If he wanted to go skating there was
January thaw, and if he went in
swimming the crabs drove him out. It
was some other teller who always
found the biggest harvest apples or
got free tickets to the circus, and if
Alexander fell in love with a bakers
daughter It always happened that her
father went into bankruptcy the next
week and she had to go to work in a
sweat shop.
The day finally came when the
young man went out behind the harm
and sat down among the pigweeds to
think. The dinner horn found him
still there, and he was fifteen minutes
late for supper, but he had made up
his mind and fastened it with an iron
jaw. He was Alexander the Little. but
he had made up his mind to become
Alexander the Great A thousand dis
couragements confronted him, and
something bObbed up almost every
day to knock him out but he tri-
umphed over all. as we all know. and
In the end the world bowed to him.
Let me refer TO the case of Julius
Caesar, and 1 hope none of this large
and cultivated audience will get mix
ed up with Christopher Coiura bus
Up to the age of eighteen. years no.
body would have given a nickel for
IlIius' chances. He WASN'T axactlN-
chucxle- headed, but if he could 90
huckleberrying twice a week and sit
around the grocery the rest of the
time he was quite content. He hadn't
ambition enough to drive Deacon Pc
grams COW to the pound or to fan in
love with Squar' Dosenb erry's daught-
er Nobody knows what started him to
thinking. but ne woke up one morning
and took a stroll by himself and Wis
gone for five hours.
when he returned. his mother saw
a, new look in his eyes. julius had
set that jaw of his. He was through
with popcorn and 'lasses candy AMI
had his eyes on fame and Immortality.
It would weary you to follow him