Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1905-09-30

'DIpN'r LEAEN MY MIsrAKE UNTIL BOTH
HOOFS HIT ME"
skates and swim across the mill pond
four times without stopping. there
fore had an idea that Christopher CO.
lumhuS was a one horse man and that
| George WaShimgtonS were thicker than
bIaclbcrricS in August
At tWcnty-onc | started out to run
the county and show the old fossils
what young blood could do, and | felt
sorry for other young men, patronizcd
my elders and let my bray be heard
i'll the land. one or two persons re
marked that | was born for another
Henry Clay or Daniel Webster What
the other ten thousand remarked did
not hear until | got over my big head,
and it didn't tlatter me ut all
AT tn" age of twenty-five | should
have run for the legislature and owned
the earth but for a tritling circum-
stance. |, who knew 50 much and
had encircled the globe fourteen times
to study human nature, didn't know
enough to br sure that when Il mule
began to twist his tail he was ready
to Kick with both hind feet ut once. |
took the twisting to be II sign of collie
and 6idu't learn my mistake until both
hoofS hit me.
| hay" ever been grateful to that old
mule. He stopped me short in my mad
career and has kept me off the thin ice
many time since have even had the
sense to decline the honor when asked
to max" Il speech before Il ward eau
Gus
My sou, it looks as easy as falling off
Il log to start in at twenty and be the
biggest toad in the puddle at thirty,
but that's where YOU get deceived You
will get to know all about how to set n
bear trap, tune up Il fiddle and sharpen
the family butcher knife on the stove
pipe. You will be able to tell the folks
| around YOU something about Peter the
Great ana how WASHINGTON crossed the
Delaware, aud you will take the first
prize at IA country spelling school You
may poSSl ly he able to tell the differ
encc between cat ana a rabbit track
in the snow, and YOU can see and dis
course on the mistakes of Caesar, and,
'"NNI' an III an, YOU are II lafdSOn.
Then along comes the tin pcddlcr or
the lightning rod man with his three
card monte and you lose $17 whore YOU
thought You was sure of a hundred and
80 To the foot of the class
The great mistake most young men
make is in thinking that Conccit is self
confidence and that cheek is ambition.
They generally have to fall off the roof
of the barn into a patch of nettlcS or
he lifted over the fence on the horns
of II bull before he can detect the DIFF
ference.
Be ambitious, my son, but don't get
things mixed up. 1t is better to start
in at the foot of the class and work up
You cant be Il Roosevelt all at once,
nor can you bring about great pub
lie change in this or that within
month. You can, however, show the
world what you are made of by get
ting up some morning and taking the
track of rabbit in the fresh snow
and running him down. 1t may take
you all winter but it's II good thing to
practice on.
The self reliant man is sure of sue
cess, but there is a heap of difference
between self reliance and check. The
young man who mixes them up gets
'rcdit for neither. He is simply rated
~ an ass
There was a time in the history of
the world when a man could become
great by writing poetry or painting
pictures or bringing forth new facts
in science. If that state of affairs still
existed | should advise you to try one
of these lines, but the past fifty years
have changed things about. our poets,
painters and scientists have mort
gagged their household furniture to
keep out of the poorhouse ana the
man with new brand of chewing