Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1905-07-13
ken hearth Some Of them might have

gone fishing some day, but they didn't
sit on log and go to sleep while
bullfrog ate up their bait. No, sir.
They went fishing for fish, and they
caught them, and if they lied about the
big ones that got away they lied and
had it over and got back to their work
again.
1t is said that about twenty capital
lists own America. 1 reckon the state
ment is true, and also reckon it took
some huStling to make those dollars.
Nearly every one of the men started
out poor. 1t would have bothered them
to have raised the money for ham
sandwich, and they had to keep their
knees behind them as much as posi-
BILE to hide the patches. You didn't find
them sprawled out in the shade of an
apple tree, wondering why crows and
canary birds can't sing alike, and it
didn't take them all day to sort over a
barrel of potatoes down cellar. They
probably had their mean streaks, for
you can't run across human nature
without 'em, but they We're hustlers,
There was a time in the history Of
our country, my son, when a man
could lean on his hoe half the time
with his mouth open and yet be sure
of johnnycake and fried pork for al
most every meal. We We're so well
satisfied with our splint bottomed
chairs and sanded floors and pudding
and milk that we didn't feel called up
on even to so to the polls early or save
years time in courtship. They tell
you those old time people lived the
longer for the way they lived, but
don't you believe it. Just take walk
through the country graveyards, and
you will learn that they didn't No.
body can say that they were even hap
pier.
That time has gone by, however, be
the case what it may. The procession
has struck it's gait, and it's either keep
up with it or find yourself lost. You
have either got to be lazy man or
one of the spokes Of the big wheel.
No doubt you might take heap Of
comfort sitting around on soap box
and watching honeybee trying to
extract sweet from a milestone, but
what the old woman will have for sup
per when you get home is another
thing
Whatsoever you decide to go into,
my son, make up your mind to push it
for all you're worth. If it's trapping
muskrats, don't stop until you have
cleared the marsh. If it's preaching,
pound the Bible now and then and
show your earnestness. When you
find preacher hanging on for the
hundred dollars a year he gets don't
wonder over it. The hundred dollars
is probably more than he Is worth
You may prefer the burglar business
to anything else. If so, don't be an
hour doing fifteen minute job, and
don't be content until you reach the
head of the procession. Fifty years
ago you couldn't tell the American
eagle from the American vulture
when he was flying high. Today the
eagle is getting there and back as fast
as possible. He has to do 1t to keep
up with the number Of stars on the
American flag.
You can't call all the lazy men in
the country together and set wood
saving machine at work to make cord
wood of them, and there is no law
by which they can be killed off one by
one. They are of us and among us
and we have got to go on enduring
them. Perhaps it Is better 80. If we
didn't have them the hustler wouldn't
get the credit he deserves, and the
soap boxes and cracker barrels would
go on lasting forever. NJ. QUAD.