The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1905-10-10

his mother wondered IL be had struck
a new kind of collie. He was simply
wondering why it didn't rise up to the
ceiling instead Of falling to the floor.
Before he was three years old he
was spanked a dozen times a day for
INDUCING in experiments, and but for
the spirit Of perseverance the world
would have lost n of its greatest dis
coverers. The more and the harder he
was spanked the more he experiment
ed. From the age of ten to twenty he
was employed in a pottery and had to
give up bis idea of gravitation to make
golden jugs to hold cider and some
thing stronger, but at the latter age he
cut loose from his job and went back
90 his original idea.
You have all read how he made his
discovery. He was lying on his back
under an apple tree u day when he
saw an apple fall to the ground. He
was amazed that it didn't go up into
the sky instead. He began to think
n ponder and reach out for an ex-
PLANTATION and finally decided that
gravity pulled the apple down instead
of boosting it up. 1 can't say that pre-
vious to his discovery barrels used to
roll uphill instead of down and that
c~ocoanuts went sailing skyward in,
stead Of striking the earth, but I dc
know thai since his time if you throw
a rock at a dog it will be found lying
around loose somewhere after having
served its purpose.
Do not let your attention be distract
ed by the boys peering in at the win
dows O the antics of the yaller haired
young man who is now peering about
as II in search of the cage of the Ben
gal tiger, but listen closely to my next
illustration. Who and what was the
great Napoleon at the g of ten? Sim
ply a sickly child coming along with
the last run Of shad and being fed on
milk and sugar.
At fifteen no one would say that he
would ever amount to shucks. One
could name twenty things or more in
which he was lacking, but there was
n certain thing he had in plenty, per-
severance If he went for the wood
chuck, he got him. He had made up his
A14AhN, puAS dLo olShlf IhOuSh AS " 40,
to become a ruler of men and boss of
Europe, and it is needless to tell you
that he did not stop until he got there.
Perseverance was the pushing power.
No matter how often he was thrown
down, he got up to try it again. Water
loo finished him, but he had had his
day and could afford to retire.
II you need another case to convince
you, take that of Columbus. At an
early date he got the idea into his head
that Europe wasn't the only pebble on
the beach, and he wanted to set out
and look for others. 1t seemed to him
hat there might be a few acres of
good land lying around the west, and
the idea never left him. It took him
twenty years to convince people that
he was no fool. and when he set out at
last he was generally looked upon as.
being light in b top story. You know
what his perseverance accomplished.
We might have been discovered a hun-
ded years later by some other fellow,
but if SO we'd have been a hundred
years behind the times today.
AS a last case, and the yaller haired
young man having settled himself
down for an all nights sleep. take my
own. My father was lame and my
mother red headed, and we were so
poor that cold potatoes and sulphur
water We're luXuries to us. | was first
apprenticed to a cObbler, then sent to
a amer ana a brickmaker in success
sion, but l had ideas, and l had perSe-
verance, and the result is that I stand
here before you tonight with the laurel
leaves of fame dropping from my mar
bic brow. others might have given up
and become your cObbler, your tanner
or your bricklayer. but Q. Hope Jones
was not of that sort.
Day by day he stuck to the tracks
of the w~oodchuck, and when he finally
hOled the critter he dug him out and
asked his due reward from the world
at large. The receipts Of the house to-
night teach the traits Of perseverance
again. They are just sufficient to pay
my board bill and buy cheese and
crackers for a lunch, but l shall walk
the fourteen miles to my next stopping
place and turn up smiling. l am here
to stay, and those of you who know
the Jones family must know hat with
Is cents in cash and their natural per-
severance nothing Is impossible to
them. NJ. QUAD.