The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1905-08-29

HOOPS HIT ME-.
skates and swim across the mill pond
four times without stopping. | there
fore had an idea that Christopher Co.
lumDuS was i One horse man and that
George WaEEiugtons were thicker th&u
bl~ackbrrTieS il August.
at twentE-oIe l started out to ruEl
the county and show the old fossils
what young blood could Do. and | felt
sorry for other young men, %patronized
my elders and let my bray be heard
III the land. One or two persons re
marked that | was born for another
Henry Clay or Daniel Webster. What
the other ten thousand remarked I did
not hear until | got over my big head.
and it didn't futter me at all.
At the age OF twenty-five | should
have run for the legislature and owne!
the earth but 70" a tri1ling circum-
stance. |, who knew SO much and
had encircled the globe fourteen times
to study human nature. didn't know
enough to be sure that when Il mule
began to twist his tail he was ready
to kick wit! both mind feet at once. |
took the twisting to be Il sign of collie
aud didn't learn my mistake until both
hoOfS lit lie.
| have ever been grateful to that old
mule. He stopped me short in my mad
career and has Kept me off tie thin ice
many Il time since. Lave even had the
sense to decline the honor when asked
to make = speech before a ward eau
Gus.
My son, it looks as easy ds falling off
a 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 a
bear trap, tune up a 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 and how Washington crossed the
Delaware. and you will take the first
prize IT Il country spelling school. You
may possibly be able to tell the differ
ence between Il cat and a rabbit track
in the snow, and you can see and dis
purse on the mistakes of Caesar, and,
taken all in all, got are a paragon.
A1Sil oioIIS OIl1C OhC III BINNllCl vi
the lightning rod man with his three
card mont and you lose ST. where you
thought you was sure of a hundred and
go to the foot of the class.
The great mistake most young men
make is in thinking that conceit is self
confidence and that cheek is ambition.
They generally have to fall off the roof
of tho hour, i1+o n ,o+cb pf noftlnS NJ.
be lifted over the fence on the horns
Of a bun 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 can't be a Roosevelt all at once,
nor can you bring about Il great pub
lie change in this or that within a
month. You can, however, show the
world what you are made of by get
ting up some morning and taking the
track of a rabbit in the fresh snow
and running him down. 1t may take
you all winter. but it's a 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 cheek. The
young man who mixes them up gets
credit for neither. He is simply rated
as an ass.
There was a time in the history of
the world when 4 man could become
great by writing poetry or painting
pictures or bringing forth new facts
in science. II 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 ard scientists have mort
gagged their household furniture to
keep out of the poorhouse. and the
man with a new brand Of chewing