Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-11-04
Many

Many
A youth has been hampered because of
pecullarities which he has allowed to creep
into his personality of manner, which, If
realized by himself, easily might have been
primed and trained, had he only been
taught the secret of habit forming. The
habits formed in boyhood characterize the
man. Get the habit is an expression used
by many people when they are in jocular
humor, but little real attention is given to
what pregnancy of meaning there is in the
expression.
We all know that to follow the line of
least resistance Is the law of nature, and
our characters are formed by the repeated
acts. following one another, whether for
good or evil. which becomes consolidated
into habit. If you study character in men
and know q mans habits, you can almost
1nfallibly determine what he will do in any
given situation: you will know with positive
certainty what his first unthinking impulse
will be- We form the habit of vacilation
and never accomplish anything In life. The
drifting from one purpose to another in
decision, hesitation, the failure to act when
nothing but vigor of action will avail; these
will ruin a man as surely and effectually as
deliberate and outbreaking sin. We get
into the habit of taking life easy, shirk
every dlsagreeable duty; avoid every re-
sponsibility. We get into the popular swim
and make 1t our supreme ambition to have
q good time-and we are well launched on
the stream that rapidly drifts us to nothing
ness.
The habit of working only when we feel
like II. without the power to compel our
selves to do anything we are averse to, will
prevent ever getting high up in the
world. Sow an act and you reap habit;
SOW a habit and you reap character; SOW
a oh aptar "a nd 81
Every Man
Who can be a first rate something-as
every man can be who is a man at all-has
no right to be fifth-rate something; for a
ffth-rate something is no better than a
frst-rate nothing, says Holland. Too sell
dom, In choosing our vocations in life, do
We aim for that which will bring out the
best which is in US. The early training has
much to do with this, for ideas of hero wor-
ship are not greatly inculcated in the young
of the present day. If we taught our chill
dren of the great things others have done
before our day and showed how we of the
present time are indebted to them; IL We
inculcated love for country and taught
them to reverence what our great states
men have done; II we found they were fond
of nature and read to them of our great
naturalists and fed their love for nature by
studies in those lines, how many more
might be inspired to themselves strive to
mankind and leave something to live after
them?
There are too many square pegs in round
holes. Many people go through life feeling
O want which they cannot explain-a void.
Life is colorless to them. 1t simply Is that
they are out of their proper sphere. II
some lucky chance comes to them and
places them where they can expand and
grow. as would flower that loved the sun
shine but had been kept in a dark room
until the hand of one who knew placed it In
the right environment, life takes on a Diff
ferent hue and each day is not long enough
for them to do all the things their brains
are teeming with
Too often they continue to be mere ma
chimes or mere cogs within machine, turn
in Z mechanically day after day. Life is one
cary routine and grind. Their ideas be-
come atrophied.
Mothers
Cannot give too much attention to the
prevention of any spinal weakness in their
children. 1t is not when the child has at
tanned adolescence that mothers should
worry about their crooked backs; 1t Is when
they are babies in long clothes that the
straight back and good department must be
cultivated. Start at the beginning and do
not let your nurse carry the young infant