Omaha daily bee., 1908-11-15

-~NERGY Is a good thing. Many a
man has lost his chance simply
because he was not energetic.
- Many times energy has sue
ceeded where s~o.called luck"
49, was unpropitious.
But energy without proper direction is
dangerous. A locomotive Is a great thing
for civilization, a necessary instrument Of
progress, but a locomotive tearing down
the track, with the engineer dead. is a
very dangerous thing to property and per-
son.
A fire in the furnace is a great thing
and a fire in the kitchen stove Ia a neces-
sity that man may breakfast or dine, but
a fire which is merely an energetic blaze,
without direction or control, is a very de-
structive and dangerous affair.
o
Energy is simply Internal or inherent
power" so says The dictionary. Internal
or inherent power is a very good thing to
have, but It is also a dangerous tool. 1t
needs mental grasp and constant watching.
OF what use is undirected energy at a
game Of lawn tennis or golf? At a counter,
or In an office?
But worse still is misdirected energy. II
would be a bad thing to have an engine
tearing down a track in its destructive
way, through accident or undirected en-
ergy; but IL the engineer had gone crazy
and had deliberately misdlrected his en-
gine the case is much worse.
o
Very frequently. in fact so frequently
that it has ceased TO be matter Of interest,
the musical critic of The Bee meets with
cases of undirected energy and i~ll-spent
force. But almost as frequently there
comes the discouraged one who has labored
In vain. who has qnpnt his Tor harN
strength for naught; the world is blind
and there is no use to work; the fates are
unkind, and there is nothing that is not
vanity. Verify, all is vanity. But il the
poor, wailing, wearied one would only look
straight at the matter, without any bias
OF reasoning, he would often find that
there was nothing in the world to do ex-
cept to stop the misdirection Of his energy
and exert it in the right direction.
.
A pianist worked nard for many years
and could not succeed in playing the big
things he wanted to play. But his teacher
said that the reason was that the aspiring
pianist would not get down to facts and &c
to work. He was misdirecting his energy,
A singer complained that he had beer
working for many years and could moi
wake the people to see the work he was
doing. Why? Because he was in tn,
wrong line of work. He had quite acct.
dentally, to be sure, but nonetheless sue.
c~essfully wandered into the wrong field
There was a place for him in a certain
line of work, but he could not see 1t.
The energy which a beginner in must,
would put upon the first movement OF /,
sonata would be energy, without question
but 1t would not be worth anything at ali
In fact 1t would be worse than worthless
because 1t would be mlsdirected energy
II the musical critic of The Bee were I,
buy himself a violin and Immediately tr,
to play the Bach air for the G string n,
would be called names Instead Of bein,
encouraged by his teacher for his misdi
rected energy.
The misdirection of energy is a sad mat
ter.
o
There are too many students-in music
who prefer the policy. II will fight If on
on this line If It takes all MINER so sue
c~cssfully carried out by General Grant. t.
the careful reflection of what thew ar,
really doing, and the quiet examination n
the results which they are attaining com
pared to what others are attaining or hav,
attained.
The Grant policy was the result NJ
great thought and a mighty plan made h,
a man who was full of ability and aetna
military skill and experience.