The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1909-10-14
Success Magazine.

"GOd has made selfishness unlova-
ble, and shaped the human heart to
despise it, and made unselfishnpss so
lovable that we can not withhold from
it our admiration"
No man can develop to any large
ness OF life while his mind is focused
on self We must get out of self, or
we can not grow. To constantly
think of our own interests, our own
work, our own plans, our own well
fare, is to paralyze growth. The
nobler, the diviner, impulses can not
be touched by the selfish attitude.
We must look out, not in.
No man who is conferred in self can
grow large, strong and beautiful.
The selfish man may get the thing he
is after; he may get n little more
money, but he has paid for it at a
price which staggers his manhood.
which murders the best thing in him.
1t is the very nature OF selfshness
to defeat its own ends. The practise
of selfishness contracts, limits; stran-
giles expansion, arrests development,
lessons a mans ability, cuts down
his efficiency. 1t dries up ones SYM
pathy, makes the nature hard and
cold, and marbleizes the affections.
1t is fatal to every quality of nobility
and grandeur; tearing down and de-
structive to all character building.
There are rich men in New York
who are conspicuously noted for the
absence of their names from among
those connected with all worthy OBJ
jects-men who never give to the
poor, who never lend hand to any
just cause They take no interest in
politics, have no public spirit, belong
to no organizations whose object is
to help humanity.
They are entirely and completely
wrapped up in themselves. They do
not see why they should spend their
money for other than their pleasure
or that of their families. The result
is that they become so hardened and
greedy that they are not missed when
they have passed away. Not long
ago one of these men worth millions
died in New York, and scarcely a
half dozen people outside OF his fami-
ly went to his funeral
What good are such people to a
community? They are like noxious
weeds or plants which sap nourish-
ment from the soil, and so poison the
ground about them that nothing else
can grow in their vicinity. They
give out nothing. Their money is
like the tracks of the smaller and
more innocent animals which go into
the dens of the lions and tigers in
Africa. Their toes are always to-
ward the dens; nothing that is eata.
BILE ever comes back from them.
The time will come when such men
will be looked upon as scourges of the
race and will die disgraced.
No matter how much money you
may manage to get together, or what
position you may gain, you will be g
monster if your sympathies, your
heart qualities, have not been devel
oped; and this is impossible while
. your mind is centered on yourself.
.. No man can be human while he il
. thoroughly selfish. Warmth of heart
tenderness, kindness, sympathetic
. nature, love for ones kind are reall,
the qualities that make us human
. Without these we are brutes, no mat
ter how gorgeous our apparel or hov
palatial our homes. Every man i
an animal until his sympathies an,
! love for his fellow man are aroused
The power of relieving distress j
! one OF the greatest advantages @
! wealth; the trouble with most peopl
is, however, that when they have &C
! quired the money and are able to re
lieve distress, they usually lose th
inclination to do SO. Selishness
which is often a minor failing of th
: very poor, in the rich develops into
dangerous beast 1t feeds and thrive
upon greed, and often assumes th
proportions of a monster in the sci
absorbed millionaire.
: A person who constantly thinks C
! himself, how he can advance his Ow
interests, never develops his mantle
- qualities, his finer sentiments. Th
self-centering thought never reache
= out into the larger, nobler part of ou
nature. The better qualities OF a sci
. ish person are dwarfed, undevelopet
n The colder, more barren qualities S
II predominate in his makeup that b
e thinks of others only as possible helI
to himself.
% Get away from yourself; interes
~ yourself in others; love them, hel
them, or you will become as col,
barren and heartless as an icicle.
There is only one way to develo
). sympathy-without which man
but beast-and that is by lovin,
nt taking an interest in. and trying
= help others.
4 Real happiness was born a twi
and must be shared or lost.
| Bill toters are said to meet wi
more promising persons than al
other class Of workers known amor