The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1909-12-02

built daily and hourly solid structure OF
character and efficiency, has given counsel
from his experience to the youth who ask
youths eternal question of how great men
become great:
"There is work in this country that has
got to be done. This country demands
brains; it demands training. 1t puts an
awful load on anybody who can carry it.
Talk of want of opportunity, the very
country reaches out its hands to grasp
anybody who can give what the country
needs. That is what the American boy
discovered so that he can make good; for
the yearning country demands that in our
American young manhood. 1t is lesson
with regard to the necessity OF taking care
of the body, of the necessity of taking
every opportunity for training the mind
In the work Of training the eye and hand
and brain for opportunities every man is
boy; at thirty or forty or sixty, the sensi-
BILE man of the modern world, in which
there is something of labor in betterment
to suit every talent and every bent, will be
alert and eager to be fit for the opportunity.
The zeal for accomplishment has no excuse
for tagging until normal and healthy old
age quietly yields up its desire to live. So
the biologists tell US and SO nature impels
us to believe. In these little episodes when
money making slackens somewhat its pace,
the American, short of that fulfilled age
which sinks naturally to rest, can still see
abundant chances to achieve and serve.
year, month perhaps, will bring the
throbbing growth. He who now despairs
or uselessly frets away energies will be
then fruitlessly grieving because the op-
portunities for certain and quick reaching
of results are in the past. That is the poor
existence of the coward-discouraged over
the present, afraid of the future and al
ways repentantly sad in thinking of the
days gone by-days Of harvest when he
neglected to reap, days Of richness when
he forgot to partake, days of vast building
when he was not quick enough to get in
on the ground floor, days of the start and
stir of immense movements when he was
too sleepy to join the procession. For him
it is always too early or too late; his chance
is gone or it has not come. Looking at him
closely, you will see that his shortage is
hot in luck or opportunity, but in pluck,
buoyancy, activity, life and hope.
How many realize that activity and con-
fdence are matters of a mans own choice;
Life is a coordination of nerve habits
The will of the man can give them action
Action is the law of life; rest is the law OF
death. Idleness is SO near to hamilton that
hopelessness encouraged presages rea
decay. The forces of life respond to the
call of the will and increase in power with
the frequency and imperiousness of the
call. Even if it shortened life it is better
to make the choice of Hercules and Perseus
who boldly selected the arduous deeds Of
heroism, though the consequence was pain
and early death, and though riches, pleas.
ure and ease lay in the other direction. In
warfare more men die in inaction than in
the rain of shot and shell. In peace Wig
orous exertion is the producer of health
and strength, and there are no risks at all
The will to do, to achieve, finds opportuni.
ties every hour; more opportunities thar
time to finish them. If you must choose {
master yield obedience to the free spiri
striving in the human breast" If yol