Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-06-03
THE OPTIMIST

He remembers yesterdays sunshine
while you frown at today's storms. He
knows that the calm will surely follow
the turmoil. The stubbing stone in the
darkness is a happily discovered spot
which he may thereafter avoid. Whlle
| others blame Nature for putting thorns
on roses, he is glad that she thought
/ to put roses on the thorns. He is CRATE
/ full for the palm tree and the well in the
desert-realizing how utterly desolate
| the sands would be without their GASES.
/ Amid the wreckage of disaster ne sees
! timbers to be picked out for the re-
| building. When the wind sweeps down
the grain fields, he plans how he can
use the straw.
He always manages to find bright
/ spot in the gloom-a star trying to shine
through the clouds. When he is
/ knocked off his feet, he Immediately
finds them again-scuares his shoulders,
tightens up his pluck and starts in to
| straighten up. Instead of discounting
/ the promise of the future, he discounts
his misfortune. He believes in himself,
and with that belief fertilizeS his effort
until it blossoms with result
From the beginning OF time the en-
vious, complacent, lazy, half-hearted
peoples of the world have resented his
fine enthusiasm. Because he is differ
/ euL, luGy DelltNe lldl he IuuSI NC d
| fool. He is insane; he ism balanced.
He is abnormal; but it's the abnor-
mality of a better brain and a more
fluent Imagination.
He's a soldier of the foreguard,
marching ahead to open the way and
make safer the journeys of those who
come after him-who move onward only
with the power of their feet and their
meat. He aims higher than he strikes,
/ md p1,xFh fte4 cosa orlyf ho,,
he aspired lower. He sketches with the
pencil of imagination, and even If he
seldom builds his towers as high as he
plans, he leaves the specifications with
which another generation can complete
the undertaking.
He's the optimist-the man who be-
lieves that he can do it, He fails time
and time again; but he fails in his
work, not in himself. Even if he went
but halfway down the path of progress
he left only half as much still to be
done by the man who followed.
III that you have, all that you
cherish, all that is big and fine and
worth while, all your ethics, all your
PHILOSOPHERS, all your sanities, all that
means most to you, all that brought
you down from the tree homes of youl
ape forebears-was believed in by one
set of optimists and achieved by an
other.
The general who thinks that he can
win his battle does more with his OPP
timism than with his cannons. With
J out this belief, a hundred battalions
| and a thousand squadron of horse are
| halved in number.
A coward can't conquer anything, be-
cause he can't conquer himself. A
doubter can't help, because he's an
enemy to hmself-a traitor to his own
cause.
Nothing that, is hard, nothing that
| bends mems backs and strains their
sinews and tears their<souls and starves
| them, would ever be brought to pass il
an optimist didn't have that within him
which made him feel it was worth
while to endure and to suffer for the
sake of getting to the place and the
thing he wanted.
Ability doesn't count; knowledge Is
usess; experience has no worth with.
out the driving force of optimism. IT.
me steam that makes all the wheels 60
round-it's the sparkling plug of the
motor-it starts things.
Anything is possible to the man whc
believes that nothing is impossible. He
doesn't always make good; but he
makes good oftener than the pessimist
His Judgment isn't always right; but
many a time the very vehemence of his
confidence has carried through an un-
dertaking which alf-heartedness would
have wrecked.
He can never see failure, because the
golden sun of ambition is always shin
ing in his face, binding his eyes to the
impossibilities. He doesn't heed the
warnings of discourse cement because
higher and clearer than the little noises
of the little people he hears the call OF
| success. He must be what he is. He's
filled with the mightiest message given
to man-he has been touched with the
God spark that blazes into achieve
| mont -Herhart Kaufman