The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1909-06-05
SOWING AND REAPING.

The inevitable law of whatsoever a
man sows, that must he reap in har-
vest, is equally true in the physical
world.
The farmer sows wheat and always
gets wheat in return. Nature never
changes or reverses her laws. If the
farmer fails to plow or cultivate his
land in the spring time, and sow his
seed early, he will have no wheat in
harvest, and weeds will grow instead,
and sap its fertility.
If a young man fails to sow the
good seed in the morning of his days,
to early in life cultivate his mind,
and store it with valuable and useful
information, he will also fail of reap
ing the reward that he hopes to OBJ
tain eventually. Ifthe golden oppor
tunities are suffered to pass unheeded,
the golden harvest time will never
come. You cannot be idle for years
and keep your mind fresh and vigor-
Gus, and as quick and sharp to learn
and retain what is learned. The har-
dening process cannot be overcome.
You suffer loss that cannot be made
good, however hard you may try.
The farmer sows the grain in early
spring, that he may reap in autumn.
He has to wait for the seed to ger
inmate and pass through all the va
ried processes until it is matured
grain. He does not plow it up in
week or month, because it has not
matured. He has to patiently wait
for the full maturity of the ripened
grain.
One of the greatest mistakes young
men are liable to make is unwilling
ness to wait for the harvest. Because
their labor, their sowing, does not
bear fruit Immediately, throw up the
scheme to try something else, which
in its turn is abandoned. They are
continually changing, and the oftener
they change the more unsettled be-
come their minds and the greater
difficulty to buckle down to one thing
and stick to it. They desire immedi-
ate returns for their investments, and
because they cannot get it, they sell
out at sacrifice and 60 into some
thing else. 1t is not altogether in
knowing what is the best thing to do,
so much as there is sticking to 1t to the
end. 1t has been well said that if
any young man would go into any
legitimate business and stick to it for
ten years, he would become independ-
ent. 1t requires courage, patience
and nerve.
The very first step young man
takes for himself is the most important
one of all. If he would be right all
the time, he must start right. The
first thing a builder does when pre-
pairing to erect a good substantial
building is to lay the foundation, deep,
broad and on solid footing. If he
fails to do this he will repent of his
folly when it is too late. A few
years ago granite block was built in
Boston some eight or nine stories high,
and when it was completed, it was
considered one of the best blocks in
the city. It's substantial character to
all appearance made it as lasting as
the granite of which it was built.
Tenants to occupy 1t were numerous.
The builder had the utmost faith in
it. They could "pile it full of pig
lead" But, alas, before it was half
stocked with goods, it went down,
filling the street with stone, bricks,
broken timbers and bales of goods
and several persons were killed who
had no time to escape. Why did it
fall' Down in the cellar was few
feet of an old wall, and to save few
dollars it was left, and when the enor-
nous weight of the structure began
to bear down upon it, 1t could not
stand the pressure, and the entire
block fell in ruins. A hundred or
two hundred dollars worth Of work
saved in the foundation was over a
hundred thousand dollars loss in the
end, and that was but trife in COM
parison with the lives sacrificed,
which no money could repay.