The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-06-19
When To Let Go


 cause the orator did not know when to sit down.
 Many salesman has failed to book his oroer because he did not know when to quit talking to his customer. Many life has been spoiled because it las attempted to do that which is not worth while or impossible and lacked the courage to quit and begin over again. We have slang phrase which says God hates a qutter." And so he does. but it depends If | your work is practical and productive, if there Is prospect of success, hold on like grim death. Never let go save to | spit on your hands. But
 If you are not really marching forward and are merely marking time. if it is wise to let go, why. then, every effort you make beyond the point of accomplishment | Is wasted effort and hopeless effort Let go with both hands. Every man who has done things has in | some crisis of his career been compelled to quit for time. When the time comes he lets go as you would drop a hot po- | tato.
 | That wizard Edison will follow a line | os light wherever it leads, but when it | takes him into a blind alley he drops his | interest instanter. He did that a score | or times in trying to find the right wire for the incandescent bulb. Lincoln let go the United States Sena- torship to win the presidency. Washington won our independence by his masterly retreats. Napoleon showed as much generalship in getting his broken army from Mos COW to the Niemen as he did at Marengo or Lodi or Austerlitz.
 Gen. U. S. Grant was one of the last m nn n at <xn hA lx1I he had to give up his canal scheme al Vicksburg. He is wise who knows when he is whipped and gracefully acknowledges de- feat, but begins again. The veteran shipmaster knows there are times when it is childish to fight the | storm and so lets his ship ride before the wind. When the storm is spent he takes his bearings and starts again for his port When the time comes let go!
 You are captain on the deck of your own vessel. Do not let it drift on to the rocks or take the heart out of yourself trying to sail in the teeth of the wind It may be heroic 10 go down with the ship, but 1t is better to go battered into port.
 Let go the impractical or harmful or unattainable. Let go!
 Be sure you are right, then go ahead" is good maxim. but how about this one?
 Be sure you are wrong, then stop
 A Human Document
 James Stell, aged 30, is convict in the Fort Madison Qa.) prison. He wal convicted of burglary Stell is an unusually bright young man. Is a poet of no mean order and has been made editor of the prison news raper.
 In a recent issue the young man tells in concise way his history. The in- teresting human document reads as fol- Jews:
 "First-I was born March 19, 1880, at Cedar Falls, la.
 "Second-A divorce three weeks after my birth left me motherless, homeless and practically fatherless "Third-An aunt cared for me until my fathers second marriage, which occurred on my seventh birthday. | "Fourth-Too much stepmother-result, rarentless at 10 years. ''Fifth-By passing bills and errand work I clothed myself, paid my board and attended school regularly.
 "Sixth-Environme evil influences, bad associations. caused me to leave school in eighth grade, against the a,l- vice of Professor Laylander, grand man.
 "Seventh-As a consequence drifted, drifted drifted to my present disgrace.
 "Eghth-I was committed to prison for breaking and entering in April, 1908, for an indeterminate term of one to ten years.
 "Ninth-Booze.
 "Tenth--I am guilty. but believe my sentence was too severe.
 "Eleventh-I have tried to prove my worthiness by my record. I seek a par. don, and will not misuse my liberty" | Note the causes: Orphaned by divorce of parents, evil surroundings and associ- ates. the drinking habit. All the malign influences of heredity and environment were combined to make this young mar what he became.
 It is difficult to see how he could have been other than he was. | While he pleaded guilty, who Is really guilty of his unmakng?
 His parents are guilty. Society is guilty.
 So long as parents may throw off re-. sponsibility for their offspring as ped vorces are granted for trivial causes, so long as boys are permitted to grow up without guardianship, 80 long society licenses men to make boys drunken, so long will we continue to make young con- yicts.
 And still stands the Nazarene over against the tangle of human life to say:
 "Who sinned--this young man or his parentsY'
 And still he points to us and says: '1nasmuch as ye did 1t not to one of the least of these, ye did 1t not to me. |