Norwich bulletin., 1912-12-28
SUNDAY MORNING TALK
THE GALL OF THE SCRAP HEAP.

concern needs one At a certain great manufacturing plant one sees in the yard a small mountain of wheels, gear ings, fittings, that have become worn or obsolete. The size of the heap Is one open secret of the success of the com pany. Whatever has lost its value is thrown out.
 It takes some courage to have a scrap heap. We are surrounded by so many things that seem almost too good to be thrown away. Many a manu- facturer has held on to old machines that were not quite used up till the market has gotten away from him. Business has way of seeking out the man equipped to produce cloth trifie better or two mills per yard cheaper than his competitors.
 The old Is not always the better. An American firm lately started an ice plant in Smyrna A fine clear ice was manufactured from distilled water and sold at $5 per ton. But the company promptly came Into competition with the mountaineers who from time i'm memorial had hawked snow packed in skins through the streets of the city. For time the Turks actually prefer red this uncleanly product, though it cost four times as much as the Amer ican ice.
 The new company will win in the end and the animal skins will give way to icemen's tongs handling the clear cakes. But meanwhile the Americans have had to install circular saws to cut their ice into a product resembling snow before the people will buy it. So hard does ancestral habit yield
 There is a conservatism both in bus mess and in religion that is simply stagnation. Inertia Is one of our an- cient foes in all fields of endeavor. Be- cause of laziness or fear men stand still or mark time.
 Loyalty to the past need not blind us to its obvious limitations and blun- ders The methods of our forefathers were good for their times but the times have changed. Interpretations of forms of expression that were adequate for the years past do not fit the anlsrging thought of today. Life is a progress. We go from strength to strength. New occasions teach new duties, Time makes ancient good uncouth, They must upward still and onward Who would keep abreast of truth. The close of the year offers sugges-
 tion and opportunity in this direction Sundry unprofitable habits of body and l of mind, various unworthy purposes ! and motives should be left behind in 1 the old year. They should not be al- | lowed to cumber 1913 as they have l cumbered 1912. There is a more state | ly mansion of thought and experience awaiting each of us if we will take It | The old outgrown shell may well be l cast as rubbish to the void
 | There is a profound value in retro. | spection, but it should not be too pro.
 lcnsed. Mistakes and sins should be i viewed In their true light, branded with their real names and then be for ! gotten as soon as may be. Retrospec- 1 ton serves It's only useful purpose 1 when leading to genuine repentance
 and not merely to unfruitful remorse 7. Every discarded machine on tn, i scrap heap is precursor of something better. Because the old device failed ! at some particular point, the fault 1. remedied in the new one. That pil,
 of rusty junk Is the foundation of In.
 numerable and beautiful columns o | victory.
 It Is one of the great cancellations 0
 llfe that our most miserable failure
 may prove similarly useful. How man,
 of us are indebted not only to hours o
 success and mastery but to painful
 ones of defeat and triall The faith o
 Tennyson Is being proved the worIt
 around that
 Men may rise on stepping stones
 Of their dead selves to higher things TuE pAPS0N