Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1912-05-13
Getting On In
Life
By THOMAS TAPER.

w re have all seen the sentie man
w nered boy in a crowd, the boy
that always minds his bust
ness and never quarrels. One day the
crowd begins to plague him. He gets
fighting mad. and makes a reputation
on the spot by licking everybody in
sight.
One of Walter Scott's teachers stood
him up in corner and put the Ounce
cap on his head
A teacher of Beethoven. the great
composer. declared he would never
learn and advised others to have Moth
ing to do with him
But Scott like the boy, walked up
and licked reputation out of the
world So did Beethoven. So have
thousands of others.
The most cheerful fact in biography
is this sudden change one day In the
mental life of the so-called stupid
Young man or woman. All a once the
sleepy look disappears, and the fight
is on.
There once lived in the south of Eng
land a clergyman, Carter by name. HIS
wife died from grief at having lost her
little fortune in a gold brick proposition
of those days called the South Sea
stocks
The clergyman was left with a family
of bows and girls, one of whom Eliza
beth. was ten years old when her moth
er died. The father undertook to edu-
cate them alike. giving the girls the
same training as the boys.
They all got along very we'll with
their lessons except Elizabeth. Try as
he would. Dr. Garter could make no
headwav with her She was one of the
born stupid" kind, and all effort to
give her an education seemed useless.
After while. as Elizabeth grew older
and began to notice things herself in
cluded. she began to get anxious. 1t
was no great privilege to go through
life as the stupid Carter girl" That
made Elizabeth mad, and she took hel
case in her own hands.
She made up her mind that what she
must do she must do by herself so she
began to study again. keeping at it latT
Mt night and beginning again early in
the morning But Elizabeth had great
trouble in keeping awake-ouite stu
pid symptom she fought this habit ~
falling asleep by taking large quaint
ties of snuff and chewing green }er
leaves
This kept her awake, and incidental
injured her health But il lifted iae
trap door. so to speak and the liz
crept in.
One of her favorite studies nas
Greek. The great author of her tirs
DR. Samuel Johnson, declared her to pe
the greatest Greek scholar Of her tine
She also learned Latin Hebrew, &c.
man, French. Italian. Spanish. Portu
guese and Ara bic. STUPID Elizabeth
was getting on, YOU see.
She also learned much of astronomy
and history and she wrote poetry.
Some of her poems appeared in the
leading magazines, and were afterward
published in book form.
But her principal work was a trans
lation of the philosophy of the Greek
slave Epictetus. which was published
by subscription.
Elizabeth was still getting on in
fact her work began to attract so much
attention that the great men of her
time became her friends Among them
We're Johnson, Bishop Butler Horace
Wapole, Hannah More and many
others
Through a long life (she died a $50
Elizabeth kept on doing literary work
and impressing people with the power
of her mind
No one would recommend snuff and
green tea as cure for the reputation
of being stupid And they are not nee
essary. either. Further, no one would
deny that every one of us is stupid in
one way or another The cure is to be
determined to get over ii. to down it, to
get fighting mad and become master Of
the situation
Scores of thousands of people have
done it and are doing it today. They
are striking out line of work lasting
late al night and beginning again eariv
In the morning That makes a long
day but long day is better than the
snuff ana green tea
If anything seems particularly hard
just say TO Yourself
Elizabeth Carter got on in life and
SO can
And you can.