The Washington herald., 1912-07-21
Don 'tHang Back from Workif You
Would Make Most Of Yourself.
Bv C. S. MADDOCKS.
By c. S. MADDOCKS.


efficient worker for his employer ss wea ~
for himself
When promotions come to the men Of
greater industry the hans-bsckers do not
restrain jealous expression concerning the
successful. often giving any but the right
reason for the success. The hold-backers
are the last to acknowledge that hard work
and devotion to duty have won out. They
may believe with reason that they have the
greater natural endownments. but resting
on his oars never got a man upstream. no
matter how ins his craft.
The " brilliant college student who coul6
really succeed oftentimes In writing fairly
credttable paper about something he knew
nothing about exclaimed In great disgust
to his slow and studious fellow student when
the fnal grades were out, " The idea Of your
getting a higher mark than didi" Here
where It was not q matter Of bread and but
ter, the jealousy oe the naturally cleverer
man may have been of q mild sort, but in
real life struggles II is not so. The defeated
are likely to credit anothers success to any
thing but the right thing.
For selfish reasons alone. leaving out Of
the question the moral reasons. It Goes not
pay a man to be q hang hacker. A hearty
rendering OF service yields content; per-
petual hanging back Is bound for many rea-
sons to yield discontent. and discomfort Is
n hotbed for breeding all sorts Of personal
disease.
Hang Backers" Disseminated.
The man who falls to get on In life may
be Justly discontented. but there Is little
L. - 49, -. 49,
successes Of othsr people. He 10 quite likely
to blame the social order and bitterly to
blame 1t. He wants part and would not OBJ
ject 10 taking all of what the man has who
never faltered before duty. never held
back when he was the lfksst person to do
piece Of work that lay in the way to be done
The hang-backers are not only discontsnt-
ed but they are most likely to be trouble
makers In the shop, the ONCE. the store
the kitchen, in service halls and stands Of
every sort they are quite generally the peo-
pie who are the most Jealous Of doing any
thing beyond what they think to be their
stint. and they are Jealous Of those who do
what their hands find to DO or use all their
time TO the profit of their employers without
considering whether they are doing more
than the schedule requires. II II could once
be given TO these people to see the pure abb
surdity, the pettfness In hanging back for
fear of doing more than a minute interprsta-
ton of the law seemed to make necessary.
IL they would once stretch their dwarfsd
souls a bit, they might begin to reason on
the error of their ways and be illumined
by a great and new light as to what are the
real and truest rewards Of work and living.
They might. In other words. learn what Joy
there Is in effort as compared with effortisss-
ness.
In ancient Greece the victors at the con-
tests OF various sorts won great honor.
These contests were called ganes, but the
men who won In them did not win through
play but only by strenuous preparation.
through real and often prolonged work. This
preparation required patience and persist
ence that there might be q constant advance
In strength and skill
Testimonies to the effect that the uveliest
exercise Of strength and skill gives the great
est Of known Joy are very numerous. In the
Century magazine for July there II q fon-
net written to accompany a bas-relief by
A. TAFT Mckenzie. with the title "a The Joy
of Effort" The picture is Of three hurdlers
clearing the bar. The poem tells Of their
eagerness. their impetuosity. their Joy IN
feetness. The last two lines. q oouplst.
read For man It's not enough to be aiive'
the noblest joy Of being Il to strive"
II a man Il well, effort, work. 10 . Joy; If
man is Ill work may be q cure. II IL er-
peciaIly recommended as q cure for nervous
people who may. very likely. have won their
trouble by some form Of hanging back. As
weak muscles and joints and tendons are
strengthened by use. 30. some Of our best
pbvac,ans tss US, nervous strength Ii in
creased By work.
Proved by Doctors.
This has been proved by abundant clinical
evidence. Nervous health is rebuilt by ef-
fort. DR.. Richard c. Cabot Of the Harvard
Medical school maintains that considerable
mart of nervous invalfdism arises either be-
cause people have no work or because they
have no work that suits them. or because
they do not know how to get the most out OF
the work in which they are already engaged
It is not easy for the invalid to cure himself
by work. but fatigue and distress lessen
with the repetition of the same task. and so
work becomes supportable, comfortable. ac-
ceptable, till finally we are back In our nor
NAL position-no longer bearing up in spite
of our work. but being borne up by IT.
The hanger back can never be In this nor
NAL position, or never at any rate In rsSer-
enos to the thing he hangs back from doing.