The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-07-09
says UNCLE CIV

The Failure came over the other night
to share a meditative pipe with M,
and told me the story of his life. 1t
was an exceedingly Illuminating story,
but one to which it is hard to point
the moral in a few words. The Failure
is a brilliant man-perhapS the most
brilliant in the neighborhood. But he
also lives in the meanest house in the
block, and both he and his family all
too plainly show the pinch of poverty.
ITO begin with, let me say that
have worked hard and have done my
work comparatively WE'LL said he.
knew this to be the truth. But ne
went on, Il believe that while 1 have
worked longer hours than most mon
of my acquaintance and while I have
in some respects a better brain, / CAN
charge up most of my failure to wasted
time.
I'm not without the virtue of per-
sistence, for 1 have followed many for
lorn hopes to their untimely graves
and have kept a watchful eye upon
their last resting place in the hope of
their resurrection. Yet 1 have all my
life so mixed up my hours of work
and play, SO interningled my rests and
labOrS, that consecutive effort is al
most impossible to me, except under
the stress of strong emotion. Thus,
when l have become desperate of mel
ancho1y, 1 have at times performed Ct
fectively and brilliantly. But only for
a few dayS-I would fall back into MY
old habits of mixing up work and play.
LAS result, 1 am always tired.
can never drive either brains or mus
Gle to sustained effort. Consequently,
L am, in the long run, more than a
trif1e ineffective.
Again, 1 know my habits of life,
while not generally recognized as vi
locus, have not been such as would
have brought the best out Of one OF
my temperament. 1 eat too much,
smoke too much, sleep too long or
not enough, as the mood strikes me;
take my exercise at the wrong time
of the day, or omit it altogether.
am learning now, when it is too late.
that he who would be highly success
full must have wellnigh perfect training.
1 hope that the athlete of today wild
drive home that lesson to the youth
of tomorrow. There is world of good
healty inspiration in the sporting page.
More than this 1 have been
comfort-loving comrade. Even with
the wolf at my heels, 1 have pract1-
cally all of the necessary comforts of
life, and L have feared to jeopardize
them in an effort to find wider scope
for my work and the bigger rewards.
That cowardice and my laziness have
completed the undoing begun by my
lack of systematic and consecutive eff
fort.
1.-The worst of it is that 1 am but
one of many failures who have tray-
eIed the same uninspired road. Most
of them do not realize that they arc
failures or if they ever did realize it,
they have steeIe1 themselves to for
get. Were it not for the vanity of
wishes, 1 could wish most heartily
that 1 had even ten years of my life
to live over again"
Not a pretty story-nor, more's the
pity an unusual one. Its lessons are
many and plain.
Don't mix work and play. Inter |
the one spoils the appetite
for the other and defeats the ends OF
both. Consecutive, sustained, unceas- !
ing effort, and only that kind of effort, |
counts. Long hours are worth less thai /,
disciplined brains-brains trained to
work during working hours and to play |
when work is over.
Look to your body that you keep it |
tingling with health and craving for |
work. Study yourself and your pei
sonal habits. If q habit is cutting down |!
your working powers, cut it out.
Don't be afraid TO pull up stakes |
and move. The filter doesn't prosper, |
but there is mighty virtue in trans
planting. When you find the wider |
field go to it. Don't be a victim OF |
that kind Of laziness which puts the
moderate comforts of the moment |
above the achievements of tomorrow.
Get up and dust-give yourself d
1913, Mcclure
Syndicate) |