El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-03-22
SevenLanguagesaHa Handicap
Men Who Are Good Linguists Otter
Are Unable 10 Get or Hold
Positions
- By Madison c. Pefers


Tl HE other day in the Want Adj
column of a daily paper 1 read
the line, Young man, 26. speak
ing seven languages, wants a position
at anything" The man who knows toe
much miscellaneousIy. accompIishes
very little Sydney Smith said: Very
often the modern precept of education
Is be ignorant of nothing But my
advice Is, have the courage to be ignO-
rant of great number Of things, that
you may avoid the calamity Of being
ignorant of all things"
Every man who would be successful
must specialize, know one thing clear
mans difficulty In finding something
to do was that he could stalk too
much and do too little.
Successful gunnery plays continually
upon one point Momentum in phys
les, properly directed, will drive a tai
low candle through an inch board.
By spreading your efforts over too
large a surface you inevitably weaken
your force. hinder your progress, and
acquire the habit of ineffective work
ing.
Hayes's Advice to Mckinley.
President Hayes said to major Will
lam Mckinley, on his entrance into
congress: To achieve success and
fame you must pursue some special
line You must not make a speech On
every motion offered or bill intro
duced- You must cOnfine yourself 10
one particular thing; become a spe-
cialist- Take up some branch Of legis-
latiOn and make that your speciality.
Why not take up the subject of The
TARIFF Being a subject that viii not
be settled for years to come, il Of
fers a great field for study and a
chance for ultimate fame"
Mckinley began studying the tariff.
became the foremost authority on the
subject and the Mckinley Tariff bill
made William Mckinley president Of
the United States.
OF course. a man may become so
possessed of one idea as to become Of
fensive, and one sided and so warped
as to forget that there is anything
else in the world besides his own trade
mere fragment Of a man, a dwarf.
Sidetracl1s vs. Main Line.
Side tracks are a good thing, but the
side tracks should all in the long run
be switched on to the main line.
Don't dabble in too many things, don't
scatter yourself on too many lines,
don't study too many languages. Bet
ter be able to speak one correctly and
know something worth doing.
Douglas JerrOld said he knew man
with "a languages. but who had not
an idea in any Of them.
Coleridge was a man of gigantic
Intellectual capacity, and when Charles
Lamb heard of his death he wrote TO
a friend: "COleridge is dead and is
said to have left about 10000 treaties
on metaphysics and divinity and not
one Of them complete"
Ould you win, concentrate both /
mind and energy in one chosen pursuit ]
This is the power that drives ahead.
Edwin Booth played every day the /
same characters, and Joseph Jeffer- /
son stuck to Rip Van Wrinkle until il /
became a part Of his personal identity.
Be a man of intense purpose. Don't 1
know everything. Know one thing bet
ter than anybody else
Avoid as you would the plague, !
being.
"A man so various that he seemed /
to be
Not one but all mankind's epitomC; /
stiff in opinion. always in the wrOnE.
everything by starts and nothing ol-,
But in the course Of one revolving |
moon.
Vas chemist. fiddler statesman and I
buffOon"