The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1914-12-17
). OPPORTUNITY :.
By Uncle Goshdimg

| luIfd-mural campus the OIn6f Qay,
who looked as forlorn as a last
years birds nest, and being swelled
with sympathy for mankind in gen.
eral because of a recent feed of
'toikey boid'' and extras, we felt it
our duty to inquire why he looked
so woeful. He sidled us aside to
where the enthusiastic shouts OF the
Green Sox rooters wouldn't break in
on what he'd say, and said:- It's
this talk about opportunity that
makes me feel so sad;" furtively
wiping away a tear as big as a
horse chestnut that threatened to
inundate the polished shoes of his
encircling listeners; the dope a
bout there are scads of opportunit;
is a frost. ''-Just then the assembly
for the march to the dining hall was
ordered, and the further continual
| ton of his fearful comments inter-
rdpted.
His wall, and lachrymose re-
marks. however. gave us an inspira-
Ition. Why not, thru our columns,
give him a little council in this
wise?
First, fearful friend, you had
better cancel all your mildewed
notions about the lack of opportun-
ity, put yourself in receptive
frame of mind to let a wide awake
idea with billy slip up and land on
your somnolent mentality with
thump that'll jar you loose from your
cobwebbed outlook on life and its
possibilities.
Uh huh, YOU'RE the kind of gent
that signs about opportunity not
SHINING it's knuckles as it passes
your mental cemetary with bass
drum trying to rouse you with a
noise that would wake the dead.
But you're such completely dead
one" it's no wonder you've missed
the fun of climbing on the band
wagon and being somebody.
Let the IDEA open the doors of
your self-pity and weak. kneed attti-
tude-let the sunshine in and give
it chance do dry out the damp
and moldy mental habitat you've
built for yourself.
What? You say opportunity ne
yer passed your door, that it must
have stopped on the way up your
ally and went IN to milliner to try
on latest from Paree'; and if it
wasn't that, it was because wide
awake geek further down the ally
made goo goo eyes at it and it lin
gered to make date; or if it was
not this or that, it was because you
never had an invite. and and
Censor that gold brick excuse, old
Gloomy Gus, and get wised up!
If you'd turn the same mental
and physical ingenuity it takes to
do a second story or wedding a
leather to making a handspring to
waylay opportunity you'd have the
brilliance of Broadway star look
ing like the light of sick junebug
in comparison!
Yes, Gloomy Gus, you want to
get rid of that doleful solo about op-
portunity being as scarce as the vic
tories of Johnny Bulls navy, and
the bloated self-pity that opportun-
ity wouldn't take chance at giving
an uppercut at what your mental
makeup has made look like rusty
potato crater! Yes, Gloomy, op-
portunity is as eagerly willing to
rap at your door as corporations
are to dodge the taxes. What you
want to do, is to ambush it. Get
every nerve alive, ears wide open,
eyes on the jump, alert in every
fibre, just as you had when you felon-
iously violated the criminal statutes of
Minnesota; but with this big differ
ence, where crime brot you mis-
cry and shame, the sincere and
serious alertness for opportunity
will bring happiness and success
the joy of living like the guy that
PLAYS the game on the square.
Just make yourself the promise,
and mean it-that you'll lay for
the first opportunity that rambles
past your neighborhood--no matter
if it is little disfgured as to looks
or hobbling on crutches, go for it!
It'll do, until you can size up anoth-
er one. The next one to pass by
your vicinity may be putting at
two for-a-dollar' and sporting dia-
monds as big as hickory nuts; -don't
wait for it to knock. but take out
after it like Jonesie of orr Green
Sox running the bases afer good
hit to out-ield!
Opportunity in the guise de-
scribed above. NAV be Just ducking