The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1915-03-25
DREAMS AND DREAMERS.
II. DIR. ORIsON SWEET MARDEN

| once heard a man whose whole If,
that there was one fault ne had never
! been guilty Of, and that was building ali
castles.
| 'Pcrhaps. my FRIEND said one If his
hearers who knew him well. that may
be the reason why you are where yOU
are. If you had built air castles in your
youth and put out a little more effort In
trying to put foundations under them you
| probably would be enjoying yourself In
one of them today
Maybe you are right" he acknowl-
edged sheepishly,.' as the laugh turned
In him. Il never thought of air castles
in that way before"
Some people have a great contempt
for dreamers.' They pride themselves on
their extreme Practically. and are fond
II asserting the folly Of building castles
in tho air. stoutly insisting that stand
iuG or falling they do mischief" Yet
every great achievement i'm the world :
, history was first foreshadOwed in the
mind of the achievcr. 1t was "a castle
in tho air" an impalpab" dream. a
something dimly. and in the beginning,
vaguely outlined i'm the imagination be-
for" II became a real, substantial struc-
turc
KS matter of fact there must b" an
air castle before there is a real castle.
Equally true is it that YOU must toll for
the bricks and mortar that shall go into
your castle or il will never come out OF
tn. air.
Every college and university IN tho
United States owes its existence to a
dream, the realization of which began in
a tiny money donation of John Harvard
and few treasured volumes brought to-
Gcthcr by him and his little band Of as
suCiates when they started the parent of
our higher institutions Of learning.
Who can estimate the number Of hui
man beings who would he sleeping at the
bottom of the ocean but for MarcUni' $
dream. Sixteen hundred Of the Titanic =
passengers alone would have found a
watcry grave. Not only thousands of
lives but a great many ships and a vast
amount of property have been saved by
this Young mans dreams. for which his
associates ridiculcd him and dubbed him
as an ''impraCticaL
only comparatively few years ago.
any one who talked seriously of mechdn-
ical flight in the air was looked at pity
gated t. the list If cranks or madmcn.
Now airshipS are taken almost as a
matter of course. and the sight Of on,
sailing through the air cXcites no sur
prise. The Wright brothers in this coun-
try continued and made practical the
''dream'' Of Prof. Langley and others
preceding them who had tuilcd without
reward ''LanGleys Folly was the
name given to the machine constructed
by Prof. Langley. which. after his death.
was found to work successfully.
one of the things that keeps many pcO-
pie back is the foolish habit OF stiilins
their aspirations. discoura sing their am
bitiUn. They say to themselves. What
is the use of dreaming about the wonder
full things | am going to do in the fu-
turc, There is no such achievement in
must content myself with an ordinary
career These negative thoughts and
assertions chill their youthful ardor with
the result that their ambition says. their
ideals shrIvel. and having no great life
incentive. they drop into a humd-um
routine. and fall far below the level they
might have attained.
Whatever you do. don't part with yot.-
dreams. Your hearts desires are not
imply vapor!zings They forcshadow
possible realities Man was made to as
Dirc. to look upward. Imagination was
intended to play a tremendous part in
uur careers. The man who only sees
what actually exists today never pro-
crosses: it is the man who sees ahead,
who anticipates. who forecasts the fu-
ture. that FORCES ahead.
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