Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1915-10-30

sober; we are industrious or lazy-just
because Of the habits we have formed
Most of our affairs we do not even rea-
son about. We act in the particular way
we do because of a habit which has be-
come instinct with us.
This being the case and these bromide
truths being matters of common knowl-
edge and experience. It is the strangest
thing In the world that parents do not
take the trouble TO teach their children
to form good habits, and thus turn the
mighty power to their advantage
They do not do 1t, however They
think that It makes no difference II lit
tie Johnnie and Susie rush to the candy
shop with every penny the minute they
get It: or II they start to build block
house and stop thta in the midst of 1t
TO blow soap bubbles, and stop that in an
instant for roller skating. and fly from
one thing to another all day long; or II
they get a message twisted in carrying
it from one room TO another; or If they
give way to violent bursts of temper
every time they are crossed.
These are small matters, think John
ME and Susie's parents, and they have
not vision enough to see that children are
men and women in the making. and that
before they are 10 years old they have
formed the habits that nine times out of
ten mold their character and decide their
destinies
What q child does with it's pennies is
a trivial matter, indeed, in itself, but It
settles whether Johnnie is going to be a
rich man or a poor man when he Is 60
II he Is given a toy bank and taught to
save most OF them, II he Is made to I'M
derstand how We must deny ourselves
little things in order to get bigger things
after awhile. and If It is impressed on
his youthful mind that money in the
bank means independence and freedom,
and the ability to command other people,
instead of being commanded by them,
why. you have formed the habit of thrift
in Johnnie. and never so long as he lives
will he be a waster and a pauper.
On the other hand. the child that il
permitted to spend every cent that he
gets, and in whose pocket money burns
a hole. the child who is brought up 10
crafty every fleeing desire will be poor
to the end of the chapter. He will have
formed extravagant habits that will be
his ruin.
Spendthrifts are made in the cradle and
you will never find a successful self
made man who will not tell you that he
learned the habit OF saving while he was
a child.
A childs tickle fancy is jumping to a
dozen different things in half an hour in
its play, seems also a very unimportant
thing until you reflect that by so doing
it is forming the habit of vaccilation and
irresolution. of giving a thing up the
instant II pals upon his tastes
Now success is 80 per cent just plain
perseverance and stick-atitiveness. The
people who arrive are not the brilliant
mercurial geniuses who have fitted from
profession 20 profession. and job TO job
but the plodders who, having selected
their life work, have toiled on through
disappointments and discouragements
learning more and more about the one
thing they had elected to do. until finally
they stood at the top OF their class.
Most OF the failures are the cutters.
very successful man once said. My
father realized that. and when we were
children he never let us stop anything
until we had finished It, II we started t
spin top. We had to spin the top before
We could stop and play something else
That formed in me the habit OF going or
with whatever / undertake. No matter
how trivial II ia have to bring 1t TO 4
conclusion. When other men get tirec
and stop fighting. I've just got reused uI
to the fighting pitch"
Whether a child does thing rightly o.
wrongly may also make little difference
expect that 1t is forming the habit OF &C
curaey and efficiency or OF incompe
ts2cy. And that also means success Of