South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-03-23
What's the Good
of Wishing
BY Beatrice Fairfax.

BY Beatrice Fairfax.
IF wishes were horses. beggars
might ride" says the old song; but l
/ think wishes are far better than
| that
Wishes are the fairy steeds on
which we mount through desire 10
achievement. And in the other old
| saying, the wish is father TO the
thought" there is far more Of LIES
real truth.
If you wish TO be fine and sweet
and kind-it is because you have in
your soul the germs Of hneness and
sweetness and kindness. If you wish
TO be strong and powerful and brave,
it is because these things are Graded
in your personality. The germ of
your wish lies in you asleep, and by
wishing il long enough and earnestly
enough you are calling TO ii TO wake
and preparing TO develop the seed on
which YOU are dropping the sunlight
and rain of your own fertile desire.
No lion tanner is likely to wish
earnestly that he were a poet. No
ditch digger is likely TO wish strong
~ that he were an astronomer. But
if he should so wish in his heart, he
will surely not be quiescent in his
ditch-digging or satisfied with his
lion-taming. If he truly wish, he viii
move on to the next stage-the stage
of trying to realize his wish.
What you wish is the measure of
your possibility of or growth. What
you truly desire. and long to be. the
force Of your own personality must
drive you TO try to attain.
"Oh, / wish wish / had pair Of
pretty new shoes and didn't have TO
go barefoot" signs the little child of
poverty Suppose the child lives with
that wish. Soon he must wonder:
What can I do to make my wish
real? How can ] set those shoes?"
If there is the germ of commOn-sense
in the child's nature it will soon come
To feel that the way TO get your wish
is not to expect the fairies to bring
ii to you, but to set about attaining
it. And the wish has already borne
fruit in the thought of helping your
self to rise and attain your desire.
The thought of independent person
atty that must not ask but earn fol-
lows naturally.
To earn-not to beg. or borrow or
steal. To earn what he wishes
that idea comes to the little child of
poverty who wishes for shoes, and
in wishing for these symbols is wish
ing, too for decency and cleanliness
and a certain orderly relation with
the conventional responsibility of so
ciety. And so is born ambition.
This sounds, perhaps like a fable.
But it is the story of how a little i'm
migrant boy who came to America in
the steerage began to work himself
up in the world Thirty years ago he
was a lad of 10 years old running bare
footed about the beat boys of ireland.
Today, he is a power in his city and
state.
"And it's all because I wished and
wished for those shoes, so I'd look de-
cent like other lads" says he. And
then / began TO wish for clothes that
wouldn't shame my shoes. And then
had to have an educatiOn-fOr I'd
got to wishing to be like other lads
and to wishing for a chance and a
place in the world. And / saw I'd
not got any Of them by wishing-so
got to wishing TO be able to see a
way to make my wishes come true.
And I found work was the way. Ny
idea of how to get on in the world is
to keep wishing and wishing-and
then youll just have to see you must
work, too. For works the only fairy
sodmother that makes wishes real"
Wishes are horses for beggars TO
riuc on. up and up out of poverty and
degradation and suffering any man
can go if he wishes with enough force
course if wishing means lazily dream
ing Of luxury and pleasure and all
the gilt and glitter Of life, it is likely
to lead you where you want, too.
The important part of wishing isn't
the making it come true. For that
happens almost of itself once your
wish gathers enough momentum and
force The thing about wishing that
needs guarding and dare-is wishing
for the right things. You have TO
cultivate discrimination and common
senSe and highmindedness in order to
DO any successful wishing.
Every one remembers about the
maEic ring in the fairy tale. 1t could
grant three wishes. and so badly
were the first two spent that the last
one had to be used for wishing every
thing back as it had been at first
If you are a little girl behind a
cOunter-and are struggling along on
81 a week. why don't you try wishing
yourself out of your rut. Why don't
YOU wish you could make yourself so
useful to your firm that you will be
a $1,000 a year buyer some day.
And then after you have wished
that hard enough and long enough TO
have it an ambition grown out of a
wish-suppose you set about making
it come true, Look about you for
chances to serve your firm efficiently.
Think up a way TO arrange your
Try 10 please customers so they
Will ask that sweet-faced girl
with the big blue ewes" when they
come in to buy their ribbons Spend
part of your noon hour looking about
To see how other shops arrange their