The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1916-11-02
What Ambition
Can Do
BY M. QUAD
By M. QUAD
Copyright. 1916, by the Mcclure
Newspaper Syndicate

on the platform and said:
"My dear friends, | reached this
town of Cucumber Hill early In the
day and have had several hours to
hook over the landscape and converse
with your most eminent citizens You
have site here to be prou1 Of. and
your sawmill is equipped with one of
the finest steam whistles I ever heard.
"Your hogs look fat and contented
as they walk up and down the ave-
nues. Such cows as l have encounter
ed are Of kindly disposition, and the
alarms Of war seem not to have dis
turbed you.
There are only seven persons pres
emit at my lecture. but probably the
measles and the whooping cough kept
the others In the house. have deliv-
eyed lectures where the audience num-
bered only one person, but | spoke
with the emphasis. philosophy and
logic that | use where the audience
numbers thousand. shall do SO to-
night. You shall have the worth of
your money and perhaps double the
value. l am going to tell you what
ambition can do.
Take the case of Socrates He has
been dead some time. but he did not
kick about dying when his time had
come, and history has left us a good
record of his ambitious doings. He
began life as corner grocer, and In
those days every grocer had to give
sixteen ounces to the pound.
Seeing after year or two that
there was no show in the grocery
business for an honest man. Old Soc
rates decided on q change. He closed
up his shop and went to school to
learn to be statesman and an orator.
Such was his ambition to get there
that In two weeks he knew more than
the schoolmaster. 1t wasn't two
months after the change occurred that
he made Fourth Of July speech
that knocked all the older orators gal
ley west. He used his big words in
just the right places and be slung his
grammar around with the utmost lib
crafty. From thence on he began to
elbow his way upward. Those who
had reached the top rung Of the lad
der tried their best to keep him down,
but failed in their designs. The time
came when Socrates almost had the
influence Of a king.
Having got all the honors that
could be showered upon one man and
having accumulated about billion
dollars. he peacefully passed away.
But, my friends, we need not go
back SO far to cite our cases. Take
that of Napoleon. He was born Of
humble parents. He lived in garnet.
Hot biscuit and clover honey were net
for him. Nothing but ambition saved
him from becoming tin peddler or t:
barker for summer show. He had
ambition. and he won. He chopped
had saved money enough to take him
through a military school. When
through with this school he took COM
mand Of the army Of France, and the
way he did lam the rest of Europe
was caution. For forty years or
more he kept things going. Between
his wars there was hardly time for
him to go fishing. He licked the en-
envy in most of his battles, and when
he didn't lick 'em they could not catch
up to lick him.
Ambition made Napoleon the great
est general of the world, and the great
est general finally became an emperor
nj tha ri Of 80
him. In truth he became a little too
ambitious. He started out to give
Europe a last dressing down. and at
the battle of Waterloo he got the
dressing down himself Be ambitious.
but don't expect to hold four aces in
every hand.
And there was John Hancock, first
to sign the Declaration of Independ-
ence What did he amount to before
he signed? Nobody took off his hat to
him. His name was never put up for
an Office. He could not have gone to
sidewalk repaired. 1t was said of him
that he was a very quiet man. but he
did not know later bug from a
beetle.
"All of a sudden. however. Mr.. Han
cock felt ambition stirring In his
breast. He got up and took his hat off
its peg and said to his wife:
"'Hannah | think will go over to
the old statehouse and sign the Dec
laration of Independence. Something
tells mo I ought To do IL
And she replied:
"'Yes. John, you had better go over
and write your name as large as you
can. 1t will bluff the British II 1t
doesn't do anything else
And who was John Hancock half
an hour after he had signed? Why,
the men of Washington were whooping
for him and carrying him about on
their shoulders, and, you take my word
for 1t, next day he could have had any
thing In the gift OF the town. He shot
right up like a green bay tree. and to
know John Hancock was something
that every man in the land could be
proud of. He died respected and loved