The Washington herald., 1916-12-13
Man Who Didn't Half Try.
By ORIsON SWEET MARDEN.

liant and successful writer, just cut
off in his prime, should be an inspira-
ton to every young man and young
woman struggling to develop a spe-
cial talent in the midst of poverty
and hard work.
How he got his start as a writer
is best told in London's own graphic
way: q.
an my 6tful school days." he says,
II had written the usual composition,
which had been praised in the usual
way, and while working in the jute
mills still made an occasional try.
The factory occupied thirteen hours
of my day, and being young and
husky wanted little for myself, so
there was not much left for compost
ton. The San Francisco Call offered
a prize for descriptive article. Ny
mother urged me to try for it, and
I did, taking for my subject "Ty-
phoon Off the Coast of China
Every tired and, sleepy and know
ing l had to be UP at $50, I began
the article at midnight and work
ed straight on until l had written
1000 words, the limit of the article,
but with my idea only half worked
out. l continued, adding another
1000 words before had finished, and
| the third night 1 spent in cutting out
the excess, so as to bring the article
within the conditions of the contest.
The first prize came to me, and my
success seriously turned my thoughts
to writing, but my blood was still too
hot for settled routine"
From his ninth year, with the ex-
ception of occasional periods of
schooling, the boys life was one of
constant toll. Working as mill hand,
oysterman. boyman, gold seeker,
laundryman, and in various other ca
pacities, he managed to pick up his
education and his literary equipment
as he swent along. He himself at
tributed his success as a writer to the
hard but varied life of his boyhood
youth.
Most of the people who fail in life
do so because they don't half try to
succeed.
saw an illustration in a magazine
which represented the entrance to the
harbor of success The harbor was
filled with mines and torpedo destroy
ers, and a shiftless, slovenly looking
youth was trying to make the harbor
in little boat. But he did not have
sufficient gumption and energy to
follow his chart, which located the
torpedo destroyers and mines, and Of
course he soon drifted on to the
mines and was wrecked
There is always hope for a young
fellow, no matter how wayward he
may be, if he is full of life and gump-
ton, but it Is very difficult to make
anything of constitutionally shift
less man or boy. There Is nothing
to build on. If a person hasn't some
energy and backbone in him all the
pushing in the world from the out
side won't move him forward and
he won't try himself unless he gets
aroused.
A man who started out as a youth
with fine prospects says that didn't
half try" has been ringing in his
ears for more than half a century.
Now he realizes that what thwarted
his ambition and almost totally
wrecked his career was his lukewarm
effort, his not half trying to succeed.
He was not willing to pay the price
for what his ambition called for; and
he can see now that there is a tre-
mendous difference between wishing
for thing, desiring it, and having a
grim resolve to do that thing, to get
there at any cost.
This man says that if he could
have looked forward in his youth as
he now looks back, if he could only
have seen what trying with all his
might could have done as compared
with the easy-going, take-it-easy pol
icy which he practiced, he could have
stood high up the ladder today in
stead of being nearly at the bottom.
Now, my friend, if you are not get
ting on, if you are disappointed with
your slow progress, just examine your
self and see if you are really half
trying to get on; see If you are put
ting forth your best, If you are
flinging your very life into the game
you are playing, see if you are all
there. You will probably find that
you are not, that your mind Is wan
dering, that you are not focusing
with all your powers upon the thing
you are doing. It is pretty hard work
to keep a determined soul. The world
makes way for the man with will.
No matter what the distractions he
I Il