The Washington herald., 1916-11-27
Trailers and Thinkers.
NJ oRIsoN swErsr ,sARuEN.

lrallers and Thinkers.
By oRIsoN SWEET MARDEN.
When Dr. Alexander Graham Bell
MAS recently asked by an interview
er for a message to the young men
who wanted to amount to something,
this was his message: Young man,
get an idea of your own. Stick to
it and put all your heart and soul
into it every day"
The young man who puts this ad-
vice into practice cannot fail to
amount to a good deal. 1t was by
following it himself that DR., Bell
was able to give US the Bell telephone,
and that has made the grand old
scientist himself a$famous man and
one of the great benefactors of man
kind.
Talleyrand's famous epigram-"His-
tory is not record of events; it is
a record of ideas"-is literally true.
The best thing to develop in a
youth is his power to think and act
independently. Developing the great
original force within him is what
makes man real force in life.
You will never be an originator of
ideas and you wiz nsver add to the
real riches of,the world by following
others or by initiating. II you ever
expect to amount to anything you
must have the courage to step out
Of the crowd and be Individual; you
must dare to think your own thoughts
and live your own life in your own
way; you must dare to be yourself.
Most people are afraid to be orig
inal. afraid to get out of the beaten
path. They haven't the courage to
step out of the crowd and do things
which have not been tried out One
constantly meets men and women
who never seem to belong to them
selves, who never have any real inde-
pendent existence. They seem to be
tools of other people, to live for other
people and to carry out others ideas.
They are echoes instead of originals
If young man is satisfied to be
employed all his life by stronger men
talities, if he prefers to leave his own
mind undeveloped, to slide along the
line OF least resistance; if he is salts
fed to remain nobody, an echo; if
he would rather do this than pay the
price of originality, of strength and
excellence, no one can help him; DR..
Bells advice will do him no good.
Advice Is only of use to those who
want to make something of them
selves, and who are determined to
make themselves felt in the world, to
stand for something.
The slave of precedent, the man
who never has an idea of his own,
who is always following others, the
trailer, imitator, never does anything
distinctive. He never stamps his in
dividuality on anything, because he
has none. He never makes new
nolds but runs everything in the old
ones and does things just as they
have always been done
1t has ever been the man with an
idea, the man who steps out of the
beaten path, who has tried to do
things in a new way, who has left his
mark upon the world
If you ever hope to enlarge your
life and to get genuine satisfaction
out of living, do your own thinking.
you. Don't think candidate is neces-
SdlHy SOOu UCSdusC IlC Is put up ny
your own party, or that another can
another party. Don't be a trailer.
Test everything and everybody by the
measuring line Of your own intelli-
gence.
Learn to measure men and princi-
pies, and to follow your own convic-
tions. If you don't trust yourself,
our own powers, you will never origi-
nate an idea.
When Mr.. Carnegie first started in
the steel business, he shocked the old
timers, the solid men of Pittsburgh,
by suggesting new ideas and following
original methods. These wiseacres
shook their heads and said: at is a
pity that that bright young man
should adopt methods so diametrically
opposite to those tested by all expert
enced men" But the bright young
man paid no heed to precedents or
precedent followers. He used his
own ideas and instead of "going
broke" he became the iron master of
the world.
Whatever your vocation, think for
yourself, resolve to get out Of the
beaten path and not to do things the
way everybody else does. Be indi-
vidual. 1t does not matter so much
what your speciality is. If you are a
man of ideas, not trailer or copy
ist but an original thinker, you can
make it unique. You can stamp your
individuality on it.
Copyright, lHe)
One of the minor personages of the
nineteenth century was a man who called