The Washington herald., 1916-12-27
A Suggestion for 1917.
By JOHN d. BARRY.

clergyman, was once invited to de-
liver an address before the gradu-
ating class at Harvard, and was asked
to give the graduates life motto.
This was the motto he gave them:
Make friends"
The capacity for making friends,
the ability to win others to US, to
fasten them to our souls with hoods
of steel, to surround ourselves with
those who are loyal and true, is a
wonderful power. Some possess it
in a marvellous degree; they make
friends without effort. But although
comparatively few are thus gifted, it
is possible for every one to develop
the power in greater or less degree.
In balancing our accounts for the
old year, and taking stock for the
year ahead of us, let US not forget
our friendship account. How does it
stand? Is it credit or a debit ac-
count?
The New Year is a good time to
renew and re-cement old friendships;
to renew our vows of loyalty; to re-
solve not to gamble with our friend
ships, to take no chances of losing
them, either through neglect or in
difference, through misunderstood
ings, anger, gossip, Or bad temper.
Not long ago a business man told
me he had not been back to his Alma
Mater for more than a quarter of a
century, and that he had no desire
to go. Of course he hadn't, because
he had become so absorbed in the
great commercial game that he had
no time to cultivate his friendships.
He had lost his college spirit, and
with it most of his old college
friends. The most ardent and sa-
cred friendships will soon die if not
nourished by contact and associa-
ton. They need these as flowers
need sun and rain.
There is no compensation in the
accumulation of money, or even in
the making of fame for yourself,
which will compensate you for sac
rifcing your friends, as so many do
after they leave school or college.
How cold and unsympathetic is the
life of the man who has managed to
scrape together a great fortune, but
who has lost his friends in the proc
ess. If what use is a lot of money
if you have sacrificed your friends in
getting it? Does it pay? Is there
anything that enriches more, that
satisfies ones whole being more than
noble friendships?
when we let new friends into our
lives" says David Grayson, eve be-
come permanently enlarged, and mar
vel that we ever could have lived in
a smaller world"
Did you ever realize how friends
enlarge and broaden life, and what
an easy thing it is to lose good friends
by neglecting them? Did you ever
get or keep anything worth while
without an effort equal to its value ?
Can you expect to get the most val
liable thing in the world without
some sacrifice, without effort?
"Only be admonished," as Emcr-
son says, mot to strike leagues of
friendship with cheap persons where
no friendships can be. Our impa-
tience betrays US into rash and fool
ish alliances where no God attends" ."
The character and standing of our
friends have a very marked influence
upon our lives. One of the most
helpful New Year resolutions a
young man or a young woman can
make, is to resolve to choose friends
upwards, just as far as possible. Try
to associate with people who are
above you, not below you; not so
much with people who have more
money, but with those who have had
greater advantages for culture and
self-improvement, who are better
educated and better informed, those
who are dead-in-earnest and deter
mined to be somebody and to stand
for something in the world. This will
tend to raise your own ideals, to in
spire you to higher things, to make
greater effort to develop your own
highest powers, to be somebody your
self.
Dean Swift used to say: "A fig for
your bill of fare. Show me the bill
of your company" Our company af-
fects our minds, our souls; Our food
affects our bodies primarily.
Let us make 1917 memorable by
striking leagues of friendships" :"
making wise alliances, where God
attends"