The Oklahoma City times. [volume] (Oklahoma City, Okla.) 1908-1984, 1917-08-28
A Lesson I'm Self Reliance

1NHERE comes a time in the life of every man when he
looks back upon himself as another beins-he seems
to have q fathers feeling for the boy that was. There
is a little incident in the writer's life that has stuck
& in my mind for years, which illustrates a point-and
| give it to you in order to get rid of 1t, with a hope
that It may do you good. And have an idea that it is these
little items that make or mar our destiny. know that they
have formed or hammered into my soul a creed-based on
experience In the great Crucible of Lhe-without the aid OF
sect, religion or system.
Fate had willed it so, for she kicked me out at an early
sse..alone and unaided-and paid dearly for her learning
erence, l do so as though he were pot myself. but were some
dream figure Of my imagination.
1t was in Los Angeles. was a child-in years; a man
@c.i1n. responsibility: was brokecfatl i owed the hotel
tising-a Fifty Dollar Deal-Ten down and Ten a month.
That is, was TRYING to sell Advertising!
To begin with, lied about my age to get the Job had
to eat! | didn't at that time realize that when | shifted my
feet, | shifted my mind-and l had jumped clear across the
continent-and the result in both TALK and ACTION was
Foolish Movements.
was all a great, big graft! | felt rs though land every
other salesman | had ever met-was a "Con-man," and the
SOMETHING for the money. 1t didn't seem as though had
ever heard ANY anyone .".I put up "a a.. str sp6o proposition it IN. in ny" my life fr
and don't be so particular HOW you get it."
My only comfort was a burning hope that some day l
would wake up and find it all a bad dream; l couldn't bring
myself to realize that REGULAR men were that way. | knew
] had a soul, but l shook it, cursed it and smashed it, and it
wouldn't awaken. I felt sorry for the men who bought my
JUNK, for I knew that they fell for my TALK and not for my
proposhion-and l knew that my talk was BUNK. l talked
too fast for it to be STRAIGHT. 1t was an ugly. unvarnished
lie, and cut my SELF RESPECT every time | handed a
canvass.
The proposition was crooked; the world was crooked;
everything and everybody was CROOKED l had disap-
pointed MYSELF by not working and not Making Good 80
many times, and cut my self-respect so often by HYPNOTIC
, MISREPRESENTATION that was done for, all in-gonel
In a solemn conversation with MYSELF in the dead silence of
my own room, 1 called things by their RIGHT NAME, adj
mitted that all dishonesty was in the same class-whether
it was stealing, cheating, lying, wasting my EMPLOYERS
or MY time. 1t was ALL crooked-not CARELESSNESS but
plain CROOKEDNESS. No matter whether l was DOING the
other fellow or MYSELF could use no other than that ugly
word-CROOKED!
The fact that l was admitting this to MYSELF was the
first ray of hope.
caught the trolley and went out to Glendora. I worked
all day, slipshod and haphazzardly. | sold-NOTHlNG At
six made my way YEARLY into a typical California Chinese
restaurant, and had dinner, and Soon after went back to the
trolley station. When | arrived at the window, called for a
ticket, and reached in my pocket-MY MONEY WAS CONE!
Gold they carry in that country. and my last Five Dollars