The Washington herald., 1917-02-19
Never Too Late to Succeed
By oRIsoN SWEET MARDEN.


The recent death in London of the
famous English novelist, William
Friend De Morgan, in his 18th year.
reminds us once more that, no mat
ter what his age, one is never too
old to succeed.
De Morgan was o5years old when
he discovered the talent that made
him rich as we'll as famous. Previous
to this he had been maker of stained
glass windows and blue tiles and an
inventor of smoke consumers and
bicycle gears but in none of these
lines he had made either fame or
riches.
1t was while recovering from long
and serious illness fourteen years ago,
in 1908, that De Morgan began to
write for his own amusement. The
result was Joseph Vance" novel
of 100000 words, which from the
moment of its publication, was a
tremendous success. Those who have
read the book readily understand
how, in spite of its unusual length
for this day of short novels, it be-
came as popular in this country and
wherever the English tongue is
spoken, as any of Charles Dickens
novels.
After the discovery of his greatest
talent, Mr.. De Morgan did not lay
down his pen until death called him
away. One successful novel followed
another in rapid succession and
wealth and fame in overflowing meas
ure came to the author in the decades
between 65 and 7S.
In spite of the many precedents
that prove it is never too late for a
man or a woman to start In a new
line and make big success of it, the
discouraged cry TOO late" has been
in all ages one of the greatest him
ORANGES to progress.
There are multitudes of people In
the world today who have come to
realize that they were on the wrong
track, and have seen what they be-
lieved would be a better thing for
them, but they thought it too late, as
they put, "for an old dog to learn
new tricks" So they go on in the
same old dwarfing groove, afraid to
put their ability to the test in a new
direction.
A Western woman, for example,
writes me she has no doubt whatever
of the transforming possibilities in
the practice of my life philosophy
but fears it is too late for her to put
it to the test. From her letter, I
should judge my correspondent has
not yet passed middle life, yet she is
afraid she is too old to develop or
improve herself
A similar instance of this sort of
middle age discouragement is that
of man not yet in his soth year.
whom short time ago, was trying
to encourage to do better. "Oh, l
am too old to do anything now," was
his respondent reply. my time has
gone by" Nothing would induce
him to try to get out of his rut.
1t is grievous delusion to imagine
that there is no success ahead for
those who have not achieved it early
in life. Why, some of the greatest
successes in all history began their
upward careers long after they had
reached middle age. Some of them
even educated themselves almost
wholly after 50.
AS long as the conviction that it
is too late is intrenched in ones con-
sciousness, of course one is not in a
position to make a trial which will
have any chance of success. You
must at least believe you can do a
thing before you can do it. Before
you can begin to forge ahead in mid
die life or later, you must put out Of
your mind forever the unfortunate
belief that you are too old to begin
anything you want to do.
1t is never too late to begin to do
better; and the very reversal OF the
attitude of mind, the turning about
and facing the sun, so that the
shadows fall at your back, will be a
great encouragement to go forward.
A man of so, 90, or more, ought
to be ashamed to say there is no
chance for him. Read the life stories
of those who never did anything of
Importance until they had passed the
half-century mark, and of those who
have done great things after 90, and
you will be ashamed to give way to
encouragement.
Life is journey of progress, and
there is no reason why we should not