Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1919-11-21
USE IN ADVERSELY
Generally a Working Out of the
Law of Compensation.
Undoubted Fact That Opposition or
Hardship Tends TO Bring out
the Best There Is jn Mans
Composition.


81 wish ecCll Side along in bust
ness as easily as George Seagrave'
said John Nelson. as he Joined his
father in the library after dinner.
whats up now" asked his father
'' i. r,s..ili:i :, s" rcp:i>f 'hc sen, only
9. - HIS just il II appointed assist
II :,ealral I;liaSer Of his f;tiiie.' 5
s.Ti:l. Il; ,lGcer'. saeInsright for fellow
10 have IN advantage like that given
IL i.i.l, Vile fellows like me have TO
dig fer everything they get.
.'sI3vf t,iut seems to lie the way tie
word Is made, John, and the more
see Of it the more. I'm convinced IT'S
d capital arrangement. used to teet
IS you dG, but Fve lived long enough
to see Il great many things adjust
themselves. There is a law of com
pcnsation at work, my boy, and no
class has all the advantages. 1t would
re very poor world if we all slid
along as easily as George doe"
'lyl:at Go you mean by that?" asked
the sen.
"Just this: it takes opposition or
hardship, or whatever you please TO
Gail it, to bring out the best in us ana
make us good for anything. You
know the old saying, It's three gener-
ations from shirt sleeves to shirt
sleeves A man goes out in his shirt
sleeves and gets his living, but he de-
cides that his children shall have more
opportunity than he, so he gives them
an education. The sons make money
by their educational advantages, and
they pass it on to their sons, who have
never known the struggle of acquisi-
ton. The sons sons go through it. And
so tle shirt-sleeve process begins
again. 1t doesn't always happen SO, but
ii happens with sufficient regularity to
form the basis of a proverb. The ex-
.ception proves the rule"
eyes, but 1t needn't be So" replied
tho hoy. s--,
II know That" replied the father,
"but there is enough truth in IT to
prove what / walr to say. Even God
himself put the Jews through the proc
ess of adversely to whip them into
shape. 1t was only about four hundred
miles in bee line across the wilder
ness. But God made the Jews take
forty years to get to Canaan, because
he wanted to tougher them and make
them ready for the conquest, when he
got them there The Bible says he
led them not through the way Of the
land of the Philistines although thai
was near They would have got there
too quickly to stand the hardship. And
I il they had defeated the Philistines
they would have been unprepared for
a still worse enemy; l mean the opu-
Ience and plenty OF Canaan.
Men are defeated by easy victories
and cheap successes more than by al.
versities. DiSraeli was Kissed down in
the British parliament when he made
his maiden speech. But that only
tougbened his fibre and stiffened his
resolve. Grants reverses were the
school in which he learned how to wiz
MS later victories. 1t makes all the
difference whether a closed door is
n final rebuff or an invitation to battle
through. I'm more afraid Of cheap
and easy success f9r you than am of
struggle. If you struggle before yor
achieve, you will have character tt
hold you steady when success arrives
The trouble with niany persons is that
hey have no character to go with their
acquisitions. 1t is a case of diamonds
on dirty fingers. =.
slave you never seen an engine
pounding itself to pieces. on slippery
rail in winter? What it needed was
sand. opposition. Friction spelled pro
gTcss. Even Il kite can't rise with the
wind 1t must ascend against it. Dem
spend your time quarreling with the
ORDER OF things or fretting about some
one else's easy success. An oak grows
IN the open, tortured by a thousand
storms. The hothousc plant never
knows the glory OF the sky."-Youth's
Companion.