Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-03-01
LIFE'S S PROBLEMS
ARE DISCUSSED

Schcmes, schemes. schemes!
Everybody has one. some people
dozens of them.
Maybe. it is some great. far-reach-
ing project like that dream of en-
pire which Cecil Rhodes held in
South Africa and which he made
come partly true, or it may be moth
ing more pretentious than a plan to
paper the living room.
1t may involve millions of dollars
and tthe welfare of thousands Of neo-
pie like one of the great business
combinations, or it may be concern
ed solely with yourself. 1t NAV aim
at the Presidency of the United
| states, or at a five-dollar raise in
salary.
But whatever il is-great or small.
/ world and worId-shaking."
or of purely personal consequence
1t Is to you the most important thing
in all creation
1t is really our schemes that keep
us alive. for they are the vehicles
that carry our hopes; and when hope
is gone life is gone. a scheme may
founder. ii is true, but seldom does
it fail that another appears in the
offing and bears quickly down to res
the transfer is promptly effected and
we sail blithely on with scarcely a
backward look toward the old hulk
as 1t sinks beneath the waves
Your scheme may be either a means
to an end or the object sought itself.
Its progress is invariably the same;
1t comes hrst as suggestion really
born of your longings and aspira-
tions, but usually appearing SO un-
eXpectedly that you hail it an inspir-
alton. 1t may be the idea for an in
Vention, n story or picture; 1t may
be the clue to some discovery or the
solution of a battling problem; it
may be plan or measure of strategy
for use in business, politics or social
life.
Your first sensation regarding it is
one of unalloyed delight For the
moment you see it overcoming all
your difficulties and landing you on
the top wave of success. You can
sympathize with the old Greek math-
| ematician who in similar circum-
stances leaped from his bathtub and
ran unclothed through the streets,
shouting Eureka" at the astonished
passers-by.
Then doubt begins to creep in. You
fall to wondering whether it is pos
sible of accomplishment. You turn it
inside out and examine it anew You
study II from a different angle. You
weigh and test it. Sometimes you
are completely discouraged, you feel
like chucking the whole thing in the
gutter; but generally you keep on.
And II you do keep on, IL the sug-
geston survives this stage, then it
becomes n regular "scheme"-some-
thing that you would die for, and to
which your whole heart is welded
1t absorbs all your thought and al
your interest, and overshadows II
Importance every other activity.
Naturally, since your mind is SC
full of the subject, you want to talk
about it. You feel that everybody
else should be as interested as you
are. And that is the rock on which
many a promising scheme has me;
disaster.
The one safe rule for a scheme in
process of incubation-am 1 getting
the metaphors mixed? Hardly; since
we all know that to drop an egg
upon rock does spell disaster, es-
pecially at the present price of egg
the one safe rule, then, for
scheme in process of incubation is
Keep II to yourself.
Why? Because to state a belle.
of opinion inevitably provokes al
argument. People will either agre
or disagree with you, and as this /
cynical old world. judging entirely
from results most of them will TAX,
the negative side. The disingenuous
will say. How splendid! You ar,
sure to succeed" and then will either
try to steal your idea. or else vii