The Greeneville daily sun. (Greeneville, Tenn.) 1918-1920, 1919-04-30
A BAD HABIT is AN ARBITRARY
MASTER

Are You A Slave to Your Hablts
For, If You Are You Will Find That
A Bad Habit Is An Arbitrary Master.
Nothing Is Stronger Than Habit, Says
Fern Howard.
Habit is the deepest law of nature;
and single bad habit will mar an
otherwise faultless character, as a
drop of black ink will soil a pure
white page. For the will that yields
the first time with some reluctance
does so the second time with less hes
itation, and the third time with still
less, until finally the habit is adopt
ed and the character is determined.
know man whose friends taunt-
ed him because he could not give up
drink, and he said, II can do it if |
choose to do it." His companions
still continued to doubt and plague
him. Finally, he said, "l'll give up
drinking from tonight, and the liquor
in the glass on the table was left I'M
tasted. The first day he was restless
and out of sorts, the second sullen
and respondent, the third while on
his way home from work he became
conscious of fierce horrible craving
for drink. He said to himself, IL
know that the things that / do are
silly; but what can one do? l think
it is my nature to take drop too
much. It must run in my blool. !
must have inherited the tendency Tor
drink. Or perhaps, this hankering
sensation is just a fancy of my brain
created from worry over my business,
and will pass away. But again it
came, this time stronger than ever,
a queer twist in the stomach, ter
menting and ravenous. At last it
became an irresistible thirst. With
infinite cunning it drew him like a
magnet toward the door of a saloon
and from that time on drink was his
master.
It was not an inherited tendency
that drew this man toward the door
of saloon-it was force of habit.
For to be perpetually longing and
impatiently DESTROYS of anything so
that a man cannot abstain from it,
is to lose a mans liberty, and to be-
come a servant to drink and other
forms of poison. And so the best
way to ensure a good life is to form
only good habits,
A man who is known for his skill
in business was once heard to remark
~ mean to govern my life and even
my thoughts as if the whole world
were to see the one and read the
other, for there is no satisfaction in
making anything a secret to my
friends when to myself all my Sc
crets are known. / feel that vicious
habits are a stain to human nature.
and so ugly in themselves, that any
person actuated by the right kind of
reason would avoid them, though he
were sure they would alwoys be con-
cealed from his fellow man, and no
future punishment be evoked by
them. The gist of the whole thing is
that | shall never be satisfied until !
am able to leave off every bad habit
and retain nothing but good ones"
And unless the habit leads to hap
piness and success the best habit is
to contract none.
For if we look back upon the usual
course of our feelings, we shall find
that we are more influenced by the
frequent recurrence of things than
by their weight and Importance; and
the habit has far more force in form
ing characters than our opinions
have. The mind naturally takes its
color from what it is accustomed to
contemplate.
For that reason it is we'll for you
to acquire only those habits that will
aid you in building the right kind of
Il De- - h. s,.l