The Washington times., 1920-08-29

successful about you, nave
gone through NE without
knowing the feeling Of one
or two knookdown blows.
individuals and nations know what II Is to be
down and wonder whether they can sr4ss.
France was down after Waterloo, bscapss Of
one defeat and down again in 1870 bsoauss Of an
other defeat.
The lesson that France had In 1870, Germany,
Austria and other countries have now In 1s2o.
Fifty years from now, whsn the history Of this
period Is written, at distance sufficient to mako
Judgment accurate, the story will read: "suoh and
such a nation, knocked down by defeat in war, or
by troubles following victory in war, wss unable to
rise. Thinking oo-ordinating, organising power
were absent
Another nation apparently moro ssriously In
iured came up and went on. MisfoItunes 3 blow IN
that case was not sufficient 70 interfere with the.
power Of organizing thought
4
Some weeks ago two well-knovn young prize
fighters illustrated well McCay's teaching for TO-
day. One named Leonard won tho Aght Tho other
was beaten An old follower of boxing and athletics
said Of the beaten man "The trouble with him is
that he cannot think when he Is down.
\ The man knocked down in the prize ring is not
''out" he has not lost the fight until the referee
has slowly counted ten. II he gets up at any time
before the last word ten is uttered he may still
fight on with the chance o; winning.
In the fight mentioned the man beaten was
knocked down several times. Each time he jumped
to his feet immediately the referee counted beyond
two or three He tried to start again too soon
only to meet another knockdown blow, that at last
finished him.
The wise old sporting man" moralidng after
the fight said "If that boy could THINK when he /
is down, he could win plenty Of lights. he should
have lain perfectly quiet while the referee counted
nine. He should have gone over in his mind the
mistakes he had made, planning just what he would
do when he got up at the count Of ten. Meanwhile
he would be giving his heart chance to rest and
hi, head q chance to clear up. Instead Of that
knocked down twice in succession, he Jumped up
immediately to be knocked down and out and per.
nanently the third time"
Mr.. McCay sent WIN tnn powerful CARTOON the
following memorandum:
"Not once but hundred times in reading
the lives of very successful men have reached :,
the point where the man whom was studying
had about made up his mind that life wasn't
worth while and had about decided to end it.
This applies to men Of different types from
Napoleon, who struggled along as a simple
lieutenant in the army year after year, and
almost gave up in despair, TO the highly strung
artistic temperament, that is apt to see calamity
in every direction.
EVERY day we read about the suicides
that appear casual news Of the day. It
would be a good thing to impress on young
people the fact that there should be written
upon the tombstone Of each suicide: He Lies
Here Because He Could Not Think WHEN
HE WAS DOWN.
"Life is interesting, and especially inter,
estng in misfortune, for those who look at it
in the right way.
Nobody would play golf II the links werc
smooth ice, spreading hundreds Of miles in all
directions There would be no excitement in
driving ball over such rurfsce It 10 the
traps, the bunkcrs the disappointmcnts and
failures that make IL interesting. So it IN with
the life that we lead.
"H everything were smooth; IL there were
mn troubleS no difficulties no cliffs 90 be