Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1920-02-10
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 10 In Mans
Composition.

"I wish / could slide along In busi'
ness as easily as George Seagrave."
said John Nelson, as he Joined bis
father In the library after dinner.
"What's up now?" asked his father.
"Oh, nothing" replied the son, "only
George has just been appointed assist.
ant general manager Of his fathers
firm. 1t doesn't seem right for fellow
to have an advantage like that given
to him, while fellows like me have to
dig for everything they get"
"But that seems to be the way the
world is made, John, and the more !
see of 1t the more I'm convinced It's
a capital arrangement. used to feel
as you do. but I've lived long enough
to see great many things adjust
themselves. There is law Of COM
pensation at work. my boy. and no
class has all the advantages. 1t would
be a very poor world If we all slid
along as easily as George does"
"What do you mean by that?" asked
the son.
"Just this: It takes opposition or
hardship, or whatever you please to
call it, to bring out the best In us and
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-
tion. The sons sons 60 through 1t. And
so the shirt-sleeve process begins
again. 1t doesn't always happen so. but
1t happens with sufficient regularity to
form the basis Of proverb. The ex.
ception proves the rule"
"Yes, but 1t needn't be so," replied
the boy.
II know that" replied the father,
"but there is enough truth In 1t to
prove what I want to say. Even God
himself put the Jews through the proc
ess Of adversely to whip them into
shape. It was only about four hundred
miles in a 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 that
was near They would have got there
too quickly to stand the hardship. And
If they had defeated the Philistines,
they would have been unprepared for
a still worse enemy; mean the opu-
lence and plenty Of Canaan.
"Men are defeated by easy victories
and cheap successes more than by ad-
versities. Disraeli was hissed down in
the British parliament when he made
his maiden speech. But that only
toughened his fibre and stiffened his
resolve. Grants reverses were the
school in which he learned how to win
his later victories. It makes all the
difference whether closed door Is
a final rebuff or an invitation to battle
through. I'm more afraid Of a cheap
and easy success for you than am Of
struggle. If you struggle before you
achieve, you will have character to
hold you steady when success arrives.
The trouble with many persons is that
they have no character to 60 with their
acquisitions. 1t is case Of diamonds
on dirty fingers.
"Have you never seen an engine
pounding itself to pieces on a slippery
rail in winter? What 1t needed was
sand, opposition. Friction spelled pro-
gress. Even kite can't rise with the
wind. 1t must ascend against it. Don't
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 thousand
storms. The hothouse plant never
knows the glory Of the sky."-Youth's
Companion.