The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1921-02-28

to weakness that in the end over
whelms US.
1t has been said, and very truly,
that "laziness travels so slowly that
poverty soon overtakes him." That
this is true we have only to look to
our own actions for confirmation.
Our mistakes stand out clearly after
the passage of time. We see our fault
plainly in retrospect and regret that
we did not possess earlier the knowl-
edge that experience has brought to
us. We detect evidences of laziness
on our part throughout our past lives.
We see just where we failed to take
advantage of the opportunities which
would have meant so much later in
life. We may have done some little
thing toward realizing their possibil-
tiles, but we did not stick at the
job, not so much from lack of appre-
citation, perhaps, as from lack of en-
ergy. We saw in imagination the
long road in which we would set our
: feet once we decided to follow the
!! bright opportunity that beckoned to
US, and because we were young, per-
aaps, and craved the time in which
| 20 play about for a while and the
privilege of slipping the sweets of life
as they came, we could not make up
our minds to settle down to what
promised only hard work for long
! years. We meant to take up the task
sooner or later, but we preferred to
wait while until the joys of life
had lost their first fresh flavor and
we were more in the mood for seri-
Gus effort.
! We made our first mistake right
here, of the present and forgot about
future. In our ignorance we hoped
to have our pleasures first and our.
hardships later on, when if we had
only known we could have made one
yield US many compensations and re-
wards if we had done the hard work
at first and, after achieving some,
measure of success, given ourselves
! the time in which to relax with easy
conscience and hopeful hearts. But
we let our selfish feelings prevail and
they prompted US to follow the line
Of least resistance-it is so much
easier to procrastinate duty than
20 enter at once upon its accomplish
ment. But laziness after a while has
way of coloring our whole lives.
1t reflects itself in many and various
ways and saps at the roots of our
strength and vigor. We live for so
: long time in the expectation of
getting down to hard work eventual
! ly that we persist in deferring the
fatal day as long as we can and
meantime we lose time that can new
er be made up and opportunity that
shall never come to US again. We
wake up some fine day and discover
! that we are merely useless factors
in life. We could easily be dispensed
with because we have never proved
our value. We might have paid our
way so far and perhaps have added
! others a little on their way, but we
have been too lazy to make proper
provision for ourselves and now pow
erty stares US in the face. Perhaps if
we are fortunate we may yet have
the opportunity to forestall the evil
day, but to do this we must more
than make up for wasted time and
opportunity. 1t is no easy job to con-
quer the habit of laziness and expe-
rience shows only too clearly that
the man who is lazy in early youth
and does not correct the habit at
once will very likely remain lazy all
his life. Lazy men make poor men,
and a large part Of our non-success
is due to the fact that we have be-
come slaves of habit for which we
can offer no reasonable excuse
Exchange.