The star-progress. (Opelousas, La.) 1917-1921, 1921-05-25

1
dividual. II that foundation is weak
if it is built Of the wrong material,
| it is filled with cracks, is unstable,
shaky and unsound, there remains but
little hope to erect upon it a super
structure of magnificience and grand
uer. And so it is with man. If in his
/ youth his mind has been allowed to
become shrivelled and dwarfed, II his
i vision is narrow and impaired, and
his judgment and his reason warped
and unsound, his ability to achieve
| the big things in life is limited, his
foundation will net stand the pres
sure of success, and the result is he
becomes a failure and drone in the
hive of nature.
| Surely, not many you young boys
ard girls would like to be failures, or
to just get by in this life. If you do
not, then, build your foundation sound
! because once you have started up
with the superstructure, like in the
building, it is no easy matter to go
back and repair a defect in the found
alton.
l remember of how often felt when
was your age in high school, and I
too was often content to 'just get
by" make seventy would be my aim;
and l would otter wonder if l wero
not wasting my time studying such
subjects as algebra, geometry, chem
istry and physics. l knew then that
/ should possibly be lawyer, and l
could see of no possible use to which
they might be put. / know now my
mistake, and / have been having to
repair some of those defects. They
may seem to you now to be Of ap-
parently no use, just as the founda-
ton in the building is unseen to the
eye, but they have their value, and a
most important one, and every un-
learned lesson is a crack in your
foundation that you will some day
have to repair, il you would succeed
Too many cracks will mean that your
foundation is so unsound that it will
crumble under the slightest weight,
and all your future will come tumb-
ling down.
h 1 trust that you fathers and moth
ers will not consider me presumptu-
GUS in saying, help your boy and girl
with their foundation. Begin early;
make it slowly and with precision,
but make it sound and substantial. II
it is made thorough, there need be no
fear of the superstructure. Help them
equip themselves for lifeis battles,
prepare them for. the shocks and
bumps which lie ahead, point out to
them the highways, but by no means
ignore the byways and the pitfalls
that strew the way Teach them
truths, that they might be the better
enabled to recognize the false condi-
lions they will confront; enshroud
them with veil of secrecy, of limo
cence and a mystery, and it will but
serve to impair and distort their bet
ter vision.
i once saw young girl with bu-
bonic plague: While she lay there on
her bed with her gaze continually
wandering smi1elessly about the room,
the doctors and nurses would enter
and depart with the utmost caution
and in silence, was very careful not
to make sound, because had been
previously warned The physician in
charge informed me that so much
serum had been injected into this
young girl, and it had so lowered her
that even the slightest shock
might prove fatal. l noticed particul-
arly that she was protected from the
shocks that might float in with the
noises from the street, by the padding |
of nearly every opening, and the
thought then crossed my mind, of |
how thin indeed was the veil which |
separated that young girl from the !,
shocks that meant death, and / shud- |
dered to think of what would happen |
if suddenly that padding would be torn
from those openings. SO it is in life |
with the boy and girl who is unpra- |
pared to meet the shocks, who has t
been injected full of false information
whose conception OF life is purely
fanciful, when once the thin yell has |
been ripped asunder and they stand |
face to, face with a stern reality they
never knew existed before. A month /
or two later, the young girl was well,
with no more necessity for the pad
ded room or fear of shock. The /
had been brought about
slowly, but surely.
OF course we all know that history i
records many striking examples Of
Illustrious men who have climbed
round after round the ladder that
leads to fame and fortune, and in our
own individual acquaintance we
know some few men who have made
successes who never attended a col
lege, or even a primary school. But