The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1933-03-24
Howe About:
Spending Public Money
One Critics End
o. o. Mcintyre
By ED HOWE

Rhine" he said; Improvement has I'M
doubtedly been profitable there" Ana
/ replied: 'The Germans have been
practically using the Rhine more than
fifty years. 1 have lived on the Mis-
souri, river longer than that, seen
money wasted on its Improvement
every year, and not single steam
boat. That's what / grumble about:
the American plan of spending pub
lie money, and getting nothing out
of it."
The most merciless critic I ever
knew--and, may add, the ablest-)
has been charge on the county many
years as an inmate of the poor house
:. And not one of those he criticised
so severely is in the poor house with
him. There was dull man named
Lem Whalen the critic was particular
ly severe with, but Lem kept at work
in his duh way, and is now a leading
citizen.
A lesson with which l have been
greatly impressed is that everything
worth while requires hard work and
enthusiasm, no man can succeed at
anything and be idle, shiftless and
thoughtless. There is man in New
York named o. o. Mcintyre who has
succeeded as writer. That he is
unusual must be admitted, but it de-
presses me to read of his great In
dustry. When he walks about. goes
to a theater, or to dinner, he Is at
work; looking for something to write
about. It is said Of the poor farmers
that they work from sun to sun. Nc
Intyre does it, and, in addition, works
half the night.
Some one has recently written OF
the real Thos. A. Edison, who became
so famous the entire world paid him
tribute. He turns out to have been
quite an ordinary man; very untidy,
often unreasonable, chewing tobacco
constantly and splitting wildly. but he
was q great worker. He moved a bed
into his shop that he might economic
on the time required for rest; and had
a better time working than others
have playing. Good work provides the
good times we hear of, and are al
ways looking for vainly in vacations.
in night clubs, at card tables and on
golf fields.
believe in a fight when it becomes
necessary to effectively resent wrong.
The most absurd, useless and unnat-
ural sentence ever written was the
advice to love our enemies. No one
does it; no one should do 1t. From
the beginning Of time men have. on
proper occasion, hanged enemies for
the common good, but some one (whO
hated his enemies) did not neglect,
as literary novelty, to advise others
to love them. have never been able
to understand why more than half
that is written or spoken today is
wrong, useless and unnatural.
The most important and profitable
work a man may engage in is manag-
ing himself as efficiently as possible;
intelligent endeavor to avoid harmful
mistakes. A mistake is a terrible
thing; a careless man may blunder
into one that will punish him all his
life-a mild one frequently humiliates
for months or years.
A noted man named Haldane, con-
nected with the most famous of Eng
lands universities, once wrote that
the most interesting study he knew
anything about was his own body. AL
though familiar with all the sciences,
the details of which awe us so much,
this highly educated man confesses
no scientific experiment interests him
as much, or pays as well, as study
of his own body.
1t is a statement that should sober
the careless and illiterate.
Every day I am ashamed because
the ancients knew so much / have not
vet discovered. They warned us Of the
Importance of temperance, but we
have interpreted 1t as warning against
rum: and manufactured more vii
famous rum to show contempt for the
nuisance of the ancients.
Old men are not always wise, but
most apt to acquire wisdom. An old
farmer, an old mechanic, an old trap
per, an old doctor. has had oppor-
tunities he has sometimes taken ad-
vantage of.
made a few resolutions for the new
year, and hope to accomplish little
with some of them. am actually
better man now than was ten years
ago, because of my poor attempts to
improve very much better man than
1 was twenty, thirty or forty years
ago, although still ashamed. A doctor
once said to me: 1.-THE trouble with
men who say they will cut down on
their smoking which would be enough,
is that they never do It," l actually
cut down little on my bad habits as
a result of my worthy resolves.