Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1938-09-22
PRICE Of
PERFECTION
II being tops" in your line
cost you nothing. It would be
worth Just that much to you'll
BY WIllIFRED WILLARD

| w a. CAME at twilight to a home
w like town among the hills OF
Maryland. There we would stop for
the night. / shopped for rooms
something comfortable at modest
cost. At the best looking hotel, the
dapper young clerk quoted rates
that would have knocked my depres-
sion purse silly. l told him so. He
replied, "Well, you get just what
you pay for!" It's true.
There was that symphony orches-
ira which we heard through the sea-
son where go men played as one.
No out-of-tine or out-of-tune or out
of-balance. Just glorious, classic
music. It looked so easy, all grace
and beauty and harmony. Every
note was just right. But every play
er there had paid hours day, year
after year of grilling work, for the
power to have his part in that en-
semble. The fiutist, they say. is
premier of all in the world. He
played the very heart out OF us
with his eerie, almost divine melo-
dies. It seemed so simple. He is
paying through all the years. the
price of his continued mastery. That
is what makes it so worthwhile.
If excelling cost these musicians
nothing, it would be worth nothing
to them. If being a topper in your
line cost you nothing, it would be
worth just that much to you!
Fritz KreisIer's Price
With his violin Kreisler had COM
pleted a mighty aria. Silence of
utter tribute followed. Then an i'm
pulsive woman rushed up to him
and exclaimed: ooh, Mr.. Kreisler,
I'd give half my life to be able to
play as you dol" With quiet dignity
the great musician replied: "Ma-
dam, that is the very price have
paid" Not even he got his mas
terry except for the price.
A popular theater, full one night
in Washington. was mystified and
challenged by the magic that was
Houdini's. We knew there must be
mirrors and many tricky devices.
We tried to discover them. And
couldn't. AS we watched his per-
Torrance, the wonder of it and the
marvel of him remained
How did he do those breath-taking
feats that permitted him to rank
all others in his line in the world?
He did them by paying their price!
Not his price. But whatever the
cost of doing them better than
anybody else had ever done them,
he paid it. He began paying when
he was boy Steadily through the
years he recognized the high cost
of the skill he was set on earning.
Not finger nor a toe must bungle
or fail or slip. Hard to do!
So, year after year, as Houdini
talked or read or thought, those 20
agile partners were ceaselessly at
work, tying and untying difficult
knots and other intricate, puzzling
things. Eternally at it, with all the
body and mind of him! Houdini
couldn't afford to fail. He paid the
high price Of supreme achievement.
He got what he wanted.
Paderewski's Discipline
The greatest pianist of the ages is
Paderewski, son of Poland, citizen
of the world. We incline to think
of him as a1special favorite of the
gods, so endowed above the earthly.
Doubtless sol But the gods would
have failed him unless he had done
his part. He, too. must keep on
paying the price. When he lapses
his musical discipline one day, he
sees the difference; two days and
those close to him detect the lack;
week and the world is somehow
conscious of the let-down of his bril-
liant technique. So, travelling over
mountain or plain or sea, he carries
a keyboard of standard piano size
and action Hour after hour as he
journeys, he sits at this keyboard
and pays the price of his artistry.
Few of us were designed for such
outstanding front ranks as these.
Mostly we have modest places in
the work we must do for the world.
The same law prevails. We excel
or hold our own only by continually
paying. A successful young sales
man was telling what "rotten can
vass" he had made the day before,
how he stumbled over his story and
what poor impression he had
made on the man he was trying to
sell. His clear-cut explanation was
that he had been doing other things
for week, hadn't worked at his
| job and had again to pay the price
of getting back to where he was
master of his situation.
I did not engage the two costly
rooms at the swanlzy hotel in the
| quaint little town among the hills.
But have been glad that I shopped
there and grateful to the young
clerk. His vivid reply which at the
time seemed intended to put me
where / belonged, has sent me ex-
| ploring along many roads in the
realm of life and of iving-you get
just what you pay for.
Copyright.-WNU Service.