Can't is the word that is foe to ambition, For once it is welcomed 'twill break any man; From "A Heap o' Livin'," Edgar A. Guest. THE STRUGGLE We all dream of being St. Georges and fighting dragons amid glamor and glory and the applause of the world. But our real fights are mostly commonplace, routine battles, where no great victory is ours at the end of the day. To persist in them requires quiet strength and unfaltering courage. DID you ever want to take to the your two bare hands, And choke out of the world your big success? Beat, torn fists bleeding, pathways rugged, grand, By sheer brute strength and bigness, nothing less? So at the last, triumphant, battered, strong, You might gaze down on what you choked and beat, And say, "Ah, world, you've wrought to do me wrong; And thus have I accepted my defeat." Have you ever dreamed of virile deeds, and vast, And then come back from dreams with wobbly knees, To find your way (the braver vision past), By picking meekly at typewriter keys; By bending o'er a ledger, day by day, By some machine-like drudging? No great woe Permission of Miriam Teichner. HOLD FAST A football coach who told his players that their rivals were too strong for them would be seeking a new position the next year. If the opposing team is formidable, he says so; if his men have their work cut out for them, he admits it; but he mentions these things as incitements to effort. Merely saying of victory that it can be won is among the surest ways of winning it. WHEN THEN you're nearly drowned in trouble, and the world is dark as ink; When you feel yourself a-sinking 'neath the strain, And you think, "I've got to holler 'Help!" just take another breath And pretend you've lost your voice-and can't complain! (That's the idea!) Pretend you've lost your voice and can't complain! When the future glowers at you like a threatening thunder cloud, Just grit your teeth and bend your head and say: "It's dark and disagreeable and I can't help feeling blue, But there's coming sure as fate a brighter day!" (Say it slowly!) "But there's coming sure as fate, a brighter day!" You have bluffed your way through ticklish situations; that I know. You are looking back on troubles past and gone; Now, turn the tables, and as you have fought and won before, Just BLUFF YOURSELF to keep on holding on! (Try it once.) Just bluff YOURSELF to keep on-holding on. Don't worry if the roseate hues of life are faded out, The pendulum is bound to swing again and you will find That you have not forgotten how to smile. (That's the truth!) That you have not forgotten how to smile. From "The Quiet Courage," Stewart & Kidd Co., Cincinnati, Ohio. WILL Everard Jack Appleton. Warren Hastings resolved in his boyhood that he would be the owner of the estate known as Daylesford. This was the one great purpose that unified his varied and far-reaching activities. Admire him or not, we must at least praise his pluck in holding to his purpose-a purpose he ultimately attained. γου Yet failure find its false content will be what you will to be; In that poor word "environment," It masters time, it conquers space, Uncrown and fill a servant's place. The human Will, that force unseen, Though walls of granite intervene. Be not impatient in delay, The river seeking for the sea From "Poems of Power," W. B. Conkey Co., Chicago, Ill. Ella Wheeler Wilcox THE GAME Lessing said that if God should come to him with truth in one hand and the never-ending pursuit of truth in the other, and should offer him his choice, he would humbly and reverently take the pursuit of truth. Perhaps it is best that finite beings should not attain infinite success. But however remote that for which they seek or strive, they may by their diligence and generosity make the very effort to secure it noble. In doing this they earn, as Pope tells us, a truer commendation than success itself could bring them. "Act well thy part; there all the honor lies." LET'S play it out-this little game called Life, Where we are listed for so brief a spell; Not just to win, amid the tumult rife, Or where acclaim and gay applauses swell; Let's play it out as if it were a sport Wherein the game is better than the goal, And never mind the detailed "score's" report Of errors made, if each with dauntless soul But stick it out until the day is done, Not wasting fairness for success or fame, So when the battle has been lost or won, The world at least can say: "He played the game." Let's play it out-this little game called Work, Because the break may carry some deep flaw; That keeps the player in the contest staying; As if the game itself were worth the playing. Permission of the Author. COURAGE The philosopher Kant held himself to his habits so precisely that people set their watches by him as he took his daily walk. We may be equally constant amid worldly vicissitudes, but only a man of true courage is. We should respect the good name of other people, and should safeguard our own by a high sense of honor. At the close of the Civil War a representative of an insurance company offered Robert E. Lee the presidency of the firm at a salary of $50,000 a year. Lee replied that while he wished to earn his living, he doubted whether his services would be worth so large a sum. "We don't want your services,” the man interrupted; "we want your name.' "That," said Lee, quietly, "is not for sale." He accepted, instead, the presidency of a college at $1500 a year. 'OOD name in man and woman, dear my lord, GID the immediate jewd woman, dear Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing; 'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands; But he that filches from me my good name Robs me of that which not enriches him, And makes me poor indeed. William Shakespeare. |