Are you one of the flock that follows, or Or dare you, whether you win or fail, From "A Heap o' Livin'," The Reilly & Lee Co. Edgar A. Guest. THE HAS-BEENS READ the papers every day, and oft encounter tales which show there's hope for every jay who in life's battle fails. I've just been reading of a gent who joined the has-been ranks, at fifty years without a cent, or credit at the banks. But undismayed he buckled down, refusing to be beat, and captured fortune and renown; he's now on Easy Street. Men say that fellows down and out ne'er leave the rocky track, but facts will show, beyond a doubt, that has-beens do come back. I know, for I who write this rhyme, when forty-odd years old, was down and out, without a dime, my whiskers full of mold. By black disaster I was trounced until it jarred my spine; I was a failure so pronounced I didn't need a sign. And after I had soaked my coat, I said (at forty-three), "I'll see if I can catch the goat that has escaped from me." I labored hard; I strained my dome, to do my daily grind, until in triumph I came home, my billy-goat behind. And any man who still has health may with the winners stack, and have a chance at fame and wealth-for has-beens do come back. Walt Mason. From "Walt Mason, His Book," Barse & Hopkins. WISHING Horace Greeley said that no one need fear the editor who in dulged in diatribes against the prevalence of polygamy in Utah, but that malefactors had better look out when an editor took up his pen against abuses in his own city. We all tend to begin our reforms too far away from home. The man who wishes improvement strongly enough to set to work on himself is the man who will obtain results. Do you wish the world were better? Let me tell you what to do. Set a watch upon your actions, Keep them always straight and true. Let your thoughts be clean and high. Of the sphere you occupy. Do you wish the world were wiser? In the scrapbook of your heart; Live to learn, and learn to live. Do you wish the world were happy? May be ofttimes traced to one, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, From "Poems of Power," W. B. Conkey Co., Chicago, Ill. AWARENESS A man must keep a keen sense of the drift and significance of what he is engaged in if he is to make much headway. Yet many human beings are so sunk in the routine of their work that they fail to realize what it is all for. A man who was tapping with a hammer the wheels of a railroad train remarked that he had been at the job for twenty-seven years. "What do you do when a wheel doesn't sound right?" a passenger inquired. The man was taken aback. "I never found one that sounded that way," said he OD-let me be aware. G Let me not stumble blindly down the ways, Just getting somehow safely through the days, Not even wondering why it all was planned, God-let me be aware. Stab my soul fiercely with others' pain, Miriam Teichner. Permission of ONE OF THESE DAYS The worst fault in a hound is to run counter-to follow the trail backward, not forward. Is the fault less when men are guilty of it? Behind us is much that we have found to be faithless, cruel, or unpleasant. Why go back to that? Why not go forward to the things we really desire? AY! Let's forget it! Let's put it aside! SAY Life is so large and the world is so wide. Say! Let's forget it! Let's wipe off the slate, Say! Let's forgive it, whatever it be, Let's not be slaves when we ought to be free. One of these days. Say! Let's not mind it! Let's smile it away, Say! Let's not take it so sorely to heart! Say! Let's get closer to somebody's side, Say! Let's not wither! Let's branch out and rise We may not be here to help folks or praise From "The Voices of Song," James W. Foley. GOD We often think people shallow, think them incapable of anything serious or profound, because their work is humdrum and their speech trivial. Such a judgment is unfair, since that part of our own life which shows itself to others is superficial likewise, though we are conscious that within us is much that it does not reveal. From "Shadow Verses," Gamaliel Bradford. |