Procrastination is not only the thief of time; it is also the grave of opportunity. IN Where the bright summit of Olympus soars, an old city by the storied shores A cryptic statue mounted towards the light— "O statue, tell your name," a traveler cried, "Men call me Opportunity: I lift My winged feet from earth to show how swift How Fate is ever waiting on the way." "But why that tossing ringlet on your brow?" Edwin Markham. From "The Gates of Paradise, and Other Poems," TO A YOUNG MAN "Jones write a book! Impossible! I knew his father." This attitude towards distinction of any sort, whether in authorship or in the field of action, is characteristic of many of us. We think transcendent ability is entirely above and apart from the things of ordinary life. Yet genius itself has been defined as common sense in an uncommon degree. The great men are human. Shakespeare remembered this when he said, "I think the king is but a man as I am." We should take heart at the thought that since the great are like us, we may develop ourselves until we are like them. THE great were once as you. They whom men magnify to-day The great were young as you, Then came a day when they Scorning to cry for aid. They dared to stand to fight alone, Took up the gauntlet life had thrown, Charged full-front to the fray, Mastered their fear of self, and then Oh, Youth, go forth and do! You envy them their proud success? Published by permission of The International Magazine Company (Cosmopolitan Magazine) Copyrighted 1921. Edgar A. Guest. SLOGAN Some men want ideal conditions with pay in advance before they will work. But the world does not want such men, and has little place for them. ON'T prate about what is your right, DON'T about nuts and show your might; But bare your fists Life is another man to fight Catch as catch can. Don't talk of Life as scurvy Fate, Who gave you favors just too late, Or Luck who threw you smiles for bait Don't whine and wish that you were dead, But wrestle for your daily bread, And afterward let it be said "He was a man." Permission from "The New York Evening Journal." Jane M'Lean. SMILES Smiles bring out the latent energies within us, as water reveals the bright colors in the stone it flows over. Smile a little, smile a little, All along the road; Every life must have its burden, Why sit down in gloom and darkness, As you drink Fate's bitter tonic Smile upon the troubled pilgrims Whom you pass and meet; Frowns are thorns, and smiles are blossoms Oft for weary feet. Do not make the way seem harder By a sullen face, Smile a little, smile a little, Brighten up the place. Smile upon your undone labor; O'er his task, waits wealth or glory; Though you meet with loss and sorrow |