Boy Wanted

The most manifest sign of wisdom is continued cheerfulness. – Montaigne.

The foundations for a splendid working constitution are laid during boyhood.

You are laying yours now.

Men are born with two eyes, but with one tongue, in order that they may see twice as much as they say. – Colton.

Is it to be a good, firm, durable foundation that will stand through all the years to come? Or is it being built of faulty material and in a manner so careless that in the by and by when, at great pains and expense you have built your life structure upon it, you will find it untenable or so unstable that it will require a great share of your time and attention to keep it patched up so that you can continue to dwell within it?

The important thing in life is to have a great aim, and to possess the aptitude and perseverance to attain it. – Goethe.

Are you playing and working with moderation or are you so thoughtless that you sometimes, in a single hour, inflict wrongs upon your health and your constitution, the sorry effects of which you cannot overcome during your lifetime?

It may be possible that you are studying too hard at school.

Method is the hinge of business, and there is no method without order and punctuality. – Hannah More.

I know that there are many who will smile at the suggestion that the average American schoolboy sticks too closely to his books, but I am sure that such is frequently the case.

The greatest homage we can pay to truth is to use it. – Emerson.

Sometimes the boy’s parents and teachers are eager to have their boy “show off” to the best advantage possible. They urge him, crowd him, compel him to develop as rapidly as he can. In their eagerness to secure results they employ the formulas that require the least possible time for completing the important task of

MAKING A MAN

The elect are those who will, and the non-elect are those who won’t. – Beecher.

Hurry the baby as fast as you can,Hurry him, worry him, make him a man.Off with his baby-clothes, get him in pants,Feed him on brain-foods and make him advance.Hustle him, soon as he’s able to walk,Into a grammar school; cram him with talk.Fill his poor head full of figures and facts,Keep on a-jamming them in till it cracks.Once boys grew up at a rational rate,Now we develop a man while you wait.Rush him through college, compel him to grabOf every known subject a dip and a dab.Get him in business and after the cashAll by the time he can grow a mustache.Let him forget he was ever a boy,Make gold his god and its jingle his joy.Keep him a-hustling and clear out of breath,Until he wins – Nervous Prostration and Death!

Much talent is often lost for want of a little courage. – George Eliot.

A sorry picture, isn’t it? No doubt it sets forth, in an extreme manner, the evils that arise from crowding a child into boyhood, and a boy into manhood; still, no one who observes carefully will doubt that such wrongs are constantly being committed by hundreds of ambitious parents and well-meaning teachers.

The crowning fortune of a man is to be born with a bias to some pursuit, which finds him in employment and happiness. – Emerson.

Yet, I think you have little to fear along the lines of over-study. You must train your mind to grapple with tasks while you are young, for if you do not begin now you may not, later on, be able to summon that concentration of thought that is necessary for winning success along any line of endeavor.

“Difficulties are the best stimulant. Trouble is a tonic,” says one of our wise essayists.

No one is useless in the world who lightens the burden of it for any one else. – Charles Dickens.

“He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill, our antagonist is our helper,” says Edmund Burke. “This conflict with difficulty makes us acquainted with our object, and compels us to consider it in all its relations. It will not suffer us to be superficial.”

The fewer the words the better the prayer. – Luther.

Life is a grind; a sorry fewAre blunted in their aim,And some are sharpened, keen and true,And carve their way to fame.

“Don’t take too much advice – keep at the helm and steer your own ship,” says Noah Porter. All of which is very good advice.

Next to excellence is the appreciation of it. – Thackeray.

The boy that the world wants most is the one who will think for himself at the same time he is hearing words of wisdom from others. A boy who tried to follow all the advice given him would probably find himself unable to do anything at all. Everyone and everything seems eager to give him the short cut to fortune, as I have endeavored to set forth in a bit of nonsense rhyme which I call the secret of

HOW TO WIN SUCCESS

The great are only great because we are on our knees; let us rise up. – Proudhon.

“How shall I win success in life?” the young man asked, whereat:“Have push,” replied the Button; “And a purr-puss” said the Cat.“Find out the work you’re sooted for,” the Chimney-Sweeper said,Just as the Match and Pin remarked: “And never lose your head.”“Aspire to grater, finer things,” the Nutmeg cried. The HoeSaid: “Don’t fly off the handle,” and the Snail remarked: “Go slow.”“Be deaf to all that’s told you,” said the Adder. “’Mid the strifeI’ve found it best,” remarked the Heart, “to beat my way through life.”

Next to acquiring good friends, the best acquisition is that of good books. – Colton.

“Select some proper task and then stick to it,” said the Glue.“Look pleasant,” said the Camera; “And tied-y,” said the Shoe.“Have nerve!” exclaimed the Tooth. The Hill remarked; “Put up a bluff!”“And keep cool,” said the Ice, whereat the young man cried: “Enough!”

Never suffer youth to be an excuse for inadequacy, nor age and fame to be an excuse for indolence. – Haydon.

The right-minded boy will be thoughtful but not so much absorbed that he is unable to take in the educative, uplifting sunshine all about him.

The greatest man is he who chooses with the most invincible reason. – Seneca.

Sharpen your wits as the woodman must sharpen his axe, but counsel moderation. The woodman who would stay at the stone and grind his axe all away in attempting to put a razor edge on it would be deemed very foolish.

Of course you will be, you must be thoughtful, for as Ruskin says: “In general I have no patience with people who talk about ‘the thoughtlessness of youth’ indulgently. I had infinitely rather hear of the thoughtlessness of old age, and the indulgence of that. When a man has done his work, and nothing can in any way be materially altered in his fate, let him forget his toil, and jest with his fate, if he will, but what excuse can you find for wilfulness of thought at the very time when every crisis of fortune hangs on your decision? A youth thoughtless, when all the happiness of his home forever depends on the chances or the passions of an hour! A youth thoughtless, when the career of all his days depends on the opportunity of a moment! A youth thoughtless, when his every action is a foundation-stone of future conduct, and every imagination a fountain of life or death! Be thoughtless in any after years, rather than now, though, indeed, there is only one place where a man may be nobly thoughtless, his death-bed. Nothing should ever be left to be done there.”

Self-conquest is the greatest of all victories. – Plato.

Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labor wears, while the used key is always bright. – Franklin.

My liveliest delight was in having conquered myself. – Rousseau.

But whatever else we may forget, let us remember that it is not work, but overwork that kills. Exercise gained through good, wholesome work is the greatest life-preserver man has yet discovered.

The great hope of society is in the individual character. – Channing.

“I always find something to keep me busy,” said Peter Cooper in explaining how he had preserved so well his strength of mind and body, “and to be doing something is the best medicine one can take.”

No thoroughly occupied man was ever yet very miserable. – Landor.

The ones who live the longest and best lives are the cheerful workers, those who find a good excuse for liking the task that comes to their hands. The greatest joy and the truest success do not come to the idler, nor the one who overworks, nor yet to the one who does things by fits and starts, but to

THE STEADY WORKER

The habit of looking on the bright side of things is worth more than a thousand pounds a year. – Samuel Johnson.

Whene’er the sun was shining out, Squire Pettigrew would say,“Now, hurrah, boys! it’s just the time to be a-making hay,Because, you see, the sun’s so hot ’twill cure it right away!”Then all the mowers kept right on a-mowing.But when a cloud obscured the sun Squire Pettigrew would shout,“Oh, now’s the time for working while the sun is blotted out,A cooling cloud like that will make our muscles twice as stout!”And that’s the way he kept his men a-going.

Nothing of worth or weight can be achieved with a half mind, with a faint heart, and with a lame endeavor. – Barrow.

Hence, little did it matter were the weather wet or dry, —If sunshine filled the valleys or if clouds o’erspread the sky,He’d always think of something which he deemed a reason why’Twas just the time for him to keep a-working.

The strong man is the man with the gift of method, of faithfulness, of valor. – Carlyle.

But, now and then, or so it seemed, the reasons he would seekFor working on, were quite far-fetched and faulty, so to speak,But, oh, they were not half so “thin” as are the many weakExcuses lazy people give for shirking.

CHAPTER V

THE VALUE OF SPARE MOMENTS

Not only strike while the iron is hot, but make it hot by striking. – Cromwell.

“If I had the time!”

Yes, indeed! Time is a very necessary factor in the doing of things. Time is money. Money is capital. Capital is power. The one who is in the possession of the most power and uses it to the best purpose has the best chance for winning success.

The greatest work has always gone hand in hand with the most fervent moral purpose. – Sidney Lanier.

Other things being equal, the boy who devotes an extra half-hour every morning or evening to the study of the forthcoming day’s lessons will get on better than his classmates who do not thus mentally fortify themselves.

No true and permanent fame can be founded except in labors which promote the happiness of mankind. – Sumner.

So in the world’s big life-school, the man who finds time to think about and to study the tasks and duties that confront him will make a better showing than the ones who thoughtlessly and in an unprepared manner blunder into the work that is before them.

“If I had the time!”

The greatest men have been those who have cut their way to success through difficulties. – Robertson.

That is the sorry cry coming from the lips of thousands of unhappy persons of all classes and ages. But the saddest feature of it all is, that they have the time and do not know it. Or, if they do know it, they still go on trying to deceive themselves and others by repeating the same old, threadbare excuse the world has always offered as the reason why it has not made the progress it should have done.

One has only to know the twenty-six letters of the alphabet in order to learn everything else that one wishes. – Duke of Argyle.

Now, my boy, stop a moment and honestly think it over. Haven’t you the time? Isn’t it the disposition to make the most of your opportunities that is lacking? How much time did you waste yesterday? How much time are you going to waste to-day?

Strength is like gunpowder; to be effective it needs concentration and aim. – Mathews.

Let us not lose sight of the sorry fact that in wasting an hour we suffer a double loss and commit a double wrong. We not only lose that particular hour, but we are suffering a moral weakness to impair the strength of our life purpose, which will result in making us more likely to waste other golden hours yet to come.

And what is a wasted hour? This is a question well worth considering. Moments spent in bright, healthful, joyous play are not wasted. “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” It should be remembered, also, that “All play and no work makes Jack a dull shirk.”

Success treads on the heels of every right effort. – Smiles.

We should play with the same keen zest with which we should work. We must not work all the while; we must not play all the while. Good, vigorous play prepares one for the enjoyment of work; good, vigorous work prepares one for the enjoyment of play. Those who dawdle in a listless, half-and-half way find no joy in working or playing.

The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn. – Emerson.

It is an error to think that play cannot be made to serve a good and useful purpose. Give one boy a knife and a stick and he will produce only a lot of shavings as the result of his whittling. Give another boy a knife and a stick and he will carve out some object or invention of use and beauty. Give one man leisure and he will produce nothing or worse than nothing to show for his wasted hours. Give another man leisure and he will master some trade or profession or theme of study that will make him of happy worth to himself and the world.

That is the best government which teaches us to govern ourselves. – Goethe.

It is not the lack of time, but the lack of the will to improve our spare moments, that keeps us from going toward success. We mean to do great things some time, but we haven’t the will to begin to build just now. We prefer to belong to that great host of procrastinators who are known as

THE “GOING-TO-BEES”

The chains of habit are too weak to be felt till they are too strong to be broken. – Dr. Johnson.

Suppose that some fine morn in MayA honey-bee should pause and say,“I guess I will not work to-day,But next week or next summer,Or some time in the by and by,I’ll be so diligent and spryThat all the world must see that IAm what they call a ‘hummer’!”

Wise evolution is the sure safeguard against a revolution. – Roosevelt

Of course you’d wish to say at once,“O bee! don’t be a little dunce,And waste your golden days and monthsIn lazily reviewingThe things you’re ‘going’ to do, and howYour hive with honey you’ll endow,But bear in mind, O bee, that NOWIs just the time for ‘doing.’”

The more honesty a man has, the less he affects the air of a saint. – Lavater.

Suppose a youth with idle handsShould tell you all the splendid plansOf which he dreams, the while the sandsOf life are flowing, flowing.You’d wish to say to him, “O boy!If you would reap your share of joy,You must discerningly employYour morning hours in sowing.”

God sows the self-same truth in every heart. – Alicia K. Van Buren.

He who would win must work! The prizeIs for the faithful one who triesWith loyal hand and heart; whose skiesWith toil-crowned hopes are sunny.And they who hope success to findThis homely truth must bear in mind:“The ‘going-to-bees’ are not the kindThat fill the hive with honey.”

Are you a shepherd, or one of the herded? – Edmund Vance Cooke.

“Lost, yesterday, somewhere between sunrise and sunset, two golden hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered, for they are gone forever.” How clearly these words of Horace Mann set forth the experience of thousands of persons, day by day.

There is a destiny that makes us brothers. – Edwin Markham.

Channing tells us, “it is astonishing how fruitful of improvement a short season becomes when eagerly and faithfully improved. Volumes have not only been read, but written, in flying journeys. I have known a man of vigorous intellect, who has enjoyed few advantages of early education, and whose mind was almost engrossed by the details of an extensive business, but who composed a book of much original thought, in steamboats and on horseback, while visiting distant customers.”

If thou art a man, admire those who attempt great enterprises, even though they fail. – Seneca.

The thought recorded by Jeremy Taylor is well worth remembering, that he who is choice of his time will also be choice of his company, and choice of his actions; lest the first engage him in vanity and loss, and the latter, by being criminal, be throwing his time and himself away, and going back in the accounts of eternity.

No one is free who is not master of himself. – Shakespeare.

The plea, “If I had the time,” is well met by Matthew Arnold, who says: “And the plea that this or that man has no time for culture will vanish as soon as we desire culture so much that we begin to examine seriously into our present use of time.”

A thought may touch and edge our life with light. – Trowbridge.

“Oh, what wonders have been performed in ‘one hour a day,’” says Marden. “One hour a day withdrawn from frivolous pursuits, and profitably employed, would enable any man of ordinary capacity to master a complete science. One hour a day would make an ignorant man a well-informed man in ten years. One hour a day would earn enough to pay for two daily and two weekly papers, two leading magazines, and a dozen good books. In an hour a day a boy or girl could read twenty pages thoughtfully – over seven thousand pages, or eighteen large volumes, in a year. An hour a day might make all the difference between bare existence and useful, happy living. An hour a day might make – nay, has made – an unknown man a famous one, a useless man a benefactor to his race. Consider, then, the mighty possibilities of two – four – yes, six hours a day that are, on the average, thrown away by young men and women in the restless desire for fun and diversion.”

Nothing is too high for a man to reach, but he must climb with care and confidence. – Hans Andersen.

Men exist for the sake of one another. Teach them, then, or bear with them. – Marcus Aurelius.

Do good with what thou hast, or it will do thee no good. – William Penn.

There is little excuse for continued ignorance these times. If one’s time is spent at a point remote from institutions of learning, or his days are so occupied that he cannot avail himself of their advantages, he can be a pupil in an ably conducted correspondence school, that most worthy of educational means whereby the youth in the isolated rural home, the shut-ins who by force of circumstances are prisoned within narrow walls, the night-watchman whose leisure comes at a time when all other schools are closed, the seeker after knowledge of any kind, at any time and at any place reached by the great governmental postal system, can be brought into close touch with a great fountain of learning and inspiration of which one may absorb all he will. From this time forth it will ill become any man to say that he has no chance to acquire an education, or that he has no opportunity to improve upon the mental equipment he already possesses. Instruction is within the reach of all. The schoolmaster is abroad as he has never been before. Wherever the postman can deliver a letter, in cottage or mansion, in the closely packed tenements of the city or in the remote farm homes reached by the rural free delivery routes, there the trained college professor makes his daily or weekly visits, giving his “heart to heart” talks with each of his thousands of pupils. He is with the boys as they follow the plow, the men who go down into the mines, the girls who serve at the loom and the lathe, pointing out the way that leads, through self-help, to happiness.

One great cause of failure of young men in business is the lack of concentration. – Carnegie.

Better say nothing than not to the purpose. – William Penn.

Diligence is the mother of good luck. – Franklin.

It is more true to-day than ever before, that “they can who think they can.” The means are more nearly at hand if one is determined to try them. Nothing but the spirit of procrastination can keep man or boy from setting about it to help himself toward better things. When to begin is the stumbling-block in the way of most persons. There is but one time when we can do anything. That time is NOW! To delay a year, a week, a day may prove most unfortunate. Indeed, trouble lies in the way of those who are disposed to defer the doing of their duty for even

“JUST A MINUTE”

One to-day is worth two to-morrows. – Franklin.

Whene’er he faced a task and knewHe should begin it,He could not start to put it throughFor “just a minute.”And, though the case demanded speedHe could not move just then; but he’dBe ready for it, yes, indeed!In “just a minute.”

My young friend, do you know that there is but one person who can recommend you? Who is that, sir? Yourself. – Emerson.

His purposes were out of rhymeBy “just a minute.”The whole world seemed ahead of timeBy “just a minute.”He could not learn to overhaulHis many duties, large and small,But had to beg them, one and all,To “wait a minute.”

Think before you speak. – Washington.

In manhood he was still delayedBy “just a minute.”He might have won, had Fortune stayedFor “just a minute.”But at the end of life he railedAt “cruel Fate,” and wept and wailedBecause he knew that he had failedBy “just a minute.”

There are people who do not know how to waste their time alone, and hence become the scourge of busy people. – De Bonald.

It is better to be alone than in bad company. – Washington.

Gold is good in its place; but living, brave, and patriotic men are better than gold. – Abraham Lincoln.

If we make a careful study of the lives of the world’s great men and women, we shall find that their distinction was achieved by making the most of their spare minutes. The ordinary, commonplace, and inevitable tasks of life and the effort required to make a living are remarkably similar in the daily experience of most men and women. It is what one does with the remaining leisure moments that determines his individual taste and trend, and eventually gives him such distinction as he may attain. It is in our leisure hours that we are permitted to follow our “hobbies,” and it is in them that our truer selves find expression. Many of the greatest men in the world’s history achieved their fame outside of their regular occupations in the spare moments of time which most people think are of no serious use. Marden wisely observes that “no one is anxious about a young man while he is busy in useful work. But where does he eat his lunch at noon? Where does he go when he leaves his boarding-house at night? What does he do after supper? Where does he spend his Sundays and holidays? The great majority of youth who go to the bad are ruined after supper. Most of them who climb upward to honor and fame devote their evenings to study or work or the society of the wise and good. For the right use of these leisure hours, what we have called the waste of life, the odd moments usually thrown away, the author would plead with every youth.”

Politeness and civility are the best capital ever invested in business. – P. T. Barnum.

Let none falter who thinks he is right. – Abraham Lincoln.

The truest test of civilization is not the census, not the size of cities, not the crops; no, but the kind of man the country turns out. – Emerson.

Watt learned chemistry and mathematics while working at his trade of a mathematical-instrument maker. Darwin composed most of his works by writing his thoughts on scraps of paper wherever he chanced to be. Henry Kirke White learned Greek while walking to and from a lawyer’s office. Elihu Burritt acquired a mastery of eighteen languages and twenty-two dialects by improving the fragments of time which he could steal from his occupation as a blacksmith. Hundreds of similar examples could be given in which men have achieved distinction by improving the odd moments which others waste.

Inherited wealth is an unmitigated curse when divorced from culture. – Charles William Eliot.

And you, oh, my boy! when you have reached the age where the world has a right to expect that you will begin to prepare yourself for the work that is before you, lay hold, I beseech you, of these “spare moments,” and weld them into a beautiful purpose that shall make your life a joy to yourself and to all who shall come within the zone of your influence. Do not fail to improve the moments because they are so few. The fewer there are the more the need of improving them. Do not procrastinate, do not put off, do not defer the work of self-improvement till a more favorable time. Know that with the coming of every opportunity you have a duty to perform. That you must help yourself whenever you can, and that you must