Boy Wanted

“NOW” AND “WAITAWHILE”

It is better to hold back a truth than to speak it ungraciously. – St. Francis de Sales.

Little Jimmie “Waitawhile” and little Johnnie “Now”Grew up in homes just side by side; and that, you see, is howI came to know them both so well, for almost every dayI used to watch them in their work and also in their play.

It is ever true that he who does nothing for others, does nothing for himself. – George Sand.

Little Jimmie “Waitawhile” was bright and steady, too,But never ready to perform what he was asked to do;“Wait just a minute,” he would say, “I’ll do it pretty soon,”And tasks he should have done at morn were never done at noon.He put off studying until his boyhood days were gone;He put off getting him a home till age came stealing on;He put off everything, and so his life was not a joy,And all because he waited “just a minute” when a boy.

The artist who can realize his ideal has missed the true gain of art, as “a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s heaven for?” – Edward Dowden.

But little Johnnie “Now” would say, when he had work to do,“There’s no time like the present time,” and gaily put it through.And when his time for play arrived he so enjoyed the fun!His mind was not distressed with thoughts of duties left undone.

Keep but ever looking, whether with the body’s eye or the mind’s and you will soon find something to look on. – Browning.

In boyhood he was studious and laid him out a planOf action to be followed when he grew to be a man;And life was as he willed it, all because he’d not allowHis tasks to be neglected, but would always do them “now.”

Great hearts alone understand how much glory there is in being good. To be and keep so is not the gift of a happy nature alone, but it is strength and heroism. – Jules Michelet.

And so in every neighborhood are scores of growing boysWho, by and by, must work with tools when they have done with toys.And you know one of them, I guess, because I see you smile;And is he little Johnnie “Now” or Jimmie “Waitawhile”?

CHAPTER IX

THE WORTH OF ADVICE

Courage is a virtue that the young cannot spare; to lose it is to grow old before the time; it is better to make a thousand mistakes and suffer a thousand reverses than to run away from the battle. – Henry Van Dyke.

Of what value is this book to you?

Perhaps there is more involved in the answer to this question than a careless consideration of it might lead one to think. Shakespeare says: “A jest’s prosperity lies in the ear of him that hears it, never in the tongue of him that makes it.”

So it is that the value of advice depends not so much upon the giver as it does upon the one who receives it.

He needs no other rosary whose thread of life is strung with beads of love and thought. – Persian.

Emerson has observed that he who makes a tour of Europe brings home from that country only as much as he takes there with him. This same truth holds good in the reading of books and in listening to sermons and lectures. He that has not eyes with which to see, will see nothing. He that has not ears with which to hear, can hear nothing.

A sign-post indicating which road to take to reach a certain destination surely ought to be of great value to a traveler in a strange land. If the traveler, having failed to cultivate the habit of observing his surroundings, passes by the sign-post without seeing it, or if he reads its directions and says to himself: “I think I know better; I shall reach my destination by whatever road I choose to travel,” then the sign-post is of no true use to him. Not that it is not a good sign-post. No, the sign-post is all right; it is the traveler who is wrong. He must go his own way and, perhaps, journey far, and fare sadly before he arrives at the place he seeks – the destination he might have reached pleasantly and in good season. Franklin tells us that experience is a dear teacher but fools will learn from no other.

Truth is a cork; it is bound to come to the top. – Willis George Emerson.

He who will not answer to the rudder must answer to the rock. – Archbishop Herve.

Now this book which you hold in your hand is only a guide-post, or perhaps we had better call it a guide-book. It is intended for the use of the boys of our land and all other persons who are not too old or too wise to learn more.

It is not erudition that makes the intellectual man, but a sort of virtue which delights in vigorous and beautiful thinking, just as moral virtue delights in vigorous and beautiful conduct. – Hammerton.

Every boy is starting out on a long, interesting, and tremendously important journey. It will lie mostly through a strange country and is a journey which must, in a very large sense, be traveled alone by each individual person. There are many partings of the ways; many perplexing forks in the road.

Give what you have. To some one it may be better than you dare to think. – Longfellow.

The thoughtful boy will ever feel called upon to ask his highest understanding: “Which is the right road for me to take?” He will not carelessly pass by the sign-posts without learning what they have to tell him, nor will he forget or refuse to be guided by their instructions and admonitions.

There are men who complain that roses have thorns. They should be grateful to know that thorns have roses. – Max O’Rell.

If a sign post says: “Danger! Go Slowly!” he will govern his movements accordingly. If the sign-post says: “Railroad Crossing. Beware of the Engine!” he will not blindly plunge ahead without waiting to see if his course is clear. He will understand that many others have traveled the way before him and have learned by experience that it is well for all to take heed and do as the sign-post directs.

I think the best way of doing good to the poor is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. – Benjamin Franklin.

This life-long pathway upon which every boy is starting is a winding, intricate, interesting way, and many there are who turn into the wrong roads that are ever leading off from the main-traveled track. It is the purpose of this volume to serve as a guide-book for the boy who desires to reach Happiness and Helpfulness, Prosperity and Splendid Manhood in the most direct and efficient manner. At every turn of life’s way it will warn him from the blind paths that would bring him, by the way of Idleness, Carelessness, Ignorance, and Extravagance, to the unfortunate land of Failure, of Broken Hopes, and of Life Misspent.

Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves. – Barrie.

There is a certain sweetness and elegance in “little deeds of kindness,” and in letting our best impulses have free play on common occasions. – Joseph May.

“A word spoken in due season, how good is it!” In these pages over which your eye is passing are spoken the words of a large and distinguished company of the world’s best and wisest men and women. Emerson says: “Every book is a quotation; every house is a quotation out of all forests, and mines, and stone-quarries, and every man is a quotation from all his ancestors.”

The school of the intellectual man is the place where he happens to be, and his teachers are the people, books, animals, plants, stones, and earth round about him. – Hammerton.

“In the multitude of counsellors there is safety.” The value of well-selected quotations to serve as finger-posts to guide us day by day is thus set forth by the great German poet, Goethe: “Whatever may be said against such collections which present authors in a disjointed form they nevertheless bring about many excellent results. We are not always so composed, so full of wisdom, that we are able to take in at once the whole scope of a work according to its merits. Do we not mark in a book passages which seem to have a direct reference to ourselves? Young people especially, who have failed in acquiring a complete cultivation of the mind, are roused in a praiseworthy way by brilliant quotations.”

Heroism is simple and yet it is rare. Everyone who does the best he can is a hero. – Josh Billings.

One of the dearest thoughts to me is this – a real friend will never get away from me, or try to, or want to. Love does not have to be tethered. – Anna R. Brown.

And if it shall so happen that some word or sentence or sentiment contained in this book shall rouse in a praiseworthy way just one boy – the very boy whose thought is dwelling on these lines at this very moment – all of this labor of love shall have been abundantly rewarded. For just one boy roused to his best efforts can grandly gladden his own home circle and, perchance, the whole wide world.

In all situations wherein a living man has stood or can stand, there is actually a prize of quite infinite value placed within his reach – namely, a Duty for him to do. – Carlyle.

“Why, the world is at a boy’s feet,” says Burdette, “and power, conquest, and leadership slumber in his rugged arms and care-free heart. A boy sets his ambition at whatever mark he will – lofty or grovelling, as he may elect – and the boy who resolutely sets his heart on fame, on health, on power, on what he will; who consecrates every faculty of his mind and body on ambition, courage, industry, and patience, can trample on genius; for these are better and grander than genius.”

To have what we want is riches, but to be able to do without is power. – George MacDonald.

The past is gone forever; the present is so brief and fleeting we can scarcely call it our own; in the future lies our larger, better hope of a happier civilization. Not the men of yesterday, not the men of to-day, but the men of to-morrow, the boys, are the ones who are to make the world right. They are

THE WORLD’S VICTORS

Let every man be occupied in the highest employment of which his nature is capable, and die with the consciousness that he has done his best. – Sydney Smith.

Hurrah for the beacon-lights of earth, —The brave, triumphant boys!Hurrah for their joyous shouts of mirth,And their blood-bestirring noise!The bliss of being shall never die,Nor the old world seem depressedWhile a boy’s stout heart is beating high,Like a glad drum in his breast.

Of course I know that it is better to build a cathedral than to make a boot; but I think it better actually to make a boot than only to dream about building a cathedral. – Ellen Thornycroft Fowler.

Ye wise professors of bookish things,That burden the souls of men,Go trade your lore for a boy’s glad wings,And fly to the stars again.Nor grope through a shrunken, shrivelled worldThat the years have made uncouth,But march ’neath the flaunting flags unfurledBy the valiant hands of youth.

The most enviable of all titles is the character of an honest man. – Abraham Lincoln.

Oh, never the lamp of age burns lowIn its cold and empty cup.But youth comes by with his face aglow,And a beacon-light leaps up.The gloomiest skies grow bright and gay,And the whispered clouds of doubtAre swept from the brows of the world awayBy a boy’s triumphant shout.

An act of yours is not simply the thing you do, but it is also the way you do it. – Phillips Brooks.

Of the multitudes of boys who are to become the world’s victors, he will succeed best who earliest in life learns carefully to observe and to appreciate the character of his surroundings, and to build into the structure of his manhood the high and abiding influences that come to his hands. As one of our great thinkers given to deep introspection has so impressively said, life, itself, may be compared to a building in the course of construction. It rises slowly, day by day, through the years. Every new lesson we learn lays a block on the edifice which is rising silently within us. Every experience, every touch of another life on ours, every influence that impresses us, every book we read, every conversation we have, every act of our commonest days adds to the invisible building.

Always say a kind word if you can, if only that it may come in, perhaps, with singular opportuneness, entering some mournful man’s darkened room like a beautiful firefly, whose happy convolutions he cannot but watch, forgetting his many troubles. – Arthur Helps.

Not in war, not in wealth, not in tyranny, is there any happiness to be found – only in kindly peace, fruitful and free. – Ruskin.

You must help your fellow-men; but the only way you can help them is by being the noblest and the best man that it is possible for you to be. – Phillips Brooks.

The humblest subscriber to a mechanics’ institute has easier access to sound learning than had either Solomon or Aristotle, yet both Solomon and Aristotle lived the intellectual life. – Hammerton.

Plenty of good, wholesome play and healthful recreation, every boy needs and must have if he means to round out a fine physical and moral development, but idleness and indifference, evils that creep into the hours that are given up to something that is neither work nor play, must never be tolerated. “The ruin of most men dates from some vacant hour,” says Hillard. “Occupation is the armor of the soul; and the train of Idleness is borne up by all the vices. I remember a satirical poem, in which the devil is represented as fishing for men and adapting his baits to the taste and temperament of his prey; but the idler, he said, pleased him most, because he bit the naked hook. To a young man away from home, friendless and forlorn in a great city, the hours of peril are those between sunset and bedtime; for the moon and stars see more of evil in a single hour than the sun in his whole day’s circuit. The poet’s visions of evening are all compact of tender and soothing images. They bring the wanderer to his home, the child to his mother’s arms, the ox to his stall, and the weary laborer to his rest. But to the gentle-hearted youth who is thrown upon the rocks of a pitiless city, ‘homeless amid a thousand homes,’ the approaching evening brings with it an aching sense of loneliness and desolation, which comes down upon the spirit like darkness upon the earth. In this mood his best impulses become a snare to him; and he is led astray because he is social, affectionate, sympathetic, and warm-hearted. If there be a young man thus circumstanced within the sound of my voice, let me say to him, that books are the friends of the friendless, and that a library is the home of the homeless. A taste for reading will always carry you into the best possible society, and enable you to converse with men who will instruct you by their wisdom, and charm you with their wit; who will soothe you when fretted, refresh you when weary, counsel you when perplexed, and sympathize with you at all times.”

The man who tries and succeeds is one degree less of a hero than the man who tries and fails and yet goes on trying. – Ellen Thornycroft Fowler.

Oh, do not pray for easy lives – pray to be stronger men. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers, – pray for powers equal to your tasks. – Phillips Brooks.

To know how to grow old is the master-work of wisdom, and one of the most difficult chapters in the great art of living. – Henri Frederic Amiel.

Books are the voices of the dumb,The tongues of brush and pen;The ever-living kernels fromThe passing husks of men.

It is from good books as well as from living personages that boys will receive much of the good advice which they must follow in order that they may make the most of life. Life is too short for a boy to investigate everything for himself. There is much that he must accept as being true. He has not the time to follow every road to its end and ascertain if the sign-posts have all told the truth. Strive as we may we are still dependent for much of our information upon the hearsay of others. No one person can begin to know everything.

If instead of a gem or even a flower, we could cast the gift of a lovely thought into the heart of a friend, that would be giving as the angels give. – George MacDonald.

What must of necessity be done you can always find out, beyond question, how to do. – Ruskin.

When I hear people say that circumstances are against them, I always retort: “You mean that your will is not with you!” I believe in the will – I have faith in it. – Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Every thinking boy clearly understands that he knows much more to-day than he did a year ago. And he has good reason for thinking that if he shall remain among the living he will know many things a year from now that he does not know to-day. To live is to learn. Hence it is that youth should be modest in the presence of age, for silver hair and wisdom are more than likely to dwell together. No youth should think too lightly of his own mental endowments and his fund of information, neither should he permit his very lack of knowledge to lead him to think that he has acquired about all the secrets that nature and the great world have to divulge. Every boy should be cool-headed, clear-headed, long-headed, level-headed, but not big-headed. Should he become afflicted with a serious attack of “enlargement of the brain” it is more than likely that when he has reached the years of soberer manhood he will look back with a sense of good-humored humiliation to

MY BOYHOOD DREAMS

If you do not scale the mountain, you cannot view the plain. – Chinese.

I remember, I rememberWhen I was seventeen;I was the cleverest young manThe world had ever seen.The universe seemed simple then,But now ’tis little joyTo know I don’t know lots of thingsI did know when a boy.

There is no substitute for thorough-going, ardent, sincere earnestness. – Dickens.

I remember, I rememberThis old world seemed so slow;I’d teach it how to conquer thingsWhen once I got a show!’Twas such a charming fairy tale!But now ’tis sorry playTo find how hard I have to workTo get three meals a day.

To leave undone those things which we ought to do, to leave unspoken the word of recognition or appreciation that we should have said, is perhaps as positive a wrong as it is to do the thing we should not have done. – Lillian Whiting.

I remember, I rememberThe things I planned to do;I meant to take this poor old earthAnd make it over new.It was a most delightful dream;But now ’tis little cheerTo know the world when I am goneWon’t know that I was here.

Those who can take the lead are given the lead. – Arthur T. Hadley.

When a family rises early in the morning, conclude the house to be well governed. – Chinese.

This somewhat overdrawn picture of human conceit and egotism holds a lesson for each and all of us. He who knows it all can learn no more, and he who can learn no more is likely to die ignorant. There are guide-posts all along our ways which if heeded will direct us toward the very destinations we should reach. And nothing else is so full of suggestion and inspiration as is a good book. In it we can enter the very heart of a man without being abashed by the author’s august presence.

Duty determines destiny. Destiny which results from duty performed may bring anxiety and perils, but never failure and dishonor. – William McKinley.

When quite young, the poet, Cowley, happened upon a copy of Spenser’s “Faerie Queen”, which chanced to be nearly the only book at hand, and becoming interested he read it carefully and often, until, enchanted thereby, he irrevocably determined to be a poet. The effect this same poem had upon the Earl of Southampton when he first read it is worth remembering. As soon as the book was finished Spenser took it to this noble patron of poets and sent it up to him. The earl read a few pages and said to a servant, “Take the writer twenty pounds.” Still he read on, and presently he cried in rapture, “Carry that man twenty pounds more.” Entranced he continued to read, but presently he shouted: “Go turn that fellow out of the house, for if I read further I shall be ruined!”

Laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes him. – Franklin.

Dr. Franklin tells us that the chance perusal of De Foe’s “Essay on Projects” influenced the principal events and course of his life. The reading of the “Lives of the Saints” caused Ignatius Loyola to form the purpose of creating a new religious order, – which purpose eventuated in the powerful society of the Jesuits.

It is faith in something and enthusiasm for something that makes a life worth looking at. – Oliver Wendell Holmes.

Dickens’s earliest and best literary work, the “Pickwick Papers,” was begun at the suggestion of a publisher of a magazine for whom Dickens was doing some job-work at the time. He was asked to write a serial story to fit some comic pictures which chanced to be in the publisher’s possession.

Blessed is he who has found his work. From the heart of the worker rises the celestial force, awakening him to all nobleness, to all knowledge. – Thomas Carlyle.

While yet a mere boy Scott chanced upon a copy of Percy’s “Reliques of Ancient Poetry,” which he read and re-read with great interest. He purchased a copy as soon as he could get the necessary sum of money and thus was early instilled into his soul a taste for poetry in the writing of which he was destined to attain such eminence. The translation of “Götz von Berlichingen” was Scott’s first literary effort and this work, Carlyle says, had a very large and lasting influence on the great novelist’s future career. In his opinion this translation was “the prime cause of ‘Marmion’ and the ‘Lady of the Lake,’ with all that has followed from the same creative hand. Truly a grain of seed that had lighted in the right soil. For if not firmer and fairer, it has grown to be taller and broader than any other tree; and all nations of the earth are still yearly gathering of its fruit.”

Nothing that is excellent can be wrought suddenly. – Jeremy Taylor.

Character is centrality, the impossibility of being displaced or overset. – Emerson.

A good book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life. – Milton.

Thus we see how much there is in life for those who observe their surroundings, who read the directions on the guide-posts, who study the guidebooks and who are wise enough to receive and to utilize the advice and suggestions that are everywhere offered them, and which their reason tells them are good.

CHAPTER X

REAL SUCCESS

Resolve to cultivate a cheerful spirit, a smiling countenance, and a soothing voice. The sweet smile, the subdued speech, the hopeful mind, are earth’s most potent conquerors, and he who cultivates them becomes a very master among men. – Hubbard.

“Boy Wanted”

Are you the boy?

If you have carefully read and digested the foregoing chapters you have a pretty clear understanding of the sort of boy the world prefers for a life partner. You have learned that you must

Ask no favors of “luck,” – win your way like a man;Be active and earnest and plucky;Then your work will come out just about as you planAnd the world will exclaim, “Oh, how lucky!”

They also serve who only stand and wait. – Milton.

In studying the history of the lives of successful men we are constantly being impressed with the thought that they make the most out of their surroundings, whatever their surroundings may be. They do not wait for a good chance to succeed; they take such chances as they can get and make them good. We very soon learn that

Two things fill me with awe: the starry heavens above, and the moral sense within. – Kant.

The ones who shall win are the ones who will toil;The future is all in our keeping;Though fortune may give us the seed and the soil,We must still do the sowing and reaping.

The realities of to-day surpass the ideals of yesterday. – Frothingham.

The person who considers everything will never decide on anything. – Italian.

We learn, also, that one may achieve a full measure of success without accumulating much money, and may accumulate much money without achieving success. “Mere wealth is no more success than fools’ gold is real gold,” says one of our wise essayists. “Collaterals do not take the place of character. A man obtains thousands or millions of dollars by legal or illegal thieving, and society, instead of sending him to prison, receives him in its parlors. Men bow low when he passes, as in the fable the people bowed to the golden idols that were strapped on the back of a donkey, who was ass enough to swell with pride in the thought that all this reverence was for him. The man who puts his trust in gold and deposits his heart in the bank, and thinks money means success, is like the starving traveler in the desert, who, seeing a bag in the distance, found in it, instead of food which he sought, nothing but gold, and flung it from him in disappointment, and died for want of something that could save his life. The soul will starve if gold alone administers to its needs. Better to be a man than merely a millionaire. Better to have a head and heart than merely houses and lands.”