you will thank me. There can be no harm in trying, because it's a
worth-while thing to test.
The business man who never takes inventory is likely to go bump some
day.
EGOTISM
Those Who Decry It Most Have It Most
The ego is in us. It is good to have, but egotism needs the soft pedal
when we speak or do things.
Many people are unconscious of their egotism yet they suggest between
lines in their conversation, "even I who am superior to the herd would
do this or that."
For instance, two persons were arguing about the merits of an
inexpensive automobile. Parenthetically I may say one belonged to the
Ford class and the other to the can't afford class. A can't afford snob
came to the rescue of the Ford champion by saying, "that's a good car;
why, I wouldn't mind owning one of them myself," and he beamed at the
party with the consciousness of having settled the matter and removed
the stigma from the Ford car.
The egotism crops out often when one shows a group picture in which he
appears. He doesn't wait for you to find him; he pokes his arm over
your shoulder and says, "that's me."
To each of us in the manner of things the I is the center of our world.
We see things always through our I's.
If we wish to get along without friction we must remember that the other
fellow has his I's also, and when we try to make him see things through
our I's it makes trouble.
The hall mark of education, refinement and character in the broad sense
is the ability to exclude the personal so far as possible from our
conversation. And be big enough to grant to others their undoubted right
to see and think from their own standpoint.
Argument develops egotism more than most any other thing will.
How often have you convinced another in an argument?
How often have you been convinced in an argument?
The world is big, there are millions of others in it and our job is a
big one if we 'tend pretty well to our own knittin'.
PERSEVERANCE
It Is the Last Step in the Race That Counts
Four hundred and twenty-three years ago Christopher Columbus landed on
an island which he thought was India.
Chris was mighty happy as he put his foot on good old mother earth; not
so much because he had discovered a new way to India, as he thought, but
because his foot touched land.
Two days before he landed on San Salvador his crew pitched into him and
threatened to throw him in the sea and turn about the ship to Spain.
If Chris had shown the white feather, 1492 would not be the date of the
first line in the geography, announcing the "Discovery of America."
Chris had perseverance, the stuff that makes men successful.
He started to find India by sailing westward. He didn't succeed in his
purpose, but his determination was rewarded just the same, for he found
a new country, and that was worth while.
Before he started he was promised ten per cent of the revenue from any
lands he might discover. Just imagine what that would mean today.
Columbus had perseverance and pep, and his unwavering fidelity to his
cause brought him success in his efforts.
The world has improved since 1492, but the percentage of men who would
keep on like Columbus did has not increased, perhaps.
Columbus sailed with three ships, the largest sixty-six feet long. He
steered to the direction of the setting sun. His crew was 120 men. None
of them were enthusiastic at the start; all of them disgusted,
discouraged and ready to mutiny at the last.
But Christopher kept the ships pointed West, through rain, shine,
through drifting breezeless days and through storms. He kept on, and on
and on, and he brought home the bacon, which being interpreted means
success crowned his efforts.
Perseverance and pep produce prosperity, peace and plenty.
It was the mileage made on October 12th, 1492, that counted.
It is the last step in a race that counts.
It is the last stroke on the nail that counts.
The moral is that many a prize has been lost just when it was ready to
be plucked.
Perseverance--patience--pluck--pep--are particularly profitable if
pursued until you ring the bell.
GEOLOGY
The Earth's Incontestable Pages of Truth
On the wall in the room where I write these lines is a fossil herring
which the boys dug up in the Rockies near Frozen Dog, at an altitude of
six thousand feet.
The herring is a salt water fish proving that the country around Frozen
Dog was at one time under the sea.
A few weeks ago, in the Missouri River bottom near Omaha, some Harvard
scientists discovered the remains of three ancient towns, one buried on
top of the other.
In the Nile valley in Egypt nine towns, in one location, have been
unearthed, each town in a different strata of alluvial deposit.
The ninth or top city is the ancient City of Memphis, once the largest
city in the world.
Those cities and the mute eloquence of my fossil herring plainly point
out the fact that the world is millions of years old.
Last summer I found some coral on Washington Island, which is off the
point of land where Lake Michigan and Green Bay meet. Coral is only
formed in salt water.
Geologists tell me that Washington Island and surrounding country
plainly shows marks of three distinct glacial periods.
Several times the poles were in the tropical climate, and consequently
the tropics or the temperate zones at least were under permanent snow
and ice.
The earth changes its axis every few thousand centuries, that we know.
The rains and snows wash the earth to the sea, depositing layers of sand
and sediment, which as the ages go by, turn to stone and form permanent
pages that man may read in succeeding eras.
During the world's changes, vast surfaces of earth and rock are lifted
to mountain heights and other places lowered and the sea covers them.
Thus the habitations of man have been buried, new earth covered them,
new towns were built and again the covering process.
Scientists are deciphering the story of the earth and its people.
Babylonia and Egypt left records which our learned men can read, but
ages and eons before these ancients there were races who could not
write even crude picture or hieroglyphic languages, and probably we
shall never know much about these very old times.
Around our Mississippi Valley we know of Mound Builders before our
Indians. In the Southwest the relics of the cliff dwellers are abundant.
This summer at Salt Lake City I saw seven mummies of fair-haired people
that were discovered in Southern Utah.
Near Naples, in digging a well, the workmen found statuary, jewelry and
cooking utensils. The Italian government began excavating and they
opened up to modern gaze an old city. The town was Pompeii.
People may now walk the streets of old Pompeii as freely as the streets
of Kansas City, and the old pavements are likewise worn and torn like
the present streets of Kansas City.
The residents of Pompeii had fine plumbing, baths and luxuries.
They had a place called a vomitorium. The old Roman sports were
gluttons; they stuffed themselves, then went to the vomitorium and threw
up so they could eat more.
Near Pompeii is the ancient buried city of Herculaneum, but it is
covered with lava, hard as granite, while Pompeii is covered with ashes.
Our western hemisphere is called the new world, but all parts of the
world are equally old.
The Missouri River swelled up and washed out a big cul de sac and bared
those three towns near Omaha. We haven't dug much in America but likely
in a few years we will discover some old towns equally as ancient as
Pompeii.
Verily, this earth of ours has had humans on it for more than the 6,000
years our written records give as its age.
PATRIOTISM
An Intoxicant That Often Turns Men Into Murderers
A false patriotism, an inherited acceptance of servility and obedience,
makes the foreigners meek, sheep-like men.
This great war, and most every great war of the past, is possible
because of a distorted understanding of patriotism.
Patriotism began away back yonder when sons and daughters were taught
love and loyalty to the pater, the father. The patriarchs of old
extended the patriot idea to the tribe and later as tribes banded
together and formed nations. The patriotism principle was the basis for
the bond that tied men together for a common cause.
Now patriotism is bounded by geographical lines and national boundary
lines. The patriotism is most sincere, and most solemn, for men
willingly sacrifice their lives for it.
But, really, this patriotism is one of the narrowest and most cruel
forces in the world. It causes wars, waste and desolation. It makes
jealousies, braggadocio and keeps up the fight spirit.
The false patriotism is an obstacle to broader human progress, brotherly
love and the finer things in life.
Kings and rulers, fired by selfish egotism, know full well what a
powerful force patriotism is and they nurse the babes with fatherland
stuff and give them tin soldiers to play with and tin helmets to wear.
Patriotism, when it reflects love of the place of one's nativity, when
it spells home and love and association, is a natural and a beautiful
sentiment.
But patriotism, as fomented and fostered by governments for war spurs
and goads, is a monster that lives on blood.
To keep this false patriotism alive, wars must be made, so that human
blood can be secured to save the monster from perishing. Human blood
fires and intoxicates this false patriotism behemoth.
And so, on slight pretexts Kings are insulted. War lords have put out
chips on their shoulders on purpose to be knocked off, and when the chip
is brushed off then comes the declaration of war.
The banner, patriotism, is flaunted in the air. It is the shibboleth of
the red blooded, hot headed, bravest and best of the nation, the youth,
who die in countless thousands--for what?
Such patriotism is failure and worse than failure. It is hindrance to
civilization.
These bewildered men have let reason escape, and intoxicated false
patriotism poison come in their brains to take the place of reason.
In their delirium they try to appear consistent, logical and abused. In
their extremity they try to co-ordinate their acts with God's mind.
Each nation has its own interpretation of the Divine will. Each asks
Divine help for his nation.
God looks at the maddened millions of insane murderers and his heart is
torn as He sees the avalanche of tears shed by bereaved wives and
children.
The patriotism that is responsible for starting this war is a mockery, a
snare, a delusion, and deserves the profoundest contempt of every man
who loves his fellow man.
Europe has certainly put riot in patriotism.
RIDICULE
A Poor Vehicle for Humor
The man who ridicules everything is on the toboggan slide and he will
finish the slide as an out-and-out grouch.
You and I know men who never have a pleasant word to say of anyone, or a
serious commendation of anything.
Ridicule and sarcasm are often coated with would-be humor, and try to
pass for puns. By and by, however, this ridicule and sarcasm gets to be
a habit, and the coat of humor becomes threadbare.
Just at this time friends depart, for the grouch phase of the disease
has started.
Sarcasm and ridicule are powerful weapons when used adroitly and for
good purposes. But when sarcasm and ridicule are used constantly as a
means to generate fun or as vehicles for humor, then the evil commences.
People will listen to you for awhile, if you good-naturedly ridicule a
thing, but when you are known to have the habit, then is when friends
give you the go-by.
Sarcasm and ridicule wound deeply; they are hot pokers jabbed in
quivering flesh.
Don't juggle with ridicule or sarcasm, for people look beneath the
veneer nowadays. They remember and repeat the axiom, "there's many a
true word spoken in jest."
There are so many beautiful things to say, so many kind expressions to
utter, so many helpful hints to give, that we should be ashamed to say
or do things even jokingly that may hurt another.
Safest way is to run no chances. When you ridicule a thing or a person,
you may ridicule the tender heart of one you should cheer and help.
Ridicule is the negative element anyway; the only good it can be is by
reflex or rebound force.
Ridicule is conceived by the humor idea. It is used because it so easily
lends itself to a seeming clever way to create a laugh.
Humor of the clean sort is a rare gift. Humor may easily descend to low
comedy by use of ridicule, and often the audience does not differentiate
between low comedy and rare humor.
The masses will laugh when the comedian on the stage hits his friend
with a club; that sort of fun-making satisfies adults who have
children's brains and such brain-constructed people will also laugh at
jokes which ride on ridicule. But you who read these lines are worthy of
better things; that's why you are reading this book. If, in my audience
there are those who have the ridicule habit, I want to arouse you to a
better sense of humor than you can get by the employment of ridicule and
sarcasm.
I don't want you to descend to the level of the grouch. The slide-down
is so easy, the climbing back and up from the depth is so very hard.
Ridicule and sarcasm are cheap, slapstick methods to produce fun. They
leave a sting many times when you are not aware of it.
When fighting whiskey, sin, corruption or evil hosts, then use burning
ridicule and caustic sarcasm to sizzle and destroy the things that need
to be destroyed.
Now I've told you, and next time you find yourself using ridicule or
sarcasm to provoke mirth remember you are toying with a habit-forming
practice that is likely to get the best of you unless you stop and stop
now.
THE WIFE
She Is Your Partner, Don't Cheat Her
A wife is either a partner or an employee. If a partner, she has a right
to the fifty-fifty split on profits; if an employee she is entitled to
her wages.
A thrifty husband is commendable, but a
show-me-what-you-did-with-that-money husband should be punished by being
sentenced to attend pink teas, afternoon receptions, and to match
samples at the dry goods store.
Married folks must be on the partnership basis, or there's sand in the
gear box.
Give the wife the check-book; let her pay the bills; tote fair with her;
show her and give her just what your income affords, and what economic
and wise administration warrants; she'll cut the cloth to fit the
garment.
When the husband questions every turn, every move, every cent, the wife
feels like a prisoner or a slave. Wives will do good team work when
they are broken to double harness with their husbands.
Women are generally raised without any requirements of economy; they are
pretty birds, and used to preening and smoothing their plumage and
looking pretty.
It's the female instinct in the human. In the animal world the male has
the plumage and does the strutting and fascinating act; but in the human
animal the female is the bird with the bright plumage.
You can't expect her to know about pennies and purses and prudent
purchases the moment you slip the ring on her finger.
But she's an intelligent filly and she'll go in double harness much
better if trained and coaxed and petted than she will if she is
haltered, broke and a Spanish bit put in her mouth by the husband's
stinginess.
She'll shop better than her husband if he takes an interest in her
shopping and encourages her in her economical administration of the
household budget.
She wants a word of appreciation once in a while. She chills under the
surveillance and parsimony of an eagle-eyed, detective, lawyer-like
husband.
She's a sweet bird and sweet birds and hawks don't nest well together.
Where the hawk and the dove are in the same cage the feathers will fly.
As I came through the park this morning I saw a pair of robins who have
the right idea. They share home responsibilities and do fine team work.
I think they are mighty happy, too; daddy red breast looked mighty proud
as he hustled worms for the family breakfast.
Mamma robin looked down with loving eyes at her hubby, and the little
baby robins sang a chorus of joy at the very privilege of living in such
a home.
Worry will fly out of the window the moment the husband and wife lay
their cards on the table and play the open hand. The moment one or the
other keeps a few cards in the sleeve, then worry and trouble comes
back.
The moral of this is: husbands and wives, live together, get together,
stay together, play together, save together, grow together, share
together. Travel the same road; don't take different paths.
MENTAL PLEASURES
The Rarest, Sweetest Pleasures in the World
There are two principal pleasures man seeks; one is material pleasures
and that takes in about ninety-nine per cent of the human family.
The other, the one per cent, seeks mental pleasures, and this little
group is the one that gets the real, lasting, satisfying and improving
pleasures.
Material pleasures are eating, displaying, possessing, and society.
Material pleasures generate in the human the desire for fluff, feathers,
and four-flushing.
Material pleasures accentuate the desire to possess things, and in the
strife for possession hearts are broken, fortunes wasted, nerves
shattered and finer sentiments calloused.
The homes where material pleasures abound are the ones where worry,
neurasthenia and nervous prostration abound.
Material pleasures are merely stimulants for the time being, and there
always comes the intermittent reflexes of gloom and depression.
The desire to show off, to excite envy in others, is always present at
the homes where material pleasures are the rule.
Material pleasures call for crowds. Mental pleasures are best enjoyed in
solitude.
The material pleasure seeker lives a life of convention, engagements,
routine, action, strain and high tension.
The person who is so fortunate as to appreciate and follow mental
pleasures, is serene, natural, happy and content.
A cozy room, loved ones around, music, books, love and social
conversation, those are mental pleasures; those are best.
He who can pick up a book, and read things worth while, gets
satisfaction unknown to those whose life is banquets, theaters, dances,
automobiles, parties, bridge, clubs and society doings.
The lover of books and home can enjoy the play, because he only goes to
plays worth while, and he doesn't overdo it.
The confirmed theater-goer is a pessimist; he roasts nearly every play,
and he is universally bored.
Get the home reading habit. Don't over-do it. Call on friends, go to a
good picture show once in a while; to good concerts; to good plays, but
do not make this going out in the evening plan a habit. Let it be merely
a dessert, or a rarity; like candy and ice cream, proper and enjoyable
when taken in moderation.
When you get started reading worth-while books on science, on history,
on geography, on travel, on natural history, you will get into an
inexhaustible field of pleasure and satisfaction.
Any time you can pick up your book and be happy.
Waits in railway stations will be opportunities; trips on trains will be
pleasant; evenings alone will be enjoyable, if you can get into a book
you like.
Mental pleasures are best.
Material pleasures are merely passing pleasures.
PANAMA
The Man Who Found It and the Man Who Used It
Four hundred years ago Jim Balboa climbed a mountain peak on the Isthmus
of Panama, and looked on the boundless Pacific and said: "I have this
day discovered you, and henceforth the geographies will perpetuate this
great event."
Little did Jim think that by 1914 ships of twenty thousand tons would
sail through the impassable mountains.
Jim knew he had discovered something great, but little did he dream of
the real greatness of the world's future. Little did he dream that the
vast new continent on whose neck he stood was to hold the greatest
nation of the twentieth century.
Gold, new territory for kings, new fields for the church--were the
magnets which drew early navigators like Balboa to the land in the West
across the Atlantic.
Those early adventurers little thought of exploiting their discoveries
for the benefit of mankind.
It is a long time and a far cry from Capt. Balboa to Colonel Goethals,
from the discoverer to the constructor, and it is our good fortune to
see and enjoy a work beyond the wildest dreams of Columbus, Balboa,
Cortez and the other wanderlust adventurers.
Not only that, but the Panama Canal, now opened to the world, was for
years deemed a chimerical dream and an impossibility, by the world as
well as by most Americans.
Every ditch digger, including the great De Lesseps, proved a failure, so
to Yankee grit in the person of Goethals belongs the credit for the
completed work which is now called the "Eighth Wonder of the World."
The Pyramids, the hanging gardens of Babylon, are wonders, but we have a
Yankee contractor who can duplicate them if anyone puts up the money for
the job.
We do not build pyramids or hanging gardens because they serve no useful
purpose.
The Panama Canal is a greater wonder and is a most practical benefit to
mankind. It doubles our navy; it enables us to move supplies of every
kind from one coast to the other quickly and less expensively.
It shortens the world's highway between the oceans and helps every human
being.
Balboa's name will live in geographies as the discoverer of the Pacific
Ocean, but Goethals' name will be remembered as the man who made most
use of that discovery for the benefit of mankind.
The shades of Balboa and De Lesseps likely stalk around Panama at
midnight and rub their eyes in amazement.
TODAY
The One Time in Our Keeping
As I walk on the old Santa Fe Trail each morning through Penn Valley
Park in Kansas City, the marks of time are plainly visible.
Erosion of water and wind have bared the sedimentary rocks and exposed
the layers in well defined pages so I may study this great rock-paged
geology book, and indeed it's a pleasure to me.
Back of all is the grand plan of the Universe of which this earth is an
atom. That plan is ruled by a Divine law and power.
For you or me to take a fragment of truth and attempt to pass it as a
definite science, a complete religion or all truth, is an assumption
which these records of countless ages frown upon as a hopeless, bootless
task.
All science has some truth; all creeds, sects, isms and cults likewise
have truth, but no branch or group possesses all truth.
My fossil fish on the wall wiggled his tail thousands of years ago,
very likely millions of years.
He lived and died in accordance with the plan of the Creator of the
Universe and you are an atom and I am an atom in that Universe and
governed by the power that gave life and crushed to death that fossil
fish.
Verily we presume when we say, "we have all the truth; think as we do or
you are lost."
The old world has not told its full story. The Universe of which this
world is a part is still a deeper mystery.
We shall not know all truth until the great revealing time.
We cannot change the pages of the millions of years gone by. We can do
very little to change the pages of the millions of years to come. What
little we can do, we can only do TODAY.
Today is yours and mine; let's do the best we can with our possession in
act and thought and word.
The sun goes down behind the sky-line on the West as it has done for
millions of years. I lay aside my pen with a bigger view, a deeper
appreciation of the Creator and a profounder faith in His wisdom and
works than ever.
God made. God rules. God plans. And verily we are weaklings and foolish,
who presume by selfish prayer to suggest to Him what He shall do.
Let us strive to be appreciative of Him and try to lift ourselves in
sublime thought into the higher faith thought and realize that we are
part of Him and His plan, and failure is impossible to us, if we keep up
and on, doing good, speaking softly, dealing gently, showing kindness
today and living in accordance with the big, broad, generous, charitable
plan instead of the little, bigoted, narrow, selfish idea that we are
sole possessors of truth and that the man who differs with us in belief
is in error.
This chapter is about big things and in it is a big moral for all who
are big enough to grasp it.
DAD
All for You, Old Man, and It's Timely
This is your inning, Dad.
There has been so many beautiful things written about Mother and all the
rest of the family that it is high time we should tell you how we love
you and how we appreciate you.