January 1927
THE UNITED AMERICAN
THE MAN WHO “NEVER HAD A CHANGE”
The Life Line
'T' HE AVERAGE man who is a failure is usually
ready with the alibi: “I never had a chance.”
Some of the most successful and illustrious men in the
world labored under heavy handicaps. The best
postmaster England ever had was a blind man.
The great Greek orator, Demosthenes was a hope
less stutterer. Washington suffered defeat after
defeat, and was ofttimes abandoned by his soldiers.
Lincoln was a rail-spitter, and was bom in poverty
and narrow environment. Columbus faced mutiny
among his sailors, and sailed on and on and on after
they told him “all hope has fled.” Edison was ridi
culed and called an irresponsible “crank.” Fulton
was threatened with imprisonment because he be
lieved that steam could be made the servant of man.
To every man is given the power of thought
and the time in which to develop his talent. Every
hour contains sixty chances. The door of oppor
tunity is always open to the man who will find the
latch. The years are mile-stones. They reach up
ward as well as downward. Excuses are the weapons
of the coward. Brave resolutions are the armor of
the winners. Every man’s life is a race. He is
his own judge and timekeeper. His competitors are
pushing ahead. He has as clear a track as any of
them, and it is up to him to. get the pole and keep
it. He may not always win, but there is glory in
trying to win.
“I never had a chance.” What a silly excuse.
Far better be honest and say, “I never tried.”
Chance and luck never get you any place. Grit and
pluck and energy and faith will take you over the
roughest road in the darkest night. The most
beautiful perspective is from the summit. The
heights are for those who toil. The fog and the
valley do not inspire. The sublimity of life is at the
top. What some men call “chance” is an oppor
tunity to win battles without courage and valor. It
is to reach heights without a struggle. It is to
have riches without earning. It is to gather with
out sowing. This is not the right way. It is not
the way of life.
The men who succeed are the men who wear
out shoe leather. The men who fail are the men
who wear out cushions, pillows, sofas, office and home
furniture, and more, they wear out the patience of all
those around them who try to fill the niche in life
God gave them.
OLD-FASHIONED
Anon.
VV HEN WE speak of old-fashioned things we usually
have in mind manners and customs prevailing
at the time of our childhood, or perhaps those
of grandparents told to us in a spell of recollection
or suspected in the evidence of old tin-types. It
is common for a young man or a young lady to con
sider his or her mother or father old-fashioned,
especially so when parents feel obliged to draw the
line against some things “other boys and girls do.”
The youngsters should remember that in consider
ing a parent old-fashioned they are themselves very
Page Seven
old-fashioned for such tender years, for boys and
girls have been doing that same thing for many
centuries. At heart we are all, young and old, “old-
fashioned,” and should be thankful for it. We hark
back to the tried and true of a day past for the
things that warm our hearts and inspire us to
greater faith and courage.
Some time ago a number of boys in late ’teens
were gathered around a piano singing songs during
recess of a meeting. They sang some of the most
recent and most senseless jazz songs, and they sang
them with all the frivolity and lack of seriousness
they warranted. They also sang some of the older
popular songs with much different tone and deeper
feeling. They sang with fervor, “I Want a Girl Just
Like the Girl That Married Dear Old Dad,” “Just
an Old Fashoned Garden.” and especially “Darling
I Am Growing Old,” which latter was sung so tenderly
that one could close the eyes and imagine them a
lot of silver-haired men living on the memories of
youth. These “young hearts were old-fashioned
hearts. When we scrape away a little of the veneer
with which the fads of the present-day coat our
lives, we find that all good things are so-called “old
fashioned things.” All virtues are “old-fashioned.”
If it be true that such virtues as modesty and
honesty are waning in our present customes, then
the woman who would know her fullest charm should
practice modesty and the man who would apply his
greatest means of good achievement should practice
honesty, for thereby neither would have much com
petition among associates and would soon become
a noteworthy example of strong and charming person
ality. ,
WHEN NOAH WON OUT
Noah had to work a long time on the ark. It was uphill
business, too, at best, building a boat way out on dry land,
while the local Anvil-and-Hammaer Club sat around making
fun at Noah, whittling up his pine boards with their jack-
knives, and telling him what a fool he was for expecting a
big rain in a country that was too dry to grow alfalfa. But
he kept right at it. . Finally the flood came and every mother’s
son of the croakers was drowned. This is the only in
stance, in either sacred or profane history, where a bunch
of dirty knockers got exactly what was coming to them.
—The Pacific Woodman.
AN EDUCATED MAN
By Albert E. Wiggan
There are ten specific signs by which an educated man
may be designated:
He keeps his mind open on every question until the
evidence is all in.
He always listens to the man who knows.
He never laughs at new ideas.
He cross-examines his day-dreams.
He knows his strong point and plays it.
He knows the value of good habits and how to form them.
He knows when not to think, and when to call in tWb
expert to think for him.
You can’t sell him magic.
He lives the forward-looking, outward-looking life.
He cultivates a love of the beautiful.
He that pursues two hares at once does not catch one
and lets the other go.
Let him who scatters thorns not go barefoot.
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