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About The Chemawa American (Chemawa, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 20, 1926)
THE CHEMAWA AMERICAN PAGE 4 THE WASTERS (Continued from page 1) thing about you indicates that you do not believe in yourself, that you have very little respect for yourself, you certainly should not blame others for taking you at your own estimate. You cannot afford to waste your time, simply touch ing as it were, with your finger tips the tasks given you here at Chemawa. You cannot afford to bring only a fraction of yourself to your work. You must go to it a whole man, a whole woman, fresh, strong and vigorous, so that your efforts will be spontaneous, not forced; buoyant, not heavy. If you go at your tasks with jaded faculties and a sense of being tired, after half a night of dissipation with the “spreads,” or loss of sleep, your work will suffer. Under such circumstances everything you do will bear the stamp or impress of weakness, and there is no success or satisfaction in weakness. This is just where so many young people fail—in not bringing all of themselves to their task. There is a wonderful creative force in a strong vitality because it tones up and increases the power of all the faculties, so that they produce vastly more and are very much more efficient. So we declare our boys and girls safe when they are busy in some useful em ployment. You are protected from all sorts of temp tations to idleness and its entail of injuries. Activity means life; inactivity, death. Act! Don’t waste your time. MANNERS The acts of a person—known as manners—will brand that person as a gentleman or a lady, or the opposite. Many capable people are held down by bad manners and many mediocre folk are exalted and make good by their ability to be pleasing, and by making themselves congenial to the likes of others. A young man may not know all the rules of eti quette of the elite, but by using a little “common sense” and having the real instincts of a gentle man he need not fear but he will be well received. These gentlemanly instincts are a part of a person, while they may be acquired to some degree, but a per son is a gentleman or lady instinctively, and by his or her attitude toward mankind they will move in society and be so classed. A person may be “out of step” in the first of the march, but if his actions, even out of step, are pleasing, if his speech is with deference and respect to others, if he assumes nothing, and takes nothing for granted, and uses his eyes and head, he will soon be in step. He will soon be “one” of those with whom he marches and past errors will be completely forgotten and he will bespoken of as “a man that is inertly a gentle man . ’ ’ “True worth is in being not seeming,” and a man may know the book of manners from A to Z and yet be a “rough-neck.” He will sooner or later be known as he is and will be eliminated from that class of people who desire the finest and best in those they desire to associate with. Do you respect the rights and privileges of others? If you do you are a long way on the road toward the goal of good manners, but if “I, Me, and Mine” are your mind’s end and aim you will not, and cannot be accepted as “fit” to move with people who are really worth while. Cultivate talking of pleasing subjects. Respect the rightsand feelings of others. Make “Live and Let Live’ ’ your motto and you need not fear for your social advantages. You will be wanted, and in de mand, both in the business and social world. Culti vate these actions known as “good manners, ” for they are a very important, if not the most important asset,in starting on that road that leads to Success. ARE YOU A FLOATER? Everywhere we find that the majority of people are hunting for an easy or soft job—for “snaps.” They have no vision, no desire to excel in anything—they do not even possess a “hobby.” Their outlook on life is narrow and contracted and they live small lives com pared with what might be. Little ambition, coupled with an unreasonable desire for big things for which one is unwilling to labor, spells disaster in the life of anyone. Those who follow the pathway made by the common herd will never discover new pastures. They must be contented to browse on “pickings” more or less “pawed over” by the masses. This is true— consider it well. By going with the ebb and flow of the tide your destiny is to float forever or to be cast upon the rocks of some inhospitable shore or upon the desert beach of Nowhere. To make a landing to suit yourself, on a shore desirable, it is necessary to stike out vigorously and swim against the tide. What a fate! To be a bit of human flotsam and drift all through life. And all for lack of energy to cut loose and show a little initiative—to do something for yourself by yourself. The thoroughbred always shows his breeding. His every act proclaims what he is-—a thoroughbred. We have many human thoroughbreds and some who are not. Remember, man is superior to the animals of the field and his every act should prove it. Be a human thoroughbred and not a bit of flotsam. Swim against the current. It lies with yourself wholly—you can stem the tide if you wish. The game fish swims up stream .
