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 .