meekly Sbemawa Einericatt
VOL. 11
Backbone Wins in Life's Game
Madison C. Peters, in The Indian News.
Charles Summer said: " There are
three things necessary First, backbone;
second, backbone; third backbone."
When Lincoln was asked how Grant im
pressed him as a general, he replied:
"The greatest thing about him is his cool
presisterice of purpose. He has the grip
of a bulldog; when once he gets his teeth
in nothing can shake him." This was
the whole compendium of Grant's charac
ter, his epitome as a soldier, nothing
could shake him off. With him it was
"On to Richmond," and, "I shall fight
on this line if it takes all summer."
That broke the backbone of the Civil
War and eventually made Lee surrender.
This wonderful man, at thirty-eight an
obscure citizen of Galena, 111., drawing
but $800 a-year in his father's tannery,
at forty-two was one of the greatest gen
erals of history.
Most of the failures in life are due to
want of grit or nerve. A yielding dis
position, or in other words, no backbone
to map out a course and pursue it steadily,
unswervingly to the end, leaves many a
one behind in the life race.- You know
how the boy said he learned to skate by
NO. 52
getting up every time he fell down and
trying again. Men who have been al
ways successful have often been defeated
but they turned each, defeat into a step
ping stone to further progress.
In our own time a remarkable instance
of what grit can do, even when handicap
ped by seemingly unsurmountable obsta
cles is presented in the case of Helen
Keller. Miss Keller has conquered all,
and, despite her defeats, has demonstrat
ed that she is able to take place in any
line with her more fortunate compeers.
In her blindness she sees the beauty of
the universe, in her deafness she hears
the music of the spheres, through the
ears of a contented mind, and with her
deaf fingers she voices the emotions of
her being and the happy thoughts that
are hers. So far from bemoaning her
fate, she would not exchange with queens.
Ethel Logan, who has been working
in the laundry for the last four months,
is now working in the dining hall.
John Horn -ha entered the tailor shop
to become apprenticed to the trade.
Just watch this (Horn) grow wise and
useful.
JUNE 18, 1909.