The Winning Fight

8/4/2019 The Winning Fight

1/74

The Winning Fight

By Herbert Kaufman

When you stop to think of what youve done,

And you count your struggles, one by one,

The time when you stood, though you wished torun-

When it cost a mighty lot to stick,

And play the game without a trick,

Though all the while (if youd been slick.)You might have saved both time and cash,

But you chose instead to go to crash

Rather than let your honor smash-

When you measure yourself against the rest

And find that you stood the hardest test

And, because of your code, came out the best-

If youve always kept on the clean, straight side,

And there isnt a thing that you wish to hide,

Youre well entitled to glow with pride-

If your ways and your days have all been right,

And youre not afraid of the strongest light,

Youve fought the only Winning Fight.


2/74

THE MODERN PACE

Opportunity changes her pass-word everyday-the

world is spinning four times as fast as it used to. Afew misguided astronomers may try to dispute thefacebut theyre living among the stars, Theman who hasnt progressed is like thehouseholder who expects the key of hos old flat tofit his new homehe cant get in.

Information soon becomes obsolete in an agewhere improvement dismantles more machinerythan wear and tear--which incubates sky-scrapersover-monthwhich sets up a creed one week and

upsets it the nextwhich creates a hero yesterdayand changes his laurel wreath to a fools captomorrow.

No man is secure who feels a sense of security.Self-complacency is a frostit kills growth. Self-satisfaction is a rustit dulls brilliance. Theuniverse wants new way of doing old things andthe new ways become old over-night.

The twentieth century was born without a

memoryits so busy with todays achievementsand tomorrows projects that no one has time toremember yesterdays exploits.

The new era has cancelled the lie of vested right.Position and assured status can no longer beinherited. The millions have a t last overtaken thethousands. The sons of service are standingshoulder to shoulder with the sons of privilege.The barriers are downthis is the day of equal

chancewhen any man may have what he wills ifhe possess the strength to reach it.

Those whose fathers had but the right to usetheir hands may now employ their brains. Newview-points bred of centuries of peasants dreamsand forbidden ambitions are dominant.

An eager Americanism is measuring off centuriesin ten-year lengthscrowding days of energy intohour spaces. The older mankind grows the

younger its masters become. The modern pace iswearing upon humans as wheels are worn when


3/74

they race at reckless speed.

The narrow man cant survive. Broader chestsand broader foreheads are ready to replace him.The young man is challenging his ability. Unless

he constantly renews his vitality and reviews hisknowledgeunless he keeps posted and keepspacingunless he adds to his mental kit thenewer tools of thought and tradethe newersystems and the newer economicshe cannothope to compete in the after-building.

Just as the power-riveter replaces a score ofhammersjust so the new type of manthe virile,full-nerved, terrific, high-tension worker ispounding down the unfit.

There is no mercy for the weaklingthe battle-field of Caesars day was not more brutal. Humannature has not changedonly the weapons. TheRoman fought with steel for foldwe are fightingwith fold for steel.

The moment you become a foolish miser,gloating over your yesterdays, you are lost. Youmust keep absorbing new ideas as well as new air.

You must build your walls higher and thicker andconstantly. New men with new strength and newweapons of competition are marching onward inthe dawn to give you contestthey ask noquarterthey grant none.

THE DREAMERS

They are the architects of greatness. Their visionlies within their souls. They never see the miragesof Fact, but peer beyond the veils and mists ofdoubt and pierce the walls of unborn Time.

The World has accolade them with jeer and sneerand jibe, for worlds are made of little men whotake but never givewho share but never sparewho cheer a grudge and grudge a cheer.

Wherefore, the paths of progress have been sobsof blood dropped from their broken hearts.


4/74

Makers of empire, they have fought for biggerthings than crowns and higher seats than thrones.Fanfare and pageant and the right to rule or willto love are not the fires which wrought theirresolution into steel. Grief only streaks their hairs

with silver, but has never greyed their hopes.

They are the Argonauts, the seekers of thepriceless fleecethe Truth.

Through all the ages they have heard the voice ofDestiny call to them from the unknown vasts.They dare uncharted seas, for they are makers ofthe charts. With only cloth of courage at theirmasts and with no compass save their dreams,they sail away undaunted for the far, blind shores.

Their brains have wrought all human miracles. Inlace of stone their spires stab the Old Worldsskies and with their golden crosses kiss the sun.

The belted wheel, the trail of steel, the churningscrew, are shuttles in the loom on which theyweave their magic tapestries.

A flash out in the night leaps leagues of snarlingseas and cries to shore for help, which, but for

one mans dream, would never come.

Their tunnels plow the river bed and chain theislands to the Motherland.

Their wings of canvas beat the air and add thehighways of the eagle to the human paths.

A God-hewn voice swells from a disc of glue andwells out through a throat of brass, caught sweetand whole, to last beyond the maker of the song,

because a dreamer dreamt.

What would you have of fancy or of fact if handswere all with which men had to build?

Your homes are set upon the land a dreamerfound. The pictures on its walls are visions from a

dreamers soul. A dreamers pain wails from yourviolin.

They are the chosen fewthe Blazers of the

Waywho never wear Doubts bandage on theireyeswho starve and chill and hurt, but hold to


5/74

courage and to hope, because they know thatthere is always proof of truth for them who trythat only cowardice and lack of faith can keep theseeker from his chosen goal, but if his heart bestrong and if he dream enough and dream it hard

enough, he can attain, no matter where menfailed before.

Walls crumble and empires fall. The tidal wavesweeps from the sea and tears a fortress from itsrocks. The rotting nations drop from off Timesbough, and only things the dreamers make live on.

They are the Eternal Conquerorstheir vassalsare the years.

THE MAN WHO KNOWS IT ALL

His conceit is his defeathis constancy to himselfis a model of devotion for all lovers. He neitherwishes nor misses the regard of othershes acombination Darby and Joan.

He seeks his model in a mirrormeasureshimself by his own image and never falls short ofhis ideal. He is intolerable of the rest of theworldand to it.

He heeds what pleases him most and not whathelps him-he makes no friends because hedestroys the basis of friendshipthat franknesswhich warns a man of his errors before they havetime to grow into habits. He is insulted at thetruthhe has not learned and will not be taught

that sincerity is seldom flattering and that flatteryis never sincere.

His universe is a swelled head with the pronounI for an axis. His brain is stunted because he willnot let it expandhe denies it nutritionhe is nolonger in an absorptive moodhe considershimself beyond the point of learning and istherefore unfit to teach.

His ability lessens as his complacency growshissense of humor soon deserts him or he would


6/74

realize that he is long-eared instead of long-headed. He is a boor and a bore, constantlyinflicting his lopsided theories and advice upon hislisteners. Those who voluntarily remain within hiscircle are objectivethey have either found a use

for him or hope that he will find a use for them.

He builds life badly because he builds aloneinhis hour of opportunity he neglects to earn well-wishers and in his hour of distress his smirking,fawning intimates (upon whom he has burdenedhis offensive mannerisms) are first to add theirkicks to that of misfortune.

He carries his egotism into his business. If inearlier years he created a success, he insists thatall who follow after him must of necessity eitherbe followers or be fools. He does not know that heis wrong until he is wreckedhis conceit makeshim colorblind to all signals of danger. He sniffs athis competitors and permits them to expandwithout opposition until they can sniff at him.

He must fail because he does not keep hismental mechanism up-to-datehe must fail asinevitably as a hatter who persists in creating

styles which please himself, without regard to thewishes of his customers. He is like the recruit whodeclared himself the only man in the entireregiment keeping proper step.

You cant help him,because he cant hear youthere is no deafness so complete as that ofegotismno blindness so absolute as that ofthose who will not open their eyes.

He is a danger and a menace to any enterprise

a stubborn mule hitched with his head toward thedashboard.

One wagon wheel turning in reverse action forcesthe other three to strain doubly hardone suchman in a business can uselessly double the workof all his associates. He is always sure that he is inthe right, but he never takes into account howmuch his rights have a right to weigh for theright of way.

The sooner he is eliminated the better for allconcernedhe is a solitaire player and doesnt


7/74

belong in a game with partners.

He is neither curable nor endurable. Hes a cheapriddance at any priceeven at his own idea of hisvalue.

THAT FOOL

If you hope to improve the world, first look to bereproved. Man is suspicious of his benefactors.Jenner was fought and cursed for fighting thesmall-pox curse. The universe does not drop itsbeliefsthey must be knocked down by proof. Themere possession of knowledge is nothingit istotally useless until it is used.

You cant plant a new crop in an old field untilyou clear away the stubble. The birth of an ideausually means the death of an ideal.

Columbus was sure that the world was a giant

apple and not a geological pan-cake, but he hadto produce a western hemisphere before the

fifteenth century believed in an eastern one.

Your father had the chance to buy a share of theoriginal telephone stock, but because he was anaverage man and therefore narrow and suspiciousof all that he did not understand, he congratulatedhimself upon his common sense and invested themoney in cigars.

Your ancestors broiled a few thousand gentlemenfor insulating their vanityfor the terrible crime of

thinking differently.

Those who yearn to wear the laurel wreath must

learn to bear the fools cap. The differencebetween a jack-ass and genius isnt so much amatter of ears as of years.

Great ambitions must be backed by great control,great denial and great determination. They whounderstand most are sometimes least understood.

Just one man in a hundred can see beyond hisnosethe short-sighted people are in the


8/74

majorityand the majority rules. Only imaginationcan visualize what is to bemost people have noimagination, therefore they doubt and ridiculewhat they do not comprehend. To them the oak isnever apparent in the acorn.

That fool rang in the ears of every That Foolcrusader of progress. Most illustrious men dividetheir careers into three chapters:

Chapter OneThe time when they jeered me.

Chapter TwoThe time when they cheered me.

Chapter ThreeThe time when they feared me.

Fortune disdains mere abilitybrain is nothingwithout bravery. The man who can be thrashed bya sneer has retreated before he is defeated. Halfthe new town-halls are gifts from blamed foolswho left home because they couldnt get a sixty-horse-power opportunity in a one-horse village.Marshall Field was dismissed for incompetency bya brilliant cross-roads merchant prince.

Success is only for those who are willing to standby their standardswho are ready to endure the

siege of misjudgmentwho are prepared to facethe fire of criticism and to accept defeat until theybecome vaccinated against it. Most men who gaveup would have arrived if they had kept up.

Nothing can be accomplished by a cowardeverything is possible to the courageous. The

realm of You Cant is dwindling every yearitscoast-line is being eaten away by each successivesurge of advancement. The greatest works ofhumanity are still incubating in the womb of time.

They will be achieved by the fools who wont liedown until theyve downed some lie.

THE FAILURE

When the bookkeeper reaches the office he findshim puzzling through the mail and scheming out


9/74

his coming nine hours of routine. He hasnt had amonths vacation since he slipped in harness. Hetakes a scant half hour for luncheoneven at fiftyyears of age he hasnt earned the right to aleisurely midday cigar. His daily path runs in a

straight line from his desk to his bed.

Hes a slave, shackled to the most worthlessambition that ever dulled a soul.

The pacethe monotonous, unvaryingschedulethe grinding, binding, blinding self-drivethe steady trudging onward under the lashof his own will, have so worn him and torn himthat his nerves are peeping through theirthreadbare coatsby day, spoiling his temper andhis digestion; by night, squirming and twisting athis peace as he begs them for the relaxation ofcalm sleep.

Life has cheated him by teaching him to cheathimself. The fruits of success have never beensweet upon his lipshe has only tasted the bitterrind.

His mind is channeled and all his thoughts run in

one deep grovethe same sorts of thoughts inthe same groove. The only book he knows is hisledger. He has never permitted Ruskin to carryhim along the canals of Venice and re-weave thetapestry of the Renaissance. Nor under the magicspell of Idylls of the King has he seated himselfin the lists of chivalry where Sir Lancelot wouldgladly joust for his pleasure.

Michelangelo and Titian have wrought in theirfine frenzy of genius, but his eyes have never

known the glories of their master craft. The Alpshave poked their frosted old noses into thecloudsLugano has purled and sobbed againsther rocksthe sun has painted purple the whitewalls of Tangier every day since he possessed thekey to his liberty, but the chains have neverdropped from his ankles long enough for him topaint their majesty upon the canvas of hismemory.

He is the most abject failure that ever succeededin life.


10/74

And yet you have envied him and wished tostand in his stead. You have paused before hismarble cell and cursed the fortune which deniedyou the right to have what he possessedhisworthless hoard of unspent and unspendable

money.

He can buy a thousand shares of Steel as readilyas you can purchase a crimson cravathe canown the site of a city as easily as you can take tileto your allotted six foot of peace-earth. But with

all of his wealth he cant buy what you possessyouth, and the opportunity to turn existence intolife.

Fate is old and wise and cunningand cruel.Every time she thinks of him she grins. Every timeshe winks at him she winks. She has made himoverpay. She has sold at the price of gold andloaded him down with riches which at hispossession have changed from preciousness intouselessness.

Now its too late. Hes too old to know. All themystery and the charm and the marvel of thingsall the poetry and beauty and wonder of his days

are gone. He ran by them too fast to readonlythe last chapters are before himhe cant turnback the pages of Life. For thirty years he plannedtomorrowthe only thing in the world thatnever arrives. At twenty he could have found joy,at thirty enjoyment, at forty amusement, but atfifty he cant play.

He has deadened every sense except that ofacquisition, and wealth unused is merely poverty.

The next time you pass his home, think it overthe laugh is on himyoure the rich man.

DONT STOP AT THE START

Get away from the big mob of little men and comeon up. Nobody has yet managed to fill out the


11/74

space between here and the stars.

Theres nothing but room overhead. Competitionis intense only down below. The hardest struggleis the beginning. The outset of life is the biggest

trial. The start takes more time than the race.

If youre sure that nothing will stop younothingcan stop you. So long as the spirit of fight is inyou, youre like a throbbing motoras soon asyou can get belted to opportunity youre sure todrive things.

Everything unusual had to be waited for. Theman who built the Washington monument simplypiled his stone higher than anyone elsehe

merely kept his head clear and his work straight.What is crooked falls. A straight line is always theshortest. If you doubt it, try to recall anybody whoever got anything or anywhere in any other way.Roundabout short cuts simply make you turn backand start anew.

Being honest is the greater part of achievement.

When you know that youre doing the best withinyou, you cant be downed. Self-respect is an

eternal life preserverno matter how oftencircumstance wreck you, youre bound to floatback to solid ground again.

Success cant be inheritedif youve been

handed power of wealth and cant reproduce it ofyour own accord, youre worse off than the manwho had to build both for himself. He can repeathis fortune because he has the tools of experiencewith which to re-create.

All really big man carved their way with their ownmuscles and their own brains and their owndetermination. Mansions and palaces dontincubate producers.

The masters of the world moulded their owndestiniesthey grew great, step by step and yearby year. They stayed great because each inch oftheir progress was a contest with somebody else,until they had defeated by sheer ability, everyopponent.

Timber can only be seasoned out in the open


12/74

where the bad weather can get to work on ititrots under a shed.

The need and hunger and want of thingsseasoned three poor, ignorant boys into Lincoln,

Field and Edison. They became enduring throughthe opposition of men who already had what theywantedthey became forceful by trying and tryinguntil the last trial was met.

We dont want to help you because assistancedoesnt aid. Props merely show inability to standalone.

Were kindest to you when we make you provewhen we force you to get past handicaps. Jumpers

are developed by setting hurdles.

We cant know that youre true-blue until youhave stood some of the rains of life and realize

that your colors dont run.

When we assist you least, we befriend youmostwere teaching you self-development. Itskinder to kick you than to coddle you, because itgives you a chance to kick back and every timeyour kicking is harder, you gain additional belief in

your own power.

Dont stop because the start tires youyoullsoon get used to the strain. The cavalry recruitmust stick in the saddle and ride until he doesntmind the jolting. The oarsman must keep rowinguntil his blisters grow into callouses.

Keeping on is the whole trick. The pace issecondaryit will develop as you progress. Speedwithout lasting-power is wasted.

It wasnt the fastest beginner that won theOlympian Marathon. Legs didnt produce thevictor-but grit. It was the man whose courage

didnt wobble when his knees didwhose tenacitykept him going and held his chest back and hishead high.

It was the spirit of I Will that drove him to theendnothing else really counted.


13/74

THERES JUST ONE EASY ROAD

The man who lies down and the man who lies upand down eventually stay downthe one wontdeliver whats expected of himthe other cant.They both want to buy success at illegal ratestheyre taking too much discount. Theres just oneeasy roadthe hard, straight way. The little off-cutsthe smooth, twisting side paths, only seemsafe, theyre not meant to be walked on.

Ever since human folk began to reason, a certain

percentage of misguided idiots have tried to getahead by cutting over the quicksands.Occasionally some unusual man (who would havedone twice as well if hed done one-half as many)realizes fifty percent on his ability-investment bygetting away with more than the law allows, buteven when he does hold it, he lets go ofsomething worth morehe overpaysthe loseshis self-respect.

The card sharper cant expect to retain both the

cash and confidence of the community. The cheatcan buy a few minor luxuries, but he must foregothe real necessities of life. There are many thingswe never list as assets and only weigh when

theyve gone awaywhich we only appreciatewhen theyre out of reach. Money wont purchasemore than food and clothes and excitementpeace, security and happiness arent marketed asyet, in the shops.

Lifes just a matter of farmingof finding fertilesoil in a food fieldof breaking ground and beingpatient. The harvesting comes lastthe mainwork must be done while the least results areshowing.

Many a man has lost out just because he wasntpatient enough to wait until well planted endeavorhad time to sprout. Thousands of careers havehabits werent weeded out of a strong nature.

Its far better to endure a little deprivation duringyouth than much privation in old age. Springtime


14/74

is the sowing seasonyou cant replant in winter.What goes into the past comes out of the future.Carelessness wont ripen into success. Lazinesswont fructify into ease. Trickery wont breedeminence.

Millionaires are un-made, not created at thegaming table. Every Wall Street fortune is builtout of a thousand Wall Street misfortunes. Most ofthe men who buy silver-plated harness today worework-plated harness for a great many yesterdays.

Science has accomplished a lot of new thingswith water-power and air-power but hasntimproved on man-power. Nothing so far, in thehistory of humanity, has been discovered as anacceptable substitute for honest, steady labor.

Old Cyrus Simmons built a sizeable town beforehe stopped building wagons. He planned a greatmany stylish rigs in his day and some rulestherules hadnt much style to em, but they were assolid as his wheelsthey didnt wobble. Whenevera candidate for future partinership stopped at thecashiers window for his first weeks pay-envelope,in addition to his wages he found a little red card

of rules. Cyrus didnt copyright the rule, so youllget a chance to profit by them, too.

Rule I.Dont lieit wastes my time and yours.Im sure to catch you in the end and thats thewrong end.

Rule II.Watch your work, not the clock. A longdays work makes a long day short and a daysshort work makes my face long.

Rule III.Give me more than I expect and Illpay you more than you expect. I can afford toincrease your pay if you increase my profits.

Rule IVYou owe so much to yourself that youcant afford to owe anybody else. Keep out of debtor keep out of my shops.

Rule V.Dishonesty is never an accident. Good

men, like good women, cant see temptation whenthey meet it.

Rule VI.Mind your own business and in time


15/74

youll have a business of your own to mind.

Rule VII.Dont do anything here which hurtsyour self-respect. The employee who is willing tosteal for me is capable of stealing from me.

Rule VII.Its none of my business what you doat night, BUT if dissipation affects what you donext day and you do half as much as I demand,youll last half as long as you hoped.

Rule VIII.Dont kick if I kickif youre worth

while correcting, youre worth while keeping. Idont waste time cutting specks out of rottenapples.

THE SNOB

The Snob always unmasks himself. His settingcant possibly alter his paste nature. Hes animitation. Education may cut him into the properform and give him a false polish, but what hesmade of isnt changed by the process. Real culturecomes from within.

His own emphasis raises the question of hisgenuineness. His loudness doesnt convince; itonly convicts. He doesnt set himself in a higherclasshe only reminds people that he has just lefta lower one.

Life is filled with elevations, upon which men

have been set by forces quite beyond their owncontrol. It may be that a post of eminence permitsyou to look down on othersbut that doesntsignify that they belong below you or that yourefit to be looked up toperhaps its the thing onwhich you stand at which folks are gazing. Youmay be an insignificant ornament on a pedestalfar disproportionate to your size.

If you have inherited something withoutinheriting the qualities which produced it, you

deserve no especial notice. Folks who profit byaccident usually show it in their attitude toward


16/74

those whom they esteem their inferiorstheymake the great mistake of thinking that a bighead rather than a big heart is the sign of a bigman. Greatness cant lose any part of itself bysimplicitythats the stuff its made of.

A gentleman is nothing more than a gentle man.No amount of green in your pocket can put a dropof blue in you veinsmoney cant make youattractiveit can merely attract people who wantyour money and not you. There are so manymean ways of getting rich and so manyobjectionable individuals are wealthy, that a lank

balance alone wont balance your lack of cultureor refinement.

College may teach you formcontact may rubsome things away; but breeding, like acomplexion, is more than a surfaceunless itsreal, it only makes one wonder whats reallyunderneath. When it is assumed, its bound towear off from time to time.

Men and women who are born to position show itby not showing it offthey arent conscious ofbeing different except when coarseness forces

them to realize that they are of another ilk. Theyonly know that they are above the averagethrough contact with someone below it. They areworn with their status and incomes just as theycome into the world with their limbs. They nomore exult over their goods or lineage than youthank Providence for two arms instead of onethesole time you realize that you are better off thanyou might be, is when you meet with a cripple.

Only pushers advertise their competency, and bythe irony of Fate, having attained any sort ofstanding, they immediately lose it through adisplay of satisfaction which brands them asstrangers in the fold.

When Lord Southcliff received word from aformer valet that he had been plunged intosudden grief and millions through the death of anAustralian uncle, he undertook to offer him a fewwords of advice:

Do not think that you can spend your way into


17/74

better circleshouses with admittance prices arenot homes, but business shops. Where money is alatchkey, insincerity is always host.

Those who do not welcome you for what you are,

simply tolerate you for what you have.

Refuse any attentions which you are notprivileged to return and any hospitality which youwill not be permitted to reciprocate.

Make no pretense and you will not be met with

pretense.

Exhibit the same reserve which characterizedyou as a good servant and the world will quickly

forget that you ever were one.

JOHNNY AND OTHER LOOSE SCREWS

Watch the little screws and the big wheels willtake care of themselves. It isnt the broken shaftthat cripples the most machinery and shuts downthe works; its the little nut on the little bolt thatworks loose and throws all the rest of themechanism into a jumble; its the little men in thelittle poststhe minor employeesthe office boysand the pretty clerkswho tangle up the greatsystems.

For instance, theres Johnny. Last week youdictated a four-page letter covering every detail ofyour deal with X; for days you were inconsultation with your attorneys and your

managers; you canceled your bridge game at theclub Friday night to carefully review all thedocuments in the matter; you verified everystatement and you remained down town and hourlonger than usual in order to be sure that thestenographer corrected the mistakes in yourdictation; then you handed the letter to Johnny topost. And Johnny lost it or took it home with him,intending to drop it in the box at his own corner,but forgot, and kept on forgetting until an angry

letter, protesting against your slipshod methods,gave you the first intimation that there was a


18/74

muss-up. Another screw loose.

Or theres Andrews, the billing clerk, who tries toupset the laws of nature and demonstrate thatone brain can properly consider two subjects at

the same time; if Andrews were that gifted hewouldnt be drawing fifteen per in your accountingdepartment; the world of vast affairs would becoveting him. Andrews thinks that he can discussthe baseball prospects while he makes out hisstatements. And so Blank Brothers (whoseaccount you have managed to land after threeyears of effort) wrote in on Tuesday criticizing the

methods of a concern which didnt know when itsdiscounts had been taken, and informed you that,

in future, they would place their orders with a firmpossessing more gumption than to send a dun toa customer whose account was up-to-date.Andrews is a fearfully expensive luxury at hissalary.

If there is a pink slip in either of their envelopesnext Saturday, chances are therell be two more toswell the snarl that a fellow hasnt a chancenowadays.

Poor Johnny and poor Andrewsyoull neverunderstand; youll go stumbling and fumblingthrough life neglecting your opportunities as theyarise, never realizing that success is measured bymans daily recordthat a ladder of well donelittle things leads to the big posts up top.

The start is all that counts; the thread of destinyis wound upon such a fat spool that no one manever had the time within the span of one life toget to its end. But you break the thread at theoutset. You lack steadiness; you dont learn yourcorrelation with the rest of the works. You cantgrasp the scheme of growththat success beginsas a bud and that the ripened fruit of fortune willnever be yours if you kill the blossom of chanceby the early frost of neglect.

You are being weighed and measured every hour;you are under a constant test, a test by which youcan prove yourself. Carelessness is the only thing

which can be always regulated by your ownactions, and carelessness is the one thing that will


19/74

not be forgiven. Anything else can be explained;errors of judgment are but human (even Napoleonmade them), but laziness, indifference,disobedience to ordersthese deserve no mercyand receive none.

A ten-year-old boy saved all Holland from re-becoming a part of the sea; he found one littlehole in the dyke which protected the Netherlandsfrom the ocean; he stuck his finger in the holeand saved the centuries of work which hadrendered safe his country.

There are holes in every business dyke, littleleaks through which failure can work its way andsweep down that effort and honesty and purposehave achieved. It is you who make the holes; you,Johnny, and you, Andrews.

Paste this on your walls of memory.

IMPOSSIBILITIES ARE THE FAILURES OF LAZYMEN

Impossibilities are merely the half-hearted efforts

of quitters. The man who wont go through to thefinish has finished at the start. If he hasnt pluckenough to hang on, he must hang back. We cantafford to regulate the pace of progress toaccommodate the laggard.

The lazy man has always failed in every spot andin everything. Hes a weed in the way of aproducer. He absorbs more than he earns. Hechecks the growth of well-planted endeavor.

Hes a sterile seed. The winds of fortune maydrift him successively to a dozen rich soils, but nomatter where he lands, hes useless.

Even when he does meet opportunity he doesnt

know it. He cant tell the difference between goodluck and a case of measles.


20/74

The steady, ready worker never complains. Hestoo busy trying to better his condition. When aman is doing his level best he always finds life onthe level.

When you meet a howler who blames hisenvironment, his generation, his fellows, hiscountry, you find a man who has failed in himself.Not geography nor time nor time nor environmentcan hold down a fighter.

The right type of man will start a grove of figtrees in a desert.

Failure isnt a disease of localityits a personalhabit.

Anybody can get a steady living out of steadyeffort. The same clock that ticks off twenty-fourhours for one man cant cheat his neighbor. Thesame laws of right and wrong, the same privilegeto do and dare, are open to both.

All through the continent, old counties arechanging their aspects. The stockbreeder whowasted fourteen acres of prairie upon one steermust hand over that land to a newcomer who can

make it support fourteen humans and the steer.

Prairie sections which once went begging forbuyers at a dollar an acre are now bearing enoughcotton and cane and truck and fruit to raise theirvalue a hundredfold.

The same soil was there all the while. It wasalways worth a hundred times as much as itsselling price, but not to the owner who wouldntfind it out.

The man who looks hard enough will find enoughto repay him. Only the worker lasts. Carelessnessand indifference and neglect are not timbers forthe builder.

There are no free passes over the modern read.Fortune has an interstate commerce law of herownshe wont deadhead anyone.

Everybody who ever did anything, anywhere, hadto find the grindstone and run himself against it


21/74

until he developed an edge that would cutsomething.

Half of greatness is grit. When intelligence isbacked up by the determination not to back down,

the only thing under the sun that is impossible issomething that cant be imagine

THE MAN WHO IS A GENTLEMAN

He remembers his own mother and is thereforeconsiderate in thought and deed of all her sex. Heneither degrades them by act nor by word. He willnot utter a lie about a woman, but if need ariseand he may thereby spare her hurt, he will gladlylie in her cause.

He indulges in no excesses. He is master of hisappetites, and does not lose control of hispassions, his judgment or his voice.

He estimates no man except through his ownexperience, and then he forbears to pass

judgment until he is certain of his knowledge.

He does not spread scandal, nor does he permit


22/74

it within his hearing.

What does not affect himself he remembers toforget.

He does no wrong but what he immediatelyseeks to right it, and with his own hands.

He is as eager to apologize as he is loath tooffend and is always anxious to acknowledge anerror.

He does not mistake works for deeds; thereforehis politeness is more than a polish.

His given word is his pledged bond, and the badfaith of another never justifies its default anymore than the theft of his own property by aneighbor would lead him to retaliate in kind.

He obtrudes neither his religion nor his politics,recognizing the right of every man to his sincerebeliefs. He is never an objective critic, and whenhe passes criticism he does so with a fullappreciation of its favorable as well as itsderogatory function.

He bestows charity with a smile, and then seeksto erase the sense of obligation in those whom heassists.

He advertises neither his good works nor hisattainments.

He is gracious to all of lowly station or ofadvanced years, and never flaunts his betterfortune before his inferiors.

He makes ostentation neither of his possessionsnor his culture, realizing that his opportunitiesmay have given him advantages which lessfavorable surroundings might not have produced.

He discusses his grievances with no one, notwishing to inflict his essentially personal worriesupon his fellows.

He is cleanly of habit and of tongue, and prefersto find the world as himself.

He trades neither upon his name nor his birth,


23/74

nor does he traffic in the power or influence of hisfriends.

He does not prostitute his honor to businessprofit, nor does he request his woman folk to

sacrifice their personal inclinations in the cause ofhis advancement.

He asks no man to perform any service which hecould not and would not perform without smirchto his own self-respect.

He regards wealth as a pleasant possession, butone which does not justify the cancellation of asingle attribute of honor.

There are countless things which he will not dofor the sake of money, because he knows how fewreal things money can do in return.

Above all else, he is a gentle man.

DONT WATER THE WEEDS OF SORROW

Dont water the weeds of sorrow. They thrive onyour tears. Dry up, and they will. Root them out ofthe garden of Memory and give Hope a chance togrow in their place. Yesterday is utterly overwithTime is the only thing in this life which canbe completely destroyed. The dead days alwaysbury the past with them. They are back of youyou have journeyed over that stage of the read.

Dont retrace your stepsgo forward to happiness.What can you possibly gain for yourself or for

anyone else, by coaxing and fondling pain? Noman returns his hand to the fire that burned ithe isnt fool enough to think that he can ease thehurt by thrusting it again into the flame. Ifmemory hurts you, dont return your soul totorture. Control yourselffind diversionworkharder.

Dont encourage expressions of sympathy anymore than you would ask folks to jab their fingers


24/74

into a physical bruise.

Dont grow morbidget out into the world. Thenew days are waiting for youcalling to youtheyare breaking in the East of life, and in their span

there are songs as mellow and golden and joys asgreat as those of any Yesterday.

But you will not see or hear them if youconstantly blind yourself with the images ofbitterness and deafen yourself with sobs.

Dont allow your gloom to befog the sunshine ofothers. Dont be selfish.

When you remember things which cannot be

helped and forget the help which you owe toothers, you dont lighten your own burdens oneiota, but on the other hand you multiply them anduselessly force their load upon innocent shoulders.

They who bring cheer with them find cheertheywho come with peace obtain peace.

Woes and wounds are alikethey must be closedbefore they can be healed.

You must learn the Great Lesson. For thousandspiled on thousands of years, men and womenhave undergone all that you have sufferedtheyhave met with everything that you have facedthey have prized as dearly as you have prizedand lost as utterly as you have lost. They havebeen forced to find their courage just as you mustfind yours.

Its tucked away somewhere in a corner of yourbeing waiting for you to take hold of it. All that it

needs is a bit of exercise. It a mere muscle of thesoulit grows stronger every time that you workit. It tightens up all your sagging natureit takesthe warp out of your resolutionit tautens yourenergyit sets your brain working and as itbecomes active your mind will cast off its malaria.

You are still full of strength, but you must callupon it. Happiness is worth fighting forthecontest lies solely with yourself. Begin now to

grapple with your will.


25/74

Go to the window and lift the shadelook outand upthe sun is there eager to come to you.

THE MEN WITH THE FIXED IDEA

Make your chart before you startchoose yourdestination before you buy your ticket. Dont waituntil you reach the end of your journey and thendecide where youre going. Many a man has driedup in a little way-side opportunity, merely becausehe lacked the courage to acknowledge to himselfthat his judgment had landed him in the wrongspot.

You cant tell what youre best fitted to do untilyouve fought for a few things fit for the fighting.Now and then, rifles accidentally hit bulls-eyes,but remember that every championship record isthe result of lots of practice and a good, steadyaim.

C. Columbus did finally stumble onto Americaafter much aimless wandering, but dont forgetthat a great many of his predecessors went downin the Atlantic gales because they set sail withouta definite port before them.

The builder who hasnt decided how high he willrun his walls before he digs this foundations,takes too much of a chancehes apt to make hisfoundations entirely too weak to support theafterwork.

Know what you are after before you start out forit. The pig in the poke system is dangerousthepig is apt to bite your hand just as often as yourhad is likely to grab the pig.

Dont rely on accident to start youaccident

doesnt run on schedule and hasnt a habit ofhappening in the same spot twice. The Fixed Ideais the motive power that has driven most men toattainmentmore plodders than geniuses havereached eminence. The sail-boat without a keel


26/74


27/74

puts every man down to a basis of zero and onlyacknowledges that hes above it when his gaugemoves up to the mark that his own confidence hasset and his own ability attained.

THE MAN YOU MUSTNT TRUST

He extends the glad hand and tries to pass itoff as the helping hand. Hes too pleasing to provea pleasant acquaintance. Like a chameleon, hechanges his personality in harmony with hissurroundings. He has no ideals, no ambitions andno principles, but what hes willing to alter for thesake of self-interest. He wears his convictions asother men wear their collars and changes them

just about as often.

He tries to be everybodys friend and winds up by

being nobodys. Necessarily hes an out and outhypocrite. What he really thinks or wants he nevertellshe plans every speech and only says such

things as he feels you wish to hear.

He is absolutely untrustworthy. He is unwilling tomake enemies and thereby proves himself aweaklingstrong men are known by theirquarrelsby their intolerance of unprincipledactions and unworthy ideals.

He must be partly a sneak, a great deal of a liarand somewhat dishonest, because men differ sowidely in their standards, that to make himself

agreeable at all times to all persons, he mustsympathize with many things and actions which aman of individuality is forced to resent.

His friendship is not practicalis not rigged forstormy seasits a sort of stage affair intendedonly for show.

Hes a human kaleidoscope whom everyone seesdifferently, and since no two men ever get exactlythe same view of him, the great opportunities oflife never come his way. Nobody can tell which of


28/74

them is really he. When men strive for posts oftrust, they must be somewhat post-likethemselves and stand steady.

So you see, after all, he deceives no one so sadly

as himself. He takes so many chances with humannature that he fails to get his own chance. Heagrees with both parties in disagreementsencourages opposite sentiments in discussionshes a chronic Colossus of Rhodes, attemption tobe on both sides at the same time, and, inasmuchas deceit is sure to be discovered, he loses bothfootholds and falls between.

He is always a flatterer. His speech is a verbalanesthetic with which he seeks to put menscommon sense to sleep while he operates upontheir sane judgment.

His advice is worthless, because he thinks withhis tongue and not with his heart. He has no aimexcept his own, but he fails eventually, becausehe cannot be forceful. The power to inspire beliefcan only spring from sincerity. No hypocrite everbecame and remained a leader.

Oh, it doesnt pay to be everybodys frienditstoo impossible, Try something easier, such asupsetting the laws of nature, by squaring a circleor by growing wheat on the ocean or making twoand two total eleven.

Only a certain number of humans were evermeant to coincide in temperament. The friction ofmen in action is the energy that sends the worldspinning. Disagreements are like flint and steel,they strike the new sparks. Contrary opinions flail

the chaff out of ideas.

Old Jed Judson used to say. I like a man whofights me. He teaches me and helps me. If hesstrong enough to bang the everlasting tar out ofmy hide, I get a chance to find out where I was

weaker than I thought. If I can put him down, Imdoubly sure of myself. These here fellows all the

tie handing you boxes of word candy dont go withmen. I dont take no stock in over-sociable folk.

They remind me of hunters calling as pleasantlyas possible to a female turkey, for purposes


29/74

different from what the blamed fool fowl thinks.

TO THE COLLEGE GRADUATE

You have heard the salutatories and thevaledictoriesthe gorgeous gushes of Dr. This andthe Hon. That have jiggled along your vertebrae.Upon the wings of their fancy you have soaredinto the empyrean, proud in the consciousnessthat you are of the worlds electa rose instead ofa thorn, a mental satrap among the unletteredhelots.

Panoplied in academic burganet, cuirass, and

jamb, you stand in your armor of eruditionvaliantly grasping the lance of knowledge, whileyou strain to hear the fanfare calling you to thelists whither Minerva has summoned you as hertrue defender and pledged knight, and

Why, bless me, theres the alarm clock! Its half-past get-down-to hardpan. Where is the wantpage? Hm!quite a lack of five thousand-dollarposts suffering from loneliness, and those jobswhich are yearning for occupancy all seem to lay

stress on such an unimportant thing as Experience.Ridiculous, aint it, in this, the twentieth century?What shortsighted manufacturers, what ignorantmerchants, what foolish corporations! Not evenspecifying that the first requisite of the applicantshall be a college degree!

Why, if they only knew your grasp of Chauvenet,the facility with which you parse the intricacies ofThucydides, the grace that characterizes your

scansion of the Epodes of Horace, and yourcomprehension of Locke and Spinoza, thepostman on your block would have to carry anextra sack of mail from the hundreds oforganizations wearing long-distance glasses,searching for oases such as yourself!

But since all these gentlemen of trade andindustry are nor brothers to Asmodeus, and theirvision cannot pierce the walls of your bedroomwhere hangs the sonorously worded diploma that

glorifies your name, it is quite probable that youwill be forced to go ahead like perfectly ordinary


30/74

young men, andget there by going some, Andby the way, it may be just as well if you dont laytoo much stress on Spinoza to appreciate theadvantages of men who just KNOW things. Itunderstands only men who KNOW and DO.

The most that you can hope for is considerationas a piece of superior mentala pig of iron thathas passed through the process of refining. Yourdegree is just the foundry mark. As you stand,your brain is practically useless; it has beenpressed into a standard mold of thought, and isexactly like that of ten thousand other young menwho read the same textbooks and listened to thesame lectures and were dominated by the same

theories.

You possess absolutely no value either tocommerce or to art, except that of unwroughtmaterial. Your future depends upon your plasticityand tensilityYour ability to conform withconditions as you meet with them, to cope withemergencies as they meet with you, and thestamina with which you will stand the strain ofaction.

You cannot become a ruler through just knowingrules; you must fit principles to somethingpractical before Success even begins to flick aneye in your direction.

If you have simply absorbed and cannot radiate,you wont get half so far as Smith on the nextblock, who jumped school at twelve with threeideas in his head and the power to get them over.

Of course, we know that you have committed to

mind all the memorable dates of history; but thequestion is whether you will be able to make adate memorable for history.

You may be familiar with the orations of Cicero;but have you drawn into your soul and your bloodthe principles that lay back of them?

You are not unusual; in fact, a merchant wouldmark you standard size and label you regular.

You have been nurtured upon the predigestedthought, upon ideas and ideals that have been


31/74

funneled into your braintheories that other mendug from fac.

You have merely been a listener, a humansponge, absorbing the experiences of others.

The world cannot find you very useful in yourpresent form; you must be milled.

You are wheat in the huskyour brain is over-coated with a chaff which must first be eliminatedand differentiated by good, hard whacks ofcommon sense. Life and living must flail you untilyour available wisdom is sequestrated from thatwhich is valueless to us.

You must pass through a process of subtractionbefore you will be considered an addition to anyorganization.

You have been busily engaged in learning things;now you must start in to unlearn some of them.You must create; up to now you have onlysecreted.

Your diploma is just a phonograph trademarkitsimply tells us what has been pressed into your

mind; but it does not say what you will do whenyou attempt to make an independent record.

You have no individualityit has had no arena inwhich it could find expression.

A singer cannot enter grand opera on thestrength of his training, but merely on thestrength of his voice. No one cares a tinkers damwhat method he followed, if results have notfollowed the method.

It is assumed that you will be impetuous andcrusade against precedent; that you will jump atconclusions and attempt to upset procedures thatpractice has found sound.

The business world anticipates the necessity oftoning you down. You will pass through months offalse humiliation and hurt; your pride will quiverand pain, and your self-esteem will be black andblue with bruises; but after the foundry markshave been filed off of you, and you have learned


32/74

some of the lessons of lifeafter you understandhow to measure men, not for what they know, butfor what they do; not for what they assume, butfor what they accomplishafter you have realizedthat your college training is merely a course of

mental calisthenics to develop clear thinking,logical reasoning, and nothing elseafter youhave been set down at the bottom and haveforced your way upthen you will begin to be ofsome value to yourself and the world.

WATCH OUT FOR THE MAN BEHIND

Today is yours, but tomorrow belongs to The ManBehind. Hes back there pushing and strugglingand fighting onhes gritting his teeth andkeeping in action, so hes in better shape thanyouthe exercise of effort is keeping him alertthinning down his limbspasting his musclestighter to the bonetwisting gristle into themeatLook out for him!

You havent worked at full vigor of late. Theresan overcoat of fat growing around your intellectif he ever gets up to you and it comes down to astern, hard contestyou wont last. Activitydoesnt tireit hardensgives resisting powerdevelops the windteaches one to stay many aman in your office carrying the undeveloped seedof achievement in his make-up. Hes fertilizing itwith his ambition and some day results are going

to grow out of itSee to it that you get theharvest.

The time may come when youll need loyalty asbadly as the Texas bad-man needed his Colt. Heleft it at home on the piano, but the sheriffcouldnt afford to overlook the chance of gettinghim at a disadvantage.

Your competitors are always watching andwaitingtheyre seeking an opportunity to get in.

You may have to rely for survival upon the fidelityof the man behind. You wont get it if you havent


33/74

earned it. There are two sides to every questionand like the flap-jack, the bottom gets on top inthe turn-over. Your staff only owes you that whichyou have bought. If youve taken advantage ofcircumstances in his hour of weakness, depend

upon it, when somebody else offers him moremoney, no man in your employ will stickhe isntin your debt by one throb of consideration. Lack ofappreciation is the incubator which has hatchedthousands of employees into employers. Injusticehas driven into independence half the successfulmen in America.

Forests die out unless there is a constant growthof saplingsthey can only be perpetuated by the

seeds which drop from the trees that have alreadygrown up. Dont forget that your young men areseedthat they are your insurance against thefuturethat you must look to them for the timberof tomorrow. Take care of them. You may notneed them now, but as the years pass and yourown powers fail, and you can no longer stand thegaff as today, the skill and knowledge andconfidence which you breed into thosesurrounding you now, will protect your past efforts

and warrant the continuance of prosperity for yourfamily.

Hold on to your sound boystheyre worth moreto you than anyone else, because they are morevaluable to every other employer than you. Whenthey go away they are like bees, covered withfructifying pollenthey fly off with the ability theygained from you, and use it against you. Whenthey enter another office, they handicap you bytheir withdrawal and strengthen your rivals with

their knowledge of your secrets. When you replacethem, you must pay as much for their successors,break them in and afterwards give battle to thevery strength that you allowd to desert your flag.

Carnegie is giving away libraries because he wasshrewd enough to make every potentialantagonist a partner. He drove his bargains whentheir strength was not at its fullest pitch, and heput them under the yoke of mutual interest while

their brains were freshest and could tone up hisstaling view-pointhe made his own percentage


34/74

smaller, but he magnified his total profits sotremendously that a part of twenty mensearnings far exceeded what his lone efforts wouldhave brought, had he tried to hog it all.

A small interest at an early enough momentcreates a lifetime allyit buys you a mans play-time and night-time thoughts, all his plans andambitions. It creates a burden-sharer who will liftcares, the shifting of which is worth far more thanthe cost. It gives you a sense of operator, wholives in the constant dread that he will be hardestpressed when he is least efficient.

THE TATTLER

The main difference between a tattler and arattler is that the snake gives the other fellow a

show and the sneak wont. In other respectstheyre pretty much alike, barring the smallmatter of an e.

The man who wont stand in the open and makehis accusations where they can be defended,proves that he not only lacks courage, but alsothe courage of his convictions. Hes a cowardhiswork is always signedhis mark is the stab inthe back.

Sincerity never bred a tale-bearer. Real men playthe game of life with unmarked cardthe tattler,like every other cur, discloses his breed by the

manner in which he carries his tale.

He sometimes deceives himself with the thoughtthat he is doing good, but it is not in his nature tobe disinterested; the personal element constantlyenters into his motiveshis tongues is poisonedwith the venom of envyhes jaundicedhisspleen is full of jealousyhe cant digest thethought of anybody elses success or superiority.

Unable to climb as high as he aspires, heattempts to pull down the ladders of ability upon


35/74

which better men are mounting. But the assassinof reputations must in the end bear thepunishment which the world has always inflictedupon slimy, crawling thinsits utter disgust.Justice, although blindfolded slips the bandage

from her eyes, when her sensitive hand feels acheating finger trying to weigh down the scalesthe average run of humanity will not convict uponone-sided evidence.

Ever since little Bobbie was caught emptying the jam pot and smearing the pups nose in the jar,folks have realized how deceptive appearancescan be made.

The mud-thrower stains himself with the mirewhich is his weapon he smirches his own handswhenever he delves into slander.

Spies have never been popular. They who fight inthe dark do not shine in the light. The scavengerbelongs to the lowest collectors of the unpleasant,are de trop in decent circles.

Even a thief is one step higher than an informer,and refuses to lower himself to the infamy of

betrayal.The more we learn of life, the more we consider

that a tale-bearer is not to be trustedthe instinctwhich leads him to divulge on confidence, will, ifthe chance permit , impel him to make use of anyother information which comes within hisknowledge.

He stamps himself as dangerous. As hisreputation spreads, his opportunities contract;

positions of importance cannot be given into hiscare; and, so, tho he may be gifted sufficiently toperform duties of consequence, the certainty thathe will divulge crucial secrets shuts him out fromopenings which he might otherwise secure.

Men must have the friendship and cooperation oftheir fellows to achieve beyond the ordinary, andthe tattler soon becomes a pariahevery manshand is reaching out to keep him down.

Our repugnance is so great against any type oftraitor that it begins to manifest itself in


36/74

childhoodeven the kindergarten prattlersostracize the school-room tell-tale.

ALL MEN ARE NOT BORN EQUAL

Nature doesnt cast from molds, shes an artistshe never repeats herself; she doesnt producetwo things exactly alike; her trees never near thesame number of leaves; her plants never growtwo pieces of fruit that exactly match. Being avery prolific and resourceful person, she puts adab of individuality in everything she createsespecially Man.

Opportunities are equal, but the ability to graspthem, the mentality to appreciate them, thestrength to develop them vary with the individual.

Ambition is a good thing, but attainment is not

tis synonym. The world is filled with 22-calibercartridges trying to explode in 30-30 rifles.

Plans for achievement must be matched withpower to carry them through. Demosthenes wasone stutterer who became a great orator, butmost stutterers have their mouths full when theytry to follow conversation, much less lead it.

One-armed men occasionally develop intooarsmen, but most of them cant even keep theboat in a straight line for the shore. It is a goodrule not to attempt success in a field for which

accident or nature has unfitted you.

There will always be superior intellects, becausesuperior progenitors sired them. Generations ofcareful breeding ought to eventuate in an

improved strain. Futurity winners arent foundbetween the shafts of brick-carts.

Any man is capable of getting out of himself whatis in him, but he cant progress further than hisgifts will carry him.

Accident will now and then combine


37/74

circumstances so as to place an individual higherthan he deserves, but, in the long run, Merit andMerit alone will determine the outcome; the law ofsurvival is the one immutable law; the strongmust rise to their appointed and destined places;

the weak must serve those who prove their fitnessto command.

The greatest tragedies of an absolute democracyspring from the discontent spread by thesophistries of its demagogues; the unhappiestphase of a civilization founded upon equality is themisconstruction of equality. It does not meanthat any social order can overturn the order ofnature; democracy only casts down the walls of

uneared privilege; it kicks away the props ofinherited prestige; it allows each man to stand forwhat he is and to have what he can reachto holdwhat his strength can masterand to lose whathis own gifts cannot maintain. But no democracywill ever be conceived by man which willoverthrow the basic laws of the universefirstamong which is that of competition, which hasprevailed since the cave-man began to test hisprowess and to measure it against that of his

neighbor.There are big duties and little tasks, offices of

direction and of obedience, and there must be bigmen and small men to perform them.

An army must have its chief, its consulting aids,and its ranks; there must be cog-wheels as wellas fly-wheels on every machineeach watch musthave its mainspringeach government itssupreme bead; all that the doctrine of equal rights

can hope to accomplish is that the man who ismost deserving shall be placed where he shouldbe. Universities cannot upset this principle; theycan only multiply and spread in their scope untilthey develop more of those who are most fitted tostand upon the height; they can broaden theopportunity, but they cannot put into any mindthe elements of initiative or of judgment.

Until the last page of the last volume is written inthe Book of Years, Merit alone will rule the earth.


38/74

MAGGIE

Thats rightdive on through the crowd and getin front or you wont find a seat. Its six oclockand the shops are out. If you wait for the womento get aboard, youll have to stand up all the wayhome. Theres a vacant place! Shoulder past thatgirlyoure stronger. You did it! Now lean backand have a comfortable half hour with the news.

Why does she moon at you with such tired eyes?Its unfair to make you uncomfortablemask your

face with the papershe can stand as well asyoubetter. Shes had more practicethats allshe has done all day long. So a little while longerwont make much difference to her. If women willinsist on going home just at the time men leavetheir offices, they mustnt be querulous if theyfind the cars crowded.

The old ideas about courtesy and chivalry aregetting to be moss-grown poppycock. They werewell enough in the romantic age, but this is the

business epoch. We havent time to pause forsuch foolish notions nowadays. Besides, now thatwomen are competing with men, they must foregosome of the privileges of the sex and not hope tobe coddledtheres no sex in business. Dollarsand cents and sentimentality cant be blended.And so you very properly dismiss the matter,having argued it out in all fairness and (especially)to your personal satisfaction.

Meanwhile Maggie hangs onto the strap andwearily shifts her weight from one tired foot to theother. She doesnt resent your boorishnessshesgrowing used to it lots of ideals get nicked whenwomen go to work. She left home yesterdaymorning three hours earlier than your wife arose.It was dark in the room when her ninety-nine centalarm clock tattooed her out of bed. She had tolight the gas to find her clothesthe water in thepitcher wore a skin of ice on top(they dont build

stationary wash basins with hot and cold waterfaucets in three-dollar-a-week boudoirs).


39/74

All day long (and all days are long in the shops)she was standing, stretching, bending, smilingplease dont forget the smileperhaps younoticed it the last time you came to her counter.You smiled, too. Hers, however, was a different

sortits one of the requirementsRule 27Becheerful. Yours was more of a social grinaknowing, engaging, subtle, inviting affair. Oh, they cant tell you anything about these shop-girls,but it may be worth while to learnsomething about them. And when you do, chancesare that you wont smile in quite the same way.

Theyre women who must make goodgoodwomen, or they wouldnt be drudging out their

lives for a crust and a sup and a strip of bed.Just as frail as your women, with the same sort ofsouls and hearts and with the same yearningbunger for care and tenderness. Young womengrowing old at the rate of 24-months-a yearwomen without chances or with lost chances.Some marrysome were marriedmost of themhope to be. Usually theyre strong. But sometimesthe half starvation and the half-warmth and thelonging for better shelter and all the food theyd

like to eat andBut most of them keep on. Keepon playing by the rulesharder rules than yoursin a tougher game and for smaller stakes.

Women just as wholesome as your ownoftenwith as good blood in their veins. Women whohavent lost anything except protection. Theyrepaying the fiddler because their fathers didnt paytheir insurance premiums.

The gray mists veil the brightest of their days

the menace of tomorrow is always betweenatomorrow whose hope fades with their fading andwhose approach may only be provided against bythe hoarded piece of silver wrenched out of a ten-dollar bill from which must also come board andlodging and carfare and clothes and doctors billand vacations and

Why arent you smiling?


40/74

THE MAN WITH THE YELLOW STREAK

Hes as dangerous as a streak of lightningand

as treacherous. He flashes his true self withoutwarning and always hits something or somebodywho doesnt expect the blow.

Hes the Man with the Yellow Streakthe manwho cant win. Hes wrongwrong from eye-lashto toe-tip. Theres a flaw in his grainhe isnt

made of the stuff to stand the strain. Hes boundto give way under pressure. His meat is weakhisblood is thinhis soul is lacking. Hes afflictedwith an incurable moral epilepsy. He falls down in

a panic every time hes called on to stand up andshow this manhood.

He cant reach a very high place and stay there.Hes cursed with the dread of those who are afraidof great heights. It clutches him when he is mid-way up the ladder and instead of going on andupward, he hugs to the rungs and hangs thereshivering with dread. He magnifies his riskshemultiplies his dangershe loses all his balance

his caution disappears, and instead, a foolhardyirresponsibility takes its place.

Hes a drowning man, sinking in a sea of self-exaggerations. He will lay hold of anybody to savehis own skinhe will sacrifice friends, family,employereven his hope of the futurein his wildfrenzy to look out for his own immediate interests.

Hes a cowarda mean, selfish craven. Hes agirder with a flawa beam with a knot. Dont use

him where there is likely to be a strainhes aman where there is likely to be a strainhes aman with a danger spot. No matter how brilliantor trained or resourceful he may be wheneverything is right, all his superior qualificationsare nil and must not be called on in an emergency.

Hes diseasedhe has a tainthe can never becounted on to utilize his gifts when they ought tocount most.

He cant help himself because he isnt man

enough to own up and ask for assistance. Hewont tell you whats wrong with him. He wears


41/74

the velvet of false pride over his thread-barepatch and you only see when its too late, whenhis cloak drops and show his tattered courage.

Search him out among your men and your

associates. Dont wait until he runs amuck. Hewont give you warninghe loses his reasonhe

doesnt realize what is happening. In his zeal toprotect himself from the whiplash of

consequences, hell liehell cheathell throwblame on the innocent. Its a kindness to both ofyou not to give him a chance to hurt himself andyou.

You cant reform him. Hes a quicksandhellmerely keep involving you.

The only thing under the sun that can possiblybring him to himself is to leave him to himself. Agreat enough shock may awaken the man inhimno other medicine will count.

Dress-parade isnt the test of a soldier. The besttactician isnt the best field-officer. Dont mistakehis ability under normal circumstances forcapability in emergencies. Resourcefulness under

the pressure of circumstances has sent many arecruit climbing over the beads of trained butunseasoned superiors.

There comes an hour when grit surmounts all

else. Then it isnt the number of poundsavoirdupois, or the size of a bicep, or the numberof convolutions in a brain that counts, but thedepth of the threads in a mans screws of courage.Then Opportunity enters full-winged upon thescene and the right man is bound to come to the

front. Hell always take his proper postand theman with the Yellow Streak is sure to drop to histrue level whenever things get red hot and the furbegins to fly.

YOUR START DOENT COUNT

Time was when a coat of arms meant a lotnowits the arms in the coat that count. Your name in


42/74

Burkes Peerage may give us an idea of the sort ofancestors you had, but Duns Peerage is morelikely to show what kind of an ancestor youre aptto prove. This is the land where dreams cometruewhere rainbows end in pots of goldwhere

castles in the air come sailing down to earth andharden into granite. Everything is possible amonga people who cradle Presidents in mud-chinkedcabins. If you fail you lack grit or courage or

judgment. Rotten fruit never ripensthe winddoesnt shake the sound apples from the treealittle adversity makes the real man clutch tighterto his ambition. That which is easily had is worthleastit lies within anyones grasp. The hardshipsof the road-maker are rewarded by primeval

forests and un-staked mines. Great rewards lie atthe ends of journeysnot at their start.Persistence is everythinga patient brook carvedthe Grand Canyon of the Colorado. Niagarastarted in business as a dinky little river, but shekept on, and swept on, until she came to a placewhere she saw her chance to do something bigand she did it.

THIS IS YOUR HOUR

A man who did great things in a mighty way,once tore success from the claws of seeminglyinsuperable obstacles. I had to win, he said,because nobody wanted to keep me from it halfas badly as I wanted it.

Across thousands of miles of seas, anotherconqueror of circumstance, who successfullydared the wrath of his Sultan allied with the threemost puissant monarchs of Europe, stood uponthe sea-cliffs and watched Gibraltar poke her noseout of the Mediterranean mists.

An Englishman at his side pointed across theangry swirl. Yonder lies the seat of a power, saidhe, which could crush ten thousand tribes such

as yours. How did you have the courage to defyit?


43/74

Bismallah, answered Raisuli with a smile,spreading his palms to the heavens, I wantedsomethingI knew what I wantedI wanted ithard enoughand I got it.

THERES A HOME MARKET FOR CHARITY

Dont start off, half-cocked with your sympathies.Make sure that theyll help before you heap them.The average humanitarian is so enthusiastic overthe woes of all the world as a whole that he quiteoverlooks those of the individual. He is soambitious that he hasnt time to be specific. Heslike the picknicker with one pat of butter and aloaf of breadhe tries to make it go so far that itisnt at all noticeable.

Providence has had her hands full ever since shetook charge of this universeand even Providence,with all of her facilities, has not been able to catchup with her back order. There are too many

sentimentalists dropping theoretical tears over thewoes of everybody from Good Hope to CapeHornmoved by the theatrical aspects ofexistence to futile theatrical emotions. They gothrough the years dispending conversation coin,but seldom coin of the realm. They exudebenevolence from every pore but the purse-pore.Their ears are always sympathetically openedtheir pocket-books stay close.

There is more than enough charitable impulserunning around loosethats the trouble with ititneeds to be harnessed and made to drag some ofthe woes of the world from the shoulders of itsAtlases.

Because you are occasionally maudlin, dontmistake that for pitythe only time that youredoing good is when you have done something thatactually helped.

When next you sit on a theater and sniffle to theaccompaniment of Eliza-Crossing-the-Ice music,


44/74

tumble back to earth and consider that noplaywright with his finite brain can conceive ofpoverty and sufferings half so intense as thosewhich Life is constantly staging in the alleys andtenements of every city in the land.

Pay a little less attention to feeding the starving

intellect and feed a few more starving bodies. Itshard for a man to grow zealous over culture orreligion when his stomach is empty and his mindis filled with visions of corned-beef-and-cabbage.

Dont bother so much about the lines of Tennysonand Browning until youve paid a little attention tothe bread line.

Let the cannibals in the South Sea Islands andthe Chinese along the Hoang-Ho look out forthemselves until you have eased some of themisery in your own block.

It isnt necessary to export any of your charitableenergytheres always a home market for it.

When the island of Formosa was swept by a tidalwave, the shock so disturbed Mrs. Hanks that herhusband was moved to inquire if any distant

braches of her family had settled there. Its justupset me so, she remarked, that I cant eat athing. I never heard of anything so terrible.

Cant say that I have lost any appetite over it,answered Hiram. Of course, I aint mean enoughto feel chipper because it happened, but to tell

you the truth, Millie, it aint worrying me any morethan reading about Pompeii and other such islands.I guess I would feel blue if I had ever paid a visitin the neighborhood and was acquainted with the

folks out there, but not having seen the place andnot knowing anybody who got hurt, if I looked

very much disturbed Id be a plain dangedhypocrite!

But your speaking of tidal waves reminds methat the Widow Wilkins is down with pneumonia,which means that there wont be anybody to takecare of them two little girls of hers until she getswell, so I was figuring out what we could spare

from the potato bin and the meat-house. Seemsto me that if we look out for them that is right


45/74

around up, its about as much as the Good Lordcan expect. If all the rest of the world would dothe same there wouldnt be any need for folks inPodunk to lose sleep when things go wrong inFormosa.

EASY ROADS DO NOT LEAD TO EASE

If you try to make life too easy, youll soon find ittoo hard. Ambition is a dream without anawakening, unless it makes your will as eager asyour wish. Effort is exercise; endeavor producesendurance.

Its no trouble to cut through butterbut it wontdevelop strength. The hewer of stone wears thestrong arm and bears the long labor.

Persistence is the key to existence. Success

invariably rewards the good fight. Knowing whatto do or how to do it wont bring results. Action

must drive ability. The nail is useless without thehammer. Courage is the complement ofknowledge.

Easy roads do not lead to ease. Worn paths runto spots and things which others have alreadyfound.

Opportunity is trampled underfoot in the crowdedthoroughfares. The greater chances always lieahead.

But the price matches the prize. If you wantmore than the average you must pay more to

secure it. You cant buy with counterfeit attempts.The true coin of accomplishment bears the mintmarks of grit and honest labor.

You cant have our best unless we have your bestin return. You cant arrive unless you survive. Half

journeys are wasted. Only the stride which landsyou at the finish counts.

You cant take pleasure and indulgence with you


46/74

in the climb. You must forego temptation and cutout the shortest cuts. The wrong road is never along roadtherein lies its danger.

If you meet with brambles and boulders, reflect

that they are fewer toward the end. The morerugged you find the way, the less likelihood that

youve been preceded.

You need no capital but a fixed idea and theresolve to carry it out. Want a thing harder thanthe world wants to keep you from it, and youllwear through every opposition and get it.

Mere knowledge isnt competition. The man whosecrets must give way before the man who

creates. A bulging forehead cant conquer asquared jaw.

When old Henry Harper died he willed his millionsto charity and his will to his sons. This is the letterwhich they found in his strongbox:

I gained my money from men weaker thanmyself, and I return it to them. If you are strongenough and bright enough to retain my estate,you have the necessary tools with which to build

one of your own.

If you cannot succeed without my wealth, youcouldnt have succeeded in holding to it.

Others will think that I have pauperized you, butI understand how great a legacy I have willed you:the incentive to prove yourselfthe supreme rightto test your powers without the handicap ofassured maintenance.

Go out into the world to earn and there by learn.Rub against men and get and edge. Enjoy themost supreme of all recreationsthe thrill ofcreation. Only the builder truly rises above his

fellow.

THE CAD


47/74

Hes a hermit crab, lurking about on the shores ofthe social seacrawling around in the shell of agentlemana thing of mere garb and gab. Thatmisguided judgment which likens him to a pup isarrant flattery, but takes mean advantage of a

real dog.

Hes a cad, a bounder, a near-man. His pseudo-surface is like the iridescence on a stagnant poolit forces us to ponder upon the depths ofunwholesomeness beneath his pose.

Brother to the jackal, he sullies clean thingspreys upon weaknessmaims that which isbeautiful and pure.

He takes no chances; he merely takes awaychances. He piles up costs which helplessnessmust settle, but he makes sure that there shall beno penalty for himself.

He recognizes no responsibility to society; he is awanton, a vandal, who wrecks without recking.His quarry is always defenseless. He lies toinnocence; he trails after the unguarded, andmakes of want and privation and hunger, pack-

brothers in the hunt.He is the type of biped which fervently clasps the

hand of a trusting friend and the hand of a friendswife with a still more fervid grasp.

He is a cast lower than the man who kisses andtellsrepulsed, he tells when he has not kissed.He breaks the bread of a household and then itshearts.

He gambles with sacred things, and like allwelchers he pays no obligations except thosewhich the law itself has power to collect.

He is not brave enough to be an actual thiefhelacks the courage to steal little things such asproperty. He is a hundred orders below a Turpin ora Shepherd or a Dalton. A bank-robber woulddespise him. The pickpocket is his superior. He isan Artful Dodger, roaming about amidstconfiding reputations. He robs women of their

good names instead of their goods. The chattels ofsociety do not attract him, because there is a


48/74

definite risk in their pilferinghe defaults insteadwith the really precious treasuresfaiths anddreams and ideals.

Technically, he is not a felon, because the finer

ethics have no jurisprudence. Honor has disdainedto call upon a Blackstonethe God-spark whichlifts the human out of the chaos of beastdom issupposed to put that into every normal man whichcalls for no tableted penalties for outraging thesacred fanes. Society fears to acknowledge thenecessity for the unwritten law, but organized

justice has as yet unsheathed no weapon to reachhim who shatters the unrecorded code.

The knout of conscience is long and its leash isleaded, but conscience cannot reach beyond itsrangeit can only trike where there is a targetitcan only hurt where there is a soul, and this Judasof the heart, this traitor to the finer instincts, thisapostate to decency, is a mere wearer of flesh,alive only in his appetites and his indulgences.

We have learned to build prisons for theftscaffolds for treasonpesthouses for plague, butcivilization may not wear the Crown until another

problem of segregation is solveduntil the daycomes when there is no longer a chair at thetablea seat in the cluband a shrug ofindulgence for the unnamable cad.

THE MARKET VALUE OF OPTIMISM

He remembers yesterdays sunshine while youfrown at todays storms. He knows that the calmwill surely follow the turmoil. The stubbing stonein the darkness is a happily discovered spot whichhe may thereafter avoid. While others blameNature for putting thorns on roses, he is glad thatshe thought to put roses on the thorns. He isgrateful for the palm tree and the well in thedesertrealizing how utterly desolate the sands

would be without their oases. Amid the wreckageof disaster, he sees timbers to be picked out for


49/74

the rebuilding. When the wind sweeps down thegrain fields, he plans how he can use the straw.

He always manages to find a bright spot in theglooma star trying to shine through the clouds.

When he is knocked off his feet, he immediatelyfinds them againsquares his shoulders, tightensup his pluck, and starts in to straighten up.Instead of discounting the promise of the future,he discounts his misfortune. He believes in himself,and with that belief, fertilizes his effort until itblossoms with result.

From the beginning of time, the envious,complacent, lazy, half-hearted peoples of theworld have resented his fine enthusiasm. Becausehe is different, they believe that he must be a fool.

He is insane; he isnt balanced. He is abnormal,but its the abnormality of a better brain and amore fluent imagination.

Hes a soldier of the foreguard, marching aheadto open the way and make safer the journeys ofthose who come after himwho move onwardonly with the power of their feet and their meat.He aims higher than he strikes, and thereby hits a

fairer mark than if he aspired lower. He sketcheswith the pencil of imagination, and even if heseldom builds his towers as high as his plans, heleaves the specifications with which anothergeneration can complete the undertaking.

Hes the optimistthe man who believes that hecan do it. He fails time and time again; but hefails in his work, not in himself. Even if he wentbut halfway down the path of progress, he leftonly half as much still to be done by the man whofollowed.

All that you have, all that you cherish, all that isbig and fine and worth while, all your ethics, allyour philosophies, all your sanities, all that meansmost to you, all that has brought you down fromthe tree homes of your ape forebearswasbelieved in by one set of optimists and achievedby another.

The General who thinks that he can win his battledoes more with his optimism than with his


50/74

cannons. Without that belief, a hundred battalionsand a thousand squadron of horse are halved innumber.

A coward cant conquer anything, because he

cant conquer himself. A doubter cant help,because hes an enemy to himselfa traitor to hisown cause.

Nothing that is hard, nothing that bends mensbacks and strains their sinews and tears theirsouls and starves them, would ever be brought topass if an optimist didnt have that within himwhich made him feel it was worth while to endureand to suffer for the sake for getting to the placeand the thing he wanted.

Ability doesnt count; knowledge is useless;experience has no worth without the driving forceof optimism. Its the steam that makes all thewheels go roundits the sparking plug of themotorit starts things.

Some one must think for those who wont andcant think for themselves. An optimist had to seethe steam of a locomotive through the mist of a

teakettle before the Baldwins could build theirshops. He didnt anticipate the space condenserthat whirls you from New York to Chicago overnight; but he found the principlehe believed thatit could be done.

The architect is a bigger man than the builder.You can put dumb wheels of iron side by side andcog to cog and make them do most anythingafter some optimist has pointed out the thing todo.

An optimist found America; an optimist built theairship; and optimist rolled in the gutters ofpoverty, but even in the gauntest hours he clunghis belief until he set together the fingers of steeland brass that set these lines into print. He was

jeered at and sneered at; nine men out of tenthought him crazy, and ninety-nine in a hundredcalled him a bore; but he knew better all the time,and so it didnt hurt. It takes more than a snicker

or a jibe to kill the impulse of creation, which isgiven to strong men only because Providence


51/74

doesnt waste her real bounties upon yellow-veined weaklings.

Every time the stock ticker starts to spellfinancial doom and the fear maddened hordes of

depositors rush to the banks to hasten thedisaster, half a dozen optimistsa few men whobelieve that courage and grit and the naturalresources of America will always readjust thebalancesave the nation from bankruptcy. Theyback up their belief with their fortunes; but theyrisk nothingthe risk would be in not believingthey save themselves by saving the markets. Themost valuable stock that is listed on Change isoptimism, and its worth more per share than

Chemical National.

Anything is possible to the man who believes thatnothing is impossible. He doesnt always makegood; but he makes good oftener than thepessimist. His judgment isnt always right; butmany a time the every vehemence of hisconfidence has carried through an undertakingwhich half-heartedness would have wrecked.

He can never see failure, because the golden sun

of ambition is always shining in his face, blindinghis eyes to the impossibilities. He doesnt heedthe warnings of discouragement, because higherand clearer than the little noises of the littlepeople he hears the call of success. He must be

what he is. Hes filled with the mightiest messagegiven to manhe has been touched with the God-spark that blazes into achievement.

THE MAN WHO THINKS HE HAS NO CHANCE

The man who thinks he has no chance destroyshis chances by acknowledgment of self-defeat. Hehas deliberately blinded himself; bound upon hislimbs the shackles and chains of cowardice;weighted himself down with the greatest of all

handicapsdespair. He has wrenched theknocker from his door; stuffed his ears with cotton


52/74

wool and cannot hear Opportunity when she doessummon him.

Life is a huge kaleidoscope, rotating upon theaxis of time. Every day the earth takes a turn that

readjusts the aspect of existence. Every hourreveals a new pattern for the future. Viewpointsare incessantly altering. New combinations ofcircumstance are putting novel phases uponaffairs.

The highways and byways ar

Documents

The Winning Fight