CAN YOU STAND RIDICULE ?
Ridicule Is a Deadly Weapon. It Helps the Race as a Whole. It Kills Individuals.
Ridicule Destroys and Discourages the Spirit of Children. Deliberate Ridicule of Others
Crime. Happy the Man Who, Like the Man in This Picture, Defies Ridicule When
He Knows That He Is Right and Goes Ahead with the New Idea.
13
CVpttUW. 101 iy b air Cwnpinj. Ornl Britain IMibtii nMtrtrf. '
ET us talk to-day about ridioule, its
powor, tho good and tho harm that it
doos.
Many a man who can stand cruol
punishment, suffering without flinch
ing, CANNOT ENDURE THE
..ATIOHTER. THE SCORN. THE
RIDIOULE OP OTHEKB.
Many a man leads a life foreign to hia nature beoause
he fears ridicule.
Millions of women dress extravagantly, pinch their
feet squeeze their waists, impoverish their husbands,
because they fear ridioule. They dare not be out of the
style.
Ridiculo has killed men.
Keats, tho young poet, of wonderful promise, died
almost in his boyhood killed by narsn criticism ana
ridicule.
Ridioule has helped civilization immensely, for to
establish tho faot that a thing is ridicylouB puts it undor
tho ban, makes it abhorrent, makes men and women dread
it moro than they dread actual suffering.
Ridicule has kept many a man from being a coward
when physical cowardice was a fatal tiling for the general
welfare.
Ridiculo developod the manly qualities in mon-r-a
development that was necessary.
And ridicule developed the womanly qualities in
women also necessary.
Many a man has marched to death in defense of his
country or of his family, and has been called a hero,
when he was really a man so much afraid of ridioule that
he would much rather die than bo laughed at
One Frenchman who had arranged to fight & duel
shot himself the pight before the duel He was afraid
that ho would not have courage on the duelling ground
and that others would laugh at him. He had the courage
to kill himself. Ho hadn't the courage to run tho risk
of being laughed at.
Fathers and mothers ought to understand tho power
of ridicule, remember it and fear it in the education
of their children.
It is well enough to teach boys and girls, gradually,
to develop indifference to ridicule.
But it is wrong to expect too much of children. The
fathers and mothers must remember that throughout the
history of our race ridicule, "LAUGHING AT THAT
WHICH IS NOT GENERALLY APPROVED," has been
one of the gieatest educative forces. And the race in
its babyhood and the child in its childhood are influ
enced by ridicule moro than by anything else.
It is stupid and brutally cruel to compel a little boy
to wear long curls and be laughed at by the other boys.
The boy that might have amounted to something in life
could be utterly ruined and made into a cringing, morbid
child by that piece of stupidity.
It is brutal and cruel to compel boys to wear short
trousers 'or other garments that mark them out for
ridicule among boys after a certain age.
The foolish mother or father guilty of dressing a boy
In a Lord Fauntleroy costume, lace collar and velvet
jacket and hair ridiculously cut, or ridiculously long, is
a eriMiaal when such a child is sent out to be ridiculed
by ether Bormal boys.
Teach your children slowly and gradually not to fear
ridicule. Teaeh them to think for themselves, to conduot
thewuwlYM am they have been taught to do regardless of
bad xaple and the ridicule of bad boys.
Ba't expect them to stand ridicule, which it is im
possible for them to stand, the ridioule which comes
when one child is singled out and made different from
tho others in appearance. ' ,
& &
Lucky the man who can be guided by tho common
sonso of history whioh expresses itself sometimes in
ridioule ridiculing that which is preposterous, effemi
nate, vicious, unworthy.
Millions of men have been cured of chewing tobacco
by ridioule and a very useful ridicule.
Othor men havo been ridioulod out of idleness and
aimlessness in life.
Unfortunately, many a man who might have been
useful, and added to tho world's knowledge, has been
driven from his useful lino of thought or of effort by
the ridioule of others.
Tho man who will do tho real thing in this world,
which is THE NEW THING, is the man who can stand
ridiculo, who will not be discouraged.
Almost every inventor, without exception, if he has
finally succcoded, has been compelled to endure ridicule,
to listen patiently while others told him how foolish ho
was aha go on working in spite of it
Every now idea is laughed at by fools and tho fools
are a vast majority.
Every attempt at better living, is laughed at by those
that live viciously.
Many a man who would stop drinking or some other
vice is kept in his evil ways by the ridiculo of men
worse than himself.
I The history of the human race and its progress is a
history of ridiculo.
They laughed at' Columbus, thought him crazy, when
ho started on his journey which meant so much to the
human race.
Tho assembled steel and iron makers of England, the
ablest men in their profession, laughed immoderately
when a man poor and diffident got up to explain a new
method of making steel. They said it was stupid and
preposterous, and thoy decided, unanimously, to strike
his remarks from the record, so as "not to make the
convention of iron makers ridiculous."
The man at whom they laughed was Bessemer, who
revolutionized, the steel business, whose invention has
produced thousands of millions of dollars in steel.
One man, by the way, who happened to bo there, who
heard what Bessemer had to say, spoke kindly to him,
took a little interest in his idea, and MADE A FORTUNE
OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS OUT OF IT. Sometimes
it pays to treat kindly the man at whom others laugh.
William H. Vanderbilt, second of the line of very
rich Vanderbilts, laughed at the idea of an elevated
railroad in New York, and ridiculed the suggestion.
"The pcoplo are fools," said he, "but they are not fools
enough to ride on stilts."
He laughed at the man who bad the idea of the ele
vated railroad, but he did not discourage that man.
If William H. Vanderbilt had laughed less, and
thought more, he might have made about one hundred
millions of dollars out of the idea at which he laughed.
The Gould family refrained from laughing, bought
the elevated railroad and the hundred millions that
might have belonged to the Vanderbilts went to the
Goulds,
Fulton was laughed at when he started his first
steamboat and, creaking and puffing, managed to send
it along over the water. v
The newspapers had ridiculed him. . The crowds
stood on the shores laughing, "to see the thing blow up."
But ridicule didn't discourage Fulton. And therefote,
although he was not by two thousand years the first that
ever thought of using steam in ships, HE WAS THE
FIRST MAN THAT EVER MADE A STEAMSHIP GO
AND SUCCEED COMMERCIALLY.
Even the great Napoleon, while he was planning to
cross the English Channel and land his troops in Eng
land, sent word to Fultcn, who called upon him, that he
would give him one minute.
He had no time to listen to Fulton's idea of the steam
boat. If Napoleon had. had timo to listen to Fulton, and
had experimented with steam, he could have landed his
troops in England, regardless of the wind and the whole
of history might have been changed.
It is a fortunate thing, probablyj that Napoleon
would not listen to Fulton. '
If Fulton had been afraid of ridicule, easily discour
aged, he would probably have stopped in his efforts when
the great Napoleon told him there was nothing in tho
idea.
But Fulton could fight ridicule that is why the
steamship came when, it did.
If you can withstand ridioulo when you know that
you are right if you can teaoh your boys and your girls
to disregard ridiculo when they know that they are
right, and when they have reached an age when it is
roasonablo to expect of them indifferenco to the taunts
of others, you will .succeed in your career as far as it is
possible for you to go, and you will set your chidron on
the right road. ,
A man who invented the pbrcelain that we all use
now, who gave great industries and work for hundreds
of thousands of men to the World, was laughed at as he
burned up his fence and even the furniture in his house
to keep hot the oven in which he was baking the pbree-.
lain. But laughter combined with dreadful poverty
did not discourage him. For that reason Palissy sue
ceeded.
The men who wanted to build the first steam rail
lines were laughed at. They were told, in the ' first
place, that if you- kept the men moving inside of a -oar
for two or three .hours at such a high rate of speed. as
twenty miles an hour it would certainly kill them., , t ,
They were also told that it would be necessary to
put high stone "walls on both sides of the railroad track,
as the wind from the cars would kill the neighbors.
The scientific men of England with very few excep
tions united to explain how the thing was utterly im
possible and then it went through, and those gentle
men lived tc ride on the steam cars at which they
had laughed. .
& &
We are not all inventing steamboats, or railroads,
or new methods for making porcelain. We are not all
poets cruelly attacked by stupid critics.
But every single one of us could be better off, more
Srosperous and a better citizen if he could learn to be
adifferent to ridicule.
HOW MUCH OF'YOUR MONEY DO YOU SPEND
BECAUSE YOU ARE AFRAID OF BEING LAUGHED
AT?
How much could you save if you had the courage to
do what you ought to do for the sake of your wife and
your children, ESPECIALLY FOR THE SAKE OF
THAT FUTURE WHICH WILL BE VERY GLOOMY
AND COLD IF YOU HAVE NOTHING SAVED UP
WHEN OLD AGE COMES?
How much do women spend on clothes because they
are afraid of ridioule?
How much do men give their wives to spend stupidly
becauso they are afraid "not to have their wife dressed
as well as any man's wife?"
In every big city tens of thousands of men and wom
en live in houses pr apartments more expensive than they
can afford and they cut down on actual necessities,
good books, the right kind of food for themselves and
their children, perhaps. Many a so-called "kitchenette"
is the foolish expedient of a family that is afraid of
ridicule, that prefers a big parlor in which fools may
sit to a comfortable home and decent kitchen in which
proper food may be prepared.
Many a man and woman live in the city, spend
ing what they cannot afford, because they are ashamed
to live simply in the country, whore they and -their1 chil
dren would be better off,
It is not necessary or wise to deny your family ANYi
THING THAT YOU CAN AFFORD.
If your wifo wants to look like a first class bird of
Paradise, and you can afford it, let her look like a bird
of Paradise and keep her happy.
If you and sho want a large, grunting automobile
and you can afford it, have it by all means.
But don't let the ridicule of others, or fear of what
others will say or think, persuade you to spend what
you can't afford, and throw away to-day as a sacrifice
to ridicule that which you will bitterly need when old
age comes along, or when the children get older and need
and have a right to demand help in their education.
Do not, however, mistake personal conceit egotism,
blind confidence in your own ideas for indifference to
ridicule.
There is a great difference between conquering ridi
cule and making a goose of yourself.
The unfortunate woman who dresses like a man, cuts
her hair short, wears a stiff collar, and thinks that she is
indifferent to ridicule, is simply silly, and setting a bad
example.
The foolish individual who wears his hair long and
curly, has a flat, turned down collar, and a flowing silk
tie, and ridiculous clothes, and high heels, is not indif
ferent to ridicule he is simply a foolish peacock.
The ridicule of the public in general is wise ridicule.
The people, as a whole,. ridicule that which is bad.
The older brother usually educates his younger
brother by ridicule.
Ridicule is a great educating force, and thoso that
are ignorant are mado to learn BY RIDICULE.
Learn to distinguish between the cruel ridiculo
which checks growth, which kills original thought, and
that useful, necessary ridicule which kedps the human
race more or less uniform in its. methods, and enables
U3 to go ahead as a united body instead of scattering in
all directions like monkeys hopping about a cage.
Ridicule keeps the human race a solid army of
progress. It is a splendid thing for the race.
But ridicule too often keeps the individual from
achievement
Learn to distinguish.
At first think for yourself, and when you have
learned to think for yourself don't let the rTdicude or
the thoughts of others stop your thinking. The man in
this picture, excellently drawn by Tad, shows one type
that succeeds. It is the type that can fight ridicule.
There is a better type than that in the picture, one
with less chin and more forehead, and that better type
is more apt to fight successfully against ridicule.
When others know more than you do, learn from
them, listen to what they have to say.
At some time in your life, however, yon havo got to
make up your mind WHAT YOU WILL DO. You have
got to reach decisions, stick to them. Then you bava
got to learn to be indifferent to ridicule. If you can do
that you can carry out your own line of work. And if
you can't carry out YOUR OWN line of work you can't
get anywhere.