THE SNAIL GOES LIKE A RABBIT
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PPORTUNITY comes like a
snail, and once it has passed
you it changes into a fleet
rabbit and is gone.
Show this picture to the
boys and girls to-day, and let
them think it over. .
Whenever you see a good cartoon, encour-.
age the young people to think about it and
formulate their thoughts. Let them read the
editorial afterward if they choose. But one
thought OP THEIR OWN is worth many col
umns and pages written out for them.
What is OPPORTUNITY? It is the
chance to do something, to get something, to
achieve something, to climb out of the rut, TO
BE SOMEBODY of value in the world.
Opportunity is life itself. That which we
call conscientiousness, or soul, or thought, can
be imagined floating in infinite space without
any material body to bring it in contact with
the world.
Then thought is put into the body. The
body is able to do its part in a,world of solid
matter, and of other bodies. And with the
coming of life OPPORTUNITY COMES.
There are millions of opportunities around
us every day. Some of them we see, and we
know that they are beyond us, or we believe
that they are beyond us, and we do not try.
Others we see, and look upon them as be
neath us and in considering an opportunity
too low, we often miss the opportunity that
is the best
One man who began poor and died very
rich, in Chicago, had a little stand on the
street and sold fruit He saw an opportunity
to add dried fruit to his fresh fruit, and he
did that
He saw the opportunity to add part of a
window to his little fruit stand, and to have
tea and coffee for sale in small, neat packages.
He did that . ,
He died the biggest coffee man in the coun
try, with more millions than he needed. Stand
ing in front of his cheap, rickety fruit stand,
he saw opportunity coming and he was ready
forit ' . . ,
Thomas A- Edison sat at his key, sending
telegraph messages like millions of others.
His brain enabled him to see an oppor
tunity, which was the sending of more than
one message over the same wire.
He didn't simply think about it speculate
about it and drop it HE MADE IT A
REALITY.
When opportunity came crawling toward
Edison it found him ready.
That is why everybody in the world knows
about Thomas A. Edison.
In youth we have the opportunity to ab
sorb information, and in mature years we
have the opportunity TO USE IT.
Too often we neglect the opportunity in
youth and spend the later years regretting that
the opportunity was neglected.
There are as many opportunities as there
are hxman beings in the world, or very nearly
ss many, -
. This Is Perhaps the Oldest Editorial in the World. The
Cave Man Recited It' to His Son When He Told Him How to
Hunt for His Prey
The Squaws Out West Told It to Their Little Papooses
as Soon as They Were Old Enough to Listen.
Lord Chesterfield Wrote It to His Boy. Every Mother
in the: Country Impresses It Upon Her Children Once a Month.
" Yet, Over arid Over, the Same Thing Needs to Be Said.
Meet Opportunity When It Comes Toward Ypu. 'If You
Wait Until It Passes You Will Never Catch It.
In a million ways men' achieve success, big
or little.
One man becomes rich and useful because
he sees the possibility of building a railroad
across the continent, or because, like Cecil
Rhodes, his mind can carve out an empire in
Africa.
And another simply sees the. opportunity
of putting one dollar oh top of another, getting
more dollars as rapidly as possible, keeping
them all and spending none and he develops
into a Russell Sage, whose millions, left to a
wise and generous woman, are now doing so
much good in the world.
There is something almost human and in
telligent something mysteriously knowing in
opportunity.
It comes toward you so very slowly that
you can't help seeing it, if you WILL see it
It creeps up like a snail, it passes you, it seems
to' make up its mind 'that you are not the per
son to seize opportunity AND IT IS GONE
IN A SECOND. 1
Some of us'miss opportunity because we
are'too dull to try. And others let opportunity
go by, because we are; too much startlfcd when
wo -see it to take -hold "of it
Weare like the main who sees his first deer
in the forest and forgets to use his gun.
Such a picture and such an editorial as this
are useless unless they can persuade readers
to think of their own opportunities,! their own
neglected chances, and fill them with deter
mination to watch for and seize the next op
portunity that shall come along.
Fortunately, a long procession of slowly
moving opportunities meets all of us. And
fortunately, also, in some form, opportunity
is before us all the time.
The commonest form, one most often
neglected, and the safest opportunity for the
average man to seize, is HARD WORK.
There is scarcely a sane, average, moder
ately healthy human 'being that could not end
life comfortable- and prosperous, if he would
seize the two possibilities always with us
HARD WORK AND ECONOMY.
All of us still hayfe opportunities ahead if
we will look out for tftem. For instance:
Health means pQw.cr; and power means
opportunity. . - 1
.Every pne of us can improve his health if
he-will. Sensible living, temperate eating and
drinking, regular sleep .WITHOUT ADDED
EXPENSE, will increase liealth, power arid op
portunity. r r ,
Information gives the t power that brings
opportunity. The books are in the .libraries.
We can all read and learn 'if we Will. How
many young men can truly say that tney do
not throw away every day two Hours? Two
hours a day in five years w.ill make an educated
man, one able to seize an opportunity when he
sees it ' ,
In our life of money making' and. commer
cial struggling opportunity very often comes
labelled with this little sigh: "lijiri for. the man
who has saved up a little mbney." 4 . :
Many a man has missed? his opportunity
because he hadn't the thousand dollars or the
five hundred dollars that the opportunity
called for.
How many men are there 'that can really
say that t is IMPOSSIBLE for; tliem to save
five hundred dollars? You can't save it this
weeki?Lthis year or next, year perhaps, But
you CAN save it And once vou h'avp
m your pocket money that is yours, money
your uenis, many an op-
yuu win come
over and above all
portunity that goes around
straight, t
an OPPORTUNITY, and Sot somebody more
cunning than yourself who sees the onnor
tunityinYOUAND YOU& GUILTLESSNESS.
To see opportunity and to seize oppor
tunity the mind must be free from rubbish and
useless lumber. If you are thinking of your
own misfortunes, about your qualities that are
not appreciated, about your high deserts and
nobility of soul, your nose will be in the air,
and your eyes won't be oh the ground when
opportunity comes crawling along.
Free your mind from rubbish arid especial
ly from self-complacency and self-anproval.
Say to yourself: "The world is full of op
portunity; the men that have succeeded had no
better chance than I. They succeeded because
they saw opportunity, they seized it and they
hung on to it.
"If I don't succeed it is because I have not
DESERVED to succeed. If I have not seized
any good opportunities in life, it is not because
the opportunities have all gone the other way
and have never passed me. Hundreds have
passed me. It is time now for me to seize the
next one that comes along."
The man who stops blaming conditions,
blaming government blaming others, his rela
tives, his employers, his friends, and who
blames himself, is the man, that will seize and
use the next opportunity that comes.
There never lived a man who "never had
a ' chance," although many complain that op
portunity has never come their way. Only a
man born an idiot can say truly that he has
had no' opportunity. The trouble is that too
many- insist on saying what KIND of an op
portunity it shall be, and WHEN it shall come.
If you see four boys together, three of them
smoking cigarettes and one not smoking, you
.know that one of them has a better chance than
the others.
v ' You may see a half dozen young men
working in stores in this busy, crowded sea
son, five of them complaining about the public,
about hard work and long hours, and the sixth
saying to himself: "If I can't succeed as an em-
' ploye I shall never succeed as an employer."
If you find the five pitying themselves and
the sixth determined to do what is good for
him, you know the sixth is the one that will
tket opportunity when it comes, for he has al
ready taken the opportunity of making him
self a worker.
flf?''
BE READY. '
The way to be ready is to be at work. Op
portunity comes to the worker, not to the idler
who is waiting for opportunity to come.
Edison was working at his key when his
thought and his opportunity came to him.
Newton was not lounging, idling, when the
apple fell. He was thinking on the problem
of gravitation and falling bodies. And when
the apple fell assuming that old story to be
tfue he combined the happening with his
thought and his work, and seized the oppor
tunity to solve the greatest problem in celestial
mechanics.
In every shop, every store, every farm,
there is opportunity.
If 'your work is bad, if your employer is'
bad, you can watch for the opportunity to get
out. But be sure that you GET the opnor
tunity. WAIT UNTIL IT COMES. To drop
one thing until you have another is one of the
shortest roads to failure.
1
1 Any kind of work is a gymnasium in which
you develop your own power and talent
Success depends on being exact industrious,
intelligent obliging, practical. You can develop
the good qualities INSIDE of yourself just as
well in the humblest work as in the highest
work. A young man working as street car con
ductor has just as many opportunities of un
derstanding human beings, which helps to real
success, and of developing himself, as the
president of the railroad, hidden away in his
big office. v
We are getting alone toward the end of
another year. Some of us are old, some of us
young, and some of us in the doldrums of
middle age. But none of us is too old for op
portunity, if we will see it and take it
The new year means 365 new opportuni
ties. Every day means opportunity, every hour
means possibility of good work, of foolishness
abandoned.
Study this picture, which is excellent and
give it to the children and make them think
about it
Five minutes of earnest thought and self
analysis on this Sunday may mean a good many
years of comfort and useful work hereafter.