Edgar A. Guest.

From “A Heap o’ Livin’.”

THE HAS-BEENS

I read the papers every day, and oft encounter tales which show there’s hope for every jay who in life’s battle fails.  I’ve just been reading of a gent who joined the has-been ranks, at fifty years without a cent, or credit at the banks.  But undismayed he buckled down, refusing to be beat, and captured fortune and renown; he’s now on Easy Street.  Men say that fellows down and out ne’er leave the rocky track, but facts will show, beyond a doubt, that has-beens do come back.  I know, for I who write this rhyme, when forty-odd years old, was down and out, without a dime, my whiskers full of mold.  By black disaster I was trounced until it jarred my spine; I was a failure so pronounced I didn’t need a sign.  And after I had soaked my coat, I said (at forty-three), “I’ll see if I can catch the goat that has escaped from me.”  I labored hard; I strained my dome, to do my daily grind, until in triumph I came home, my billy-goat behind.  And any man who still has health may with the winners stack, and have a chance at fame and wealth—­for has-beens do come back.

Walt Mason.

From “Walt Mason, His Book.”

WISHING

Horace Greeley said that no one need fear the editor who indulged in diatribes against the prevalence of polygamy in Utah, but that malefactors had better look out when an editor took up his pen against abuses in his own city.  We all tend to begin our reforms too far away from home.  The man who wishes improvement strongly enough to set to work on himself is the man who will obtain results.

  Do you wish the world were better? 
    Let me tell you what to do. 
  Set a watch upon your actions,
    Keep them always straight and true. 
  Rid your mind of selfish motives,
    Let your thoughts be clean and high. 
  You can make a little Eden
    Of the sphere you occupy.

  Do you wish the world were wiser? 
    Well, suppose you make a start,
  By accumulating wisdom
    In the scrapbook of your heart;
  Do not waste one page on folly;
    Live to learn, and learn to live. 
  If you want to give men knowledge
    You must get it, ere you give.

  Do you wish the world were happy? 
    Then remember day by day
  Just to scatter seeds of kindness
    As you pass along the way,
  For the pleasures of the many
    May be ofttimes traced to one. 
  As the hand that plants an acorn
    Shelters armies from the sun.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox.

From “Poems of Power.”

AWARENESS