"I happened one day," he says, "into the office of a ’gold ticker’ company which had about five hundred subscribers. A thousand words leave not the same deep print as does a single deed.—Ibsen. I was standing beside the apparatus when it gave a terrific rip-roar and suddenly stopped. In a few minutes hundreds of messenger boys blocked up the doorway and yelled for some one to fix the tickers in the office. The man in charge of the place was completely upset; so I stepped up to him and said: ’I think I know what’s the matter.’ I removed a loose contact spring that had fallen between the wheels; the machine went on. The result? I was appointed to take charge of the Woman—the crown of creation.—Herder. service at three hundred dollars a month. When I heard what the salary was I almost fainted." It had been his hopeful, cheerful, expectant attitude toward the future that had ever prompted him to fit himself so well that when the opportunity offered itself he was able to show that he possessed the grasp of things that made him
THE CONQUEROR
There’s a day, there’s an hour, a moment of timeHarmony is the essence of power as well as beauty.—A. E. Winship.
When Fate shall be willing to try us;
This one test of our worth and our purpose sublime,
It will not, it cannot deny us.
’Tis our right to demand one true crisis, else how
Shall we prove by our valor undaunted
That we merit the wreath Fortune lays on the brow
Of the man who is there when he’s wanted?
And whene’er Opportunity knocks at his doorBe faithful to thyself, and fear no other witness but thy fear.—Shelley.
The wise one’s glad greeting is, "Ready!"
He has garnered, of knowledge, an adequate store,
His purpose is seasoned and steady.
With soul and with spirit, with hand and with heart,
And with strength that he never has vaunted,
He is fashioned and fitted to compass his part,
Is the man who is there when he’s wanted.
The world is a stage and our lives are a playTo give heartfelt praise to noble actions is, in some measure, making them our own.—La Rochefoucauld.
And the role that is given us in it
May be grand or obscure, yet there comes the great day
When we speak its best lines for a minute.
And the dream that through all of life’s trials and tears,
The soul, like soft music, has haunted,
Comes true, and the world gives its smiles and its cheers
To the man who is there when he’s wanted.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING