Ambitious men raise themselves like the tallest trees high above the shrub growth of somnolent spirits and so are "most in the power of the winds of fortune."
Your chance for Success is not lacking as long as the spark of Ambition is alive within you. With some men, Ambition dies between thirty and forty; with others it remains unquenched. Some men have made fortunes and lost them at forty-five, then have turned in and made other fortunes before retiring. Scores of great Successes have been recorded after the age of fifty; cases where Ambition, the "divine discontent," was never downed.
Without Ambition, the fire under the boilers of Industry would die and the pop-valves of Commerce would cease to reveal live power that drives the pistons of progress.
[A Martian at the Rink]
Picture a man from Mars, just descended, as he steps into an H.B.C. curling rink during the ninth "end"—when Scottish excitement is at its hottest. Try to comprehend his bewilderment as he hears frenzied shouts of "SWEEP, SWEEP, SWEEP 'er up! GET IT across the hog!" And again—"out turn, Mac; draw-weight and a wick off this one. Just come TO it!"
And sweatered, mufflered figures contort themselves in fantastic fox-trots on the ice as they swing mad brooms in the van of the skidding stones.
The grey rocks curl and thump—or twist uncannily to a berth behind guardian stones. "WE LIE," bursts in raucous chorus from steaming throats. "A marvelous confession thinks the man from Mars."
The roarin' game of Cur-r-r-lin' is in full fling at many of the Company's branches. Young and old all become younger in a fast and furious "draw."