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Show When Success Is Poor John Lunsman, St. Louis junkyard' keeper, died the other day at the age of 86, leaving a fortune of slightly more than $250,000. For long years he lived a life of privation, engaged in mean tasks, depriving himself of pleasure, comfort, decent surroundings, friendships, devoting himself solely to the task of saving money. He had succeeded; his quarter of a million dollars attests it. Yet even in America, where money is placed on the highest high-est of pinnacles, it would be hard to find many people to agree that the old chap had led an enviable or admirable life. You can get just about what you want out of life if you care to pay the price. You can use life as the means to an end, subordinating everything in it to the one thing you are ! seeking, making every act your reference to your goal; and, like the old St. Louis junk dealer, you will be successful. Or you can look on life as something, of an end in itself. l . You can view it as an experience; something that can be . j.iuuo lo vir Id richness and fragrance fi'orrl first to last.' Klf , you do that you will have time for . little .diversions ajong J . ! ; : T " "xnprnces of love,, friendship,, deyn- i ! lion, self-sacrifice, fidelity and courage. Those are, the'thSngs j 1 1 that often have. to be thrown oyerboardiif ,one has toq n uth i 'i I singleness of purpose. But they are, jnrthe mojn, the( thiis ,J ,j i that make life worth living. ,,. - .. ,.u.',,r jn ,iS ' Old John Lunsman had 86 years and $2aQ,,Oo6.,wlie llSie - died; yet, for all that, he can hardly be said really to have j lived Ut all.' .He hat' his -goal Aijd; he;ined'f,;bt you cjojlld 1 j j not find anyone to. say that it was worth the price he pjid.1 !i And while few people sacrifice a's-'niuch to get as little ajhe J ';: ; did, his case is nevertheless a valuable, object lesson. j h I ' ! , s There is too much of a tendency to regard. jnaterial$uc-. j v cess as the sole criterion by which life can be .judged) f it I '" v.'ouki be fir.e to be Henry Ford, no doubt; yet, beyond cjues- tion, there are mechanics in Henry. Ford's own factories, .. salesmen in his own salesrooms, who have had more honest enjoyment out of life than Ford has had. ' " , We need to be a little bit less in earnest about life. Too present. There is something to be said for the wisdom of the grasshopper as opposed to the wisdom of the ant. |