Show I I j 1 UNCOMMON N SENSE I By JOHN BL BLAKE KE Reserve Energy No N faculty acuity in jn ii th the mInd can function without training 4 III A A. military force no matter how great and well welt equipped d would be of or no service to toa to-a a nation In time of war unless it had been kept constantly exercised In ord order r to m make ke a a. fire department worth anything anything anything any any- thing thor the men meW and nd engines engines' must be used often though they may do nothing nothing- but lut go through the motions motions' ot of fighting fires lires v The necessity of training in lr order to keep the mind in m trim was never better expressed ed than In Inthe inthe inthe the following lines lines- from William J JamesT me one of the clearest thinking the world has known Keep the faculty o of of effort alive in in you by a little Tittle gratuitous exercise every every day That Is be systematically heroic in m little Unnecessary unneCEssary unnecessary un un- UnI necessary points points' i S Do every da day or two something for no other re reason redson son than the difficulty so that when the hour of dire need dra draws draV V nigh it It may find you not unnerved and untrained the stand the test Asceticism of this sort is like the insurance which a a aman man pays on his house and g goods The tax does him no good at the time and possibly may maT never bring him a return But if the fire does doe come his having paid it wm wilbe will wil willbe be his salvation from ruin So with the man who has daily inured himself to the h habits bits of concentrated attention en energetic I volition and self denial in unnecessary things He will stand like a tower when everything rocks around him and his softer fellow mortals mortals' are I winnowed like chaff in jn the blast The men wo stand up under misfortune which I is ib likely kely to come to anyone none are are those who lave hive hardened to met it by practicing self restraint and learning learning- with how little they lean can get along The men who in great hours suddenly develop into lenders lender do not do so merely because the need c of the hour is great grea reat they do it because they have learned to do it even wh when n the training they were undergoing seemed unnecessary Not even the most unimportant roan man man in the world can tell at what moment he may may have responsibilities responsibilities thrust upon him The crew of the great great trans transAtlantic Atlantic liner will probably never neier have occasion to lower the lifeboats in fl a hurry or to take the stations from which they can pi prevent event panic and insure insure insure- the rapid abandoning of the ship But if it they were not constantly drilled in in- that work they would be as useless as as' as the passengers passengers should the vessel ram an an iceberg erg or or take fire fire at sea I We Ve cannot as we we said in one of these articles th the other da day look around the corner and see what Is oming I But if Jt we have Kept our ey eyes eyeS s open we can imagine the various things that may mav possibly be becoming becoming coming and m make ke ready to d deal al with them when they theT arrive I Most people are so gaited galled that when th they y have wrested from the world Just enough to earn their bed and bread and aM possiblY an automobile they sit down and rest confident that they h have ve earned their I nights night's repose But But unless less we think of future night night and insure their repose by getting ready for possibly leaky roofs or broken furnaces the future is pretty shak shaky Preparedness is just as necessary to an vid vidi al al as to a nation And neither nation nor individual can be ready for eventualities eventualities' except t b by y hard work and training traIning- of faculties that may never be exercised in an emergency Cop Copyright right 1924 by bv the Bell BeH Syndicate Inc |