The University of Hard KnocksParlette, Ralph Albert
Philosophy
The University of Hard Knocks
Parlette, Ralph Albert
Character; Conduct of life; Success
They are the ones who are "always trying to run things." They are the
happy ones, happy for the larger vision that comes as they go higher by
unselfish service. They are discovering that their sweetest pay comes
from doing many things they are not paid for. They rarely get thanked,
for the community does not often think of thanking them until it comes
time to draft the "resolutions of respect."
I had to go to the mouth of a coal-mine in a little Illinois town, to
find the man the bureau had given as lyceum committeeman there. I
wondered what the grimy-faced man from the shaft, wearing the miner's
lamp in his cap, could possibly have to do with the lyceum course. But
I learned that he had all to do with it. He had sold the tickets and
had done all the managing. He was superintendent of the Sunday school.
He was the storm-center of every altruistic effort in the town--the
greatest man there, because the most serviceable, tho he worked every
day full time with his pick at his bread-and-butter job.
The great people are so busy serving that they have little time to
strut and pose in the show places. Few of them are "prominent clubmen."
You rarely find their names in the society page. They rarely give
"brilliant social functions." Their idle families attend to such things.
A Glimpse of Gunsaulus
I found a great man lecturing at the chautauquas. He preaches in
Chicago on Sundays to thousands. He writes books and runs a college he
founded by his own preaching. He is the mainspring of so many uplift
movements that his name gets into the papers about every day, and you
read it in almost every committee doing good things in Chicago.
He had broken away from Chicago to have a vacation. Many people think
that a vacation means going off somewhere and stretching out under
trees or letting the mind become a blank. But this Chicago preacher
went from one chautauqua town to another, and took his vacation going
up and down the streets. He dug into the local history of each place,
and before dinner he knew more about the place than most of the natives.
"There is a sermon for me," he would exclaim every half-hour. He went
to see people who were doing things. He went to see people who were
doing nothing. In every town he would discover somebody of unusual
attainment. He made every town an unusual town. He turned the humdrum
travel map into a wonderland. He scolded lazy towns and praised
enterprising ones. He stopped young fellows on the streets. "What are
you going to do in life?" Perhaps the young man would say, "I have no
chance." "You come to Chicago and I'll give you a chance," the man on
his vacation would reply.
So this Chicago preacher was busy every day, working overtime on his
vacation. He was busy about other people's business. He did not once
ask the price of land, nor where there was a good investment for
himself, but every day he was trying to make an investment in somebody
else.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account