Direction Is All Important

HELLO FOLKS — A French man asked a German guest how they told the difference between an optimist and a pessimist in Germany.

"Very simple," the German explained. "The optimist is learning English, the pessimist is learning Russian."

THE NEW father learned all about relative humidity by holding his infant daughter on his lap.

—o—

AT TIMES my son has got me fearing
He might, perhaps, be hard of hearing
When out at play, although I call
and when I say, "Go wash your hands,"
Or "Put your toys away," he stands
Around as if he hadn't heard
A single solitary word.

It's only when I tell his mother
Some whispered little thing or other
I'd just as soon he would't learn,
I find his hearing's no concern

—o—

I HAVE HEARD a number of great speakers in my life. I love to listen to people who have something to say.

Recently I had the opportunity to listen to Sterling W. Sill. He is manger of New York Life Insurance and one of the nation's greatest personnel motivators. I listened to him for a total of about three hours and wearied not one bit. The mind of Mr. Sill is so full of ideas to motivate people into doing things that he doesn't bore you.

Among the many things he said was that in 1830 it was recommended to Congress that the patent office be closed because nearly everything that could be invented had been.

Since then 2 million patents have been issues. Without these patents we would not have any of the conveniences which we have today, among them being the telephone, phonograph, radio, television, autos, tractors, electricity and most of the fine clothes we wear. We would still be about 80 per cent farmers, wearing home spun clothes, home tanned shoes and walking most every place we go.

He mentioned that the brain is the size of our two fists, is composed of 70 per cent water, has 2 billion cells and can store more there than all the libraries in the world, and that only a fraction of it is used during the lifetime of a man. He also stated that we literally create our own mind by how we develop it.

He went on that the mind is something like a climbing vine. It tends to pull itself upward by the things it attaches itself to. When we build bars in our homes instead of altars our minds tend to follow the action.

There are 168 hours in the week. He said that 40 of them we use to make a living, the other 128 we use as we please. We need about 56 of those to get our rest and the other 72 we could use to improve ourselves.

He state that the most valuable thing in life is life itself. The one business in life is to succeed, he said, and no man need fail. The fundamental law of the universe is that we all get paid for what we do. We do not always reap as we sow but we often reap what others have sown, and the rewards are not always seen immediately. For instance George Washington is still receiving rewards for the good he did, as are the other good and great men.

This is of course, just a fraction of what he said but gives you an example of what he has to offer.