SOWING AND REAPING.

The inevitable law of whatsoever a farmer sows, that must he reap in harvest, is equally true in the physical world. The farmer sows wheat and always gets wheat in return. Nature never changes or reverses her laws. If the farmer fails to plow and cultivate his land in the spring time, and sow his seed early, he will have no wheat in harvest, and weeds will grow instead, and sap its fertility. If a young man fails to sow the good seed in the morning of his days, to early in life cultivate his mind, and store it with valuable and useful information, he will also fail of reaping the reward that he hopes to obtain eventually. If the golden opportunities are suffered to pass unheeded, the golden harvest time will never come.

You can

not be idle for years and keep your mind fresh and vigorous, and as quick and sharp to learn and retain what is learned. The hardening process cannot be overcome. You suffer a loss that cannot be made good, however hard you may try.

PATIENTLY WAITING.

The farmer sows the grain in early spring, that he may reap in autumn. He has to wait for the seed to germinate and pass through all the varied processes until it is matured grain. He does not plow it up in a week or a month, because it has not matured. He has to patiently wait for the full maturity of the ripened grain.

One of the greatest mistakes young men are liable to make is, unwillingness to wait for the harvest. Because their labor, their sowing, does not bear fruit immediately, they throw up the scheme to try something else, which in its turn is abandoned. They are continually changing, and the oftener they change the more unsettled become their minds and the greater the difficulty to buckle down to one thing and stick to it. They desire immediate returns for their investments, and because they cannot get it, they sell out at a sacrifice and go into something else. It is not altogether in knowing what is the best thing to do, so much as there is sticking to it to the end. It has been well said that if any young man would go into any legitimate business and stick to it for ten years he would become independent. It requires courage, patience, and nerve.

STICK TO YOUR BUSINESS.

The secret of every man's success, who has worked his way up from poverty to affluence, is that he persistently applied himself to his legitimate business. Early and late, ignoring all outside business, paying no attention whatever to the many schemes offered, promising great returns for small investments, no matter how flattering. We have often seen good mechanics who could earn three dollars per day in the shop, trying to run a farm, or raising potatoes and vegetables that would cost them at least four times as much as it would to have bought them of dealers. Some people conceive the idea that their neighbors' business yields vastly greater profits than their own. A weak and vacillating mind never accomplishes anything. A man undertook to run a barber shop. He undertook to shave three men at once. They all got mad and left without being shaved, and the barber got mad because he had not shaved anybody.

A great many young men are inclined to clip off the corners, to round them off carelessly, and the more they clip the smaller becomes the circle, narrowing down their chances every round. Don't cut your corners. Leave them square as a brick. Maintain all the ground and hold all the chances you have; add to instead of contracting. Your success depends upon holding your ground firmly; yielding none and adding when you can.

LAYING THE FOUNDATION.

The very first step a young man takes for himself is the most im. portant one of all. If he would be right all the time he must start right. The first thing a builder does when preparing to erect a good substantial building is to lay the foundation, deep, broad and on a solid footing. If he fails to do this he will repent of his folly when it is too late. A few years ago a granite block was built in Boston some eight or nine stories high, and when it was completed, it was considered one of the best blocks in the city. Its substantial character to all appearance made it as lasting as the granite of which it was built. Tenants to occupy it were numerous. The builder had

the utmost faith in it. They could "pile it full of pig lead." But, alas, before it was half stocked with goods, it went down, filling the street with stone, bricks, broken timbers, and bales of goods; and several persons were killed who had not time to escape. We saw the block when completed, we saw it in ruins. Why did it fall? Down in the cellar was a few feet of an old wall, and to save a few dollars it was left, and when the enormous weight of the structure began to bear down upon it, it could not stand the pressure, and the entire block fell in ruins. A hundred or two hundred dollars worth of work saved in the foundation was over a hundred thousand dollars loss in the end, and that was but a trifle in comparison with the lives sacrificed, which no money could pay for.

THE FALL OF THE PEMBERTON MILL.

The Pemberton mill at Lawrence, Massachusetts, a few years ago, fell down while in full operation and full of operatives. The ruins immediately took fire and one hundred and twenty-five lives were sacrificed. It was simply the result of the grossest carelessness of the superintendent, or master-builder. Iron columns were allowed to be put in that were defective in casting. They were thin as paper on one side and as thick as a plank on the other, when they should have been as true as a hair all around. When the pressure came upon them they were crippled. All this came by trying to save a little money by getting work done cheaply. No man can afford to cheat himself in the foundation. So it is in character building. Every one must look well to the foundation. If that is defective it will tell on him, and may bring him down.

THE DAVENPORT BRIDGE.

When the great iron bridge that spans the Father of Waters at this city was built, the utmost care was exercised in putting down the piers, to get them on a solid foundation. They went down until they struck the rock, and then cut down into the rock for the first layer, and bolted it down. The layers were cemented and doweled together, making a piece of masonry as firm and solid as though it was hewn out of a quarry, one solid block. It will stand for centuries. Young man, lay your foundation deep; go down to the bed rock!

CHARACTER BUILDING.

A good reputation, based upon a good character, is a fortune to any young man. No one can eventually fill the positions in the community that he ought to fill, and which he hopes to fill, unless his character is spotless. Two men in two different counties in Illinois were elected to the office of treasurer of their respective counties. Neither could enter upon the duties of the office because he could not give the bonds required. The character of each for integrity and honesty was not backed up by their friends. Consequently they failed to get the offices, and the shadow will hang over them to the day of their death.

Hundreds of young men fail to get good positions in banks and public offices because they cannot give bonds. A cloud rests on their reputation. Better to sacrifice your right arm, than to have a cloud of suspicion on your character. Remember that you are building up your character every day, every hour. The public are scrutinizing it all the time, watching to see how you are building, how you are laying the foundation. The public have keen eyes and sensitive ears, and some terrible eave-droppers to tell on a fellow. Telephone wires run to every man's door.

Four young men went into an alley late one night to quarrel quietly over their ill luck at a gambling house. A night clerk in the post-office heard every word they said, and knew every voice. They were employed by firms in the city holding responsible positions. If their names had appeared in the morning papers there would have been some vacancies, and an advertisement like this would have appeared, "Wanted a clerk; none but those having the best of references need apply."

A gentleman was riding in a street car, and heard two young men talking over a Sunday's carnival, and learned what this one and that one did, and what one of his own clerks did. He was thunderstruck. He could not believe it. It must be some other young man of the same name. It set him to thinking. He put a detective on

his clerk's tracks, who followed him for two weeks. He put a watch on his every day work, and on the cash drawer; also on the customers that were always so particular to transact all their business with him. The detective reported, and the next day the young man

was "off duty." He was not feeling well; had not been feeling well of late. Thought he would have to change climate, and he did.

We tell you young man that you cannot ride two horses at the same time, especially when they are going in opposite directions. We often hear young men complaining that they cannot get anything to do. Other young men succeed while they fail. They forget, or do not realize the fact, when sowing their wild oats, that they will some day have to reap them. O, the briars, the thorns how they scratch and tear; yes they prick to the very quick. That is not all, they leave the scars, that will not wash out, or heal up. However much a merchant may value smartness or business talent in a young man, it all goes for nothing, if he is not reliable. Integrity first, integrity last. That must be your corner stone if you are building up a character that will stand against every temptation, every snare, every allurement, and give you a spotless reputation, and what money cannot buy.

ADMIRAL FARRAGUT AT TEN YEARS OF AGE.

Admiral David G. Farragut tells the story of how he laid the foundation of his splendid career, as follows:

"Would you like to know how I was enabled to serve my country It was all owing to a resolution I formed when I was ten years of age. My father was sent down to New Orleans with the little navy we then had, to look after the treason of Burr. I accompanied him as cabin boy. I had some qualities that I thought made a man of me. I could swear like an old salt; could drink as stiff a glass of grog as if I had doubled Cape Horn, and could smoke like a locomotive. I was great at cards, and fond of gambling in every shape. At the close of the dinner, one day, my father turned everybody out of the cabin, locked the door, and said to me:

"David, what do you mean to be?'

"I mean to follow the sea.'

"Follow the sea! Yes, be a poor miserable, drunken sailor before the mast, kicked and cuffed about the world, and die in some fever hospital in a foreign clime.'

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"No,' I said, 'I'll tread the quarter-deck, and command, as you do.'

"No, David; no boy ever trod the quarter-deck with such princi