Page 2 Advertisements Column 5

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 281, 30 April 1914, Page 2

WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH YOUR EVENINGS? (By Dr. Orison Mardcn.) "The problem of getting a living has been solved," says James J. Hill, "but we have yet to learu how wisely to niake use of our leisure moments." A clear understanding of the possi bilities which live in spare time is a prominent quality ot the man who do'is things, lie wastes 110 time in dreaming of what he would do if he could go t:/ College, or travel or have command of long periods of uninterrupted time. Ha is not guilty of evading the possibilities •f his career by shielding himself behind adverse conditions. Thousands in our country have become cultivated men and women by utilising odds arid ends of time. They liave open ed wider the door of opportunity, broad ened their outlook of life and enteivd into new worlds of science, literature and art—worlds which are barred to the ignorant. I wish it were possible to show those who long to get on in the world, but who are crippled by the lack of an education, how comparatively easy it is to get a good substitute for a regular course at school or even College in their leisure time it homo. Of, course, it is a fine thiug to go to College; but if you cannot, then do the next best tiling—study by yourself. No man is so poor that he cannot get a good education at home. In fact, many of the trades and professions,, as well as the classical courses, are well taught by the correspondence schools, and it 's surprising to see how easy the whole thing is, looking at it not from the standpoint of four years in College, and perhaps three more in preparation of a specialty, but by looking at the single hours at home and the separate subjects. They are not at all formidable. Nothing but false fear or downright laziness can hold a man or woman back now. If people would only realise that 9 College course is simply made up of single hours of study, of reading and of thinking, it would not seem so formidable. Iwery hour at highly concentrated study at home may be 1 also as good as the hour so spent in a College Yet with all the facilities for selfeducation this country affords, its correspondence schools and evening schools, librari.'i and f.i .■ i.'i'rjr,; .•ourses, ;,ij all the_ splendid opporcuniUes for 1.0.rc study in the long winter evenings .and odds ana ends of time, it is sad to see young people grow up in ignorance, murdering tile English language, ignor ant of their own country's nistory and geography, ignorant of trade or profession, and knowing almost nothinjr of literature. ' There is no excuse for ignorance today Anyone who has ambition and nealth can educate himself in his Insure moments. I know a number of young men who had almost no schooling at all, but who were obliged to go to worn at from twelve to fourteen vears of a»o' ind who have so improved their spare tim« that no one would dream that the--- were not College caucated. I have in niintl one young man that was never even graduated from a high school, and yet he has been principal of two. He has been oiiered professors' chairs in some of our Universities. Lmi" winter evenings and liall-hoiidavs have meant something to this man. 'He h.is squeezed from them their possibilities. I \\ isdom will not open her doors fo those who are not willing t pav the, price of admission. She will not sell Her jewels lor money, but will give them to every poor boy and girl wiio yearns and works for iier. Ihe moment a young man ceases to of of opportunity, either fir an education or for a career, but resolute, v looks conditions in the face a ill resolves fo change them, lie scores .i victory and lays the wmer Efene of a solid career: Even if he must go slo.v, lie will go far. Young man or woman, whose education has been neglected, what will you do during the long winter evening,!? U ill you drift with the current. tal:i,i<> Sl "r p " n|, <'ming your future? That • the danffr lies that you will reman, among the eclipsed, the nnnoti,vl, hj" unprovided for. The tutnre never takes care of itself; it: is taken ear* J ll ' 11, '"oulaed, colored bv the • pre-