SERIOUS THOUGHTS.

Waikato Argus, Volume V, Issue 348, 1 October 1898, Page 1 (Supplement)

SERIOUS THOUGHTS.

THOROUGHNESS. The following extract from a conversation between James Garfield and a school-mate, shows well the character of the future president. Garfield had undertaken the othce of janitor while at Hiram Institute to pay his school expenses. " Jim, I don't see hut you sweep just as well as you recite." " Why shouldn't I ?" James responded promptly. " Mauy people do important things beat," replied his school-mate, ".'and a lesson is more important thau sweep* iog." " You are heretical," exclaimed James, " If your views upon other matters are not sounder than that, you will not make a safe leader. Sweeping, in its place, is just as important as a lesson in Greek is, in its pluce, aud therefore, according to your own rule, should be done as well." •' You are right, Jim ; I yield my heresy, like the honest boy that I am." " 1 think that the boy who would not sweep well, would not study well," continued James. " There may be exceptions to the rule ; but the rule ia a correct one." " I guess you are about right Jim ; but my opinion is that few people carry out the rule. There are certain things about which most people are superficial, however thorough they may be in others." " That may be true ; 1 shall not dispute you there," rejoined James ; " and that is one reason why so many people fail of success. They have no settled purpose to be thorough. Not long ago I read in the life of Franklin that he claimed ' thoroughness must be a principle of action.'" " And that is why you sweep as well as you study," interrupted his mate. " Yes, of course ; aud there is no reason why a person should not be as thorough in one thing as in another. I don't think it any harder to do work well than it is to half do it. I know that it is much harder to recite a lesson poorly than to recite it perfectly." " I found out that some time ago to my mortification," rejoined his mate. " There is some fun in a perfect le&sou, I confess, and a great amount of misery in a poor one." " It is precisely so with sweeping," added James. " The sight of a halfswept floor would be an eyesore to me all the time. It would be all of a piece with a poor lesson." " I could go the half-swept floor best," remarked his mate. " I em go neither best," retorted James, " since there is no need of it." —" From Log Cabin to White House." (F).