Erudite Relics of Loc Huu Ho

P.T. Barnum had shrewdness, inventiveness, hair-trigger readiness in acting or deciding, an eye for hidden possibilities, an instinct for determining beforehand what would prove popular. All these qualities helped him in his original and extraordinary career. But the quality he valued most highly was the one he called “stick-to-it-iveness.” This completed the others. Without it the great showman could not have succeeded at all. Nor did he think that any man who lacks it will make much headway in life. Read the rest of this entry »

“Yes, it’s pretty hard,” the optimistic old woman admitted. “I have to get along with only two teeth, one in the upper jaw and one in the lower–but thank God, they meet.”

Here’s to “The days that might have been”;
Here’s to “The life I might have led”;
The fame I might have gathered in–
The glory ways I might have sped.
Great “Might Have Been,” I drink to you
Upon a throne where thousands hail–
And then–there looms another view–
I also “might have been” in jail.

O “Land of Might Have Been,” we turn
With aching hearts to where you wait;
Where crimson fires of glory burn,
And laurel crowns the guarding gate;
We may not see across your fields
The sightless skulls that knew their woe–
The broken spears–the shattered shields–
That “might have been” as truly so.

“Of all sad words of tongue or pen”–
So wails the poet in his pain–
The saddest are, “It might have been,”
And world-wide runs the dull refrain.
The saddest? Yes–but in the jar
This thought brings to me with its curse,
I sometimes think the gladdest are
“It might have been a blamed sight worse.”

Grantland Rice.

From “The Sportlight.”

Bob Fitzsimmons lacked the physical bulk of the men he fought, was ungainly in build and movement, and not infrequently got himself floored in the early rounds of his contests. But many people consider him the best fighter for his weight who ever stepped into the prize ring. Not a favorite at first, he won the popular heart by making good. Of course he had great natural powers; from any position when the chance at last came he could dart forth a sudden, wicked blow that no human being could withstand. But more formidable still was the spirit which gave him cool and complete command of all his resources, and made him most dangerous when he was on the verge of being knocked out. Read the rest of this entry »