ACHIEVEMENT
The Denver Republican recently contained this brief account of a farmer working heroically on a one-man rail-*road, and remarked that it is typical of the individual spirit that has achieved great things in the West:
The story of the Kansas farmer, who, with
a scraper and a pair of mules, is building a
fifty-mile railroad, would indicate that the
supply of courageous men is not entirely
exhausted.
The farmer who is tackling this tremendous job alone and who is serenely indifferent to all the jeers of his neighbors, scorned to admit defeat when he could not interest any one with capital in the road which he deemed necessary. He went to work with such material as he had at hand and, somehow, even without seeing the man or knowing aught of his project, one can not help sharing the farmer's belief that he is to "carry the thing through."
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, was kind and
courteous to his army, both to officers
and soldiers. He shared the toils and
hardships of those who were under his
command. He gave them, too, their share
of the glory which he acquired, by attributing
his success to their courage and
fidelity. At one time, after some brilliant
campaign in Macedonia, some persons in
his army compared his progress to the
flight of an eagle. "If I am an eagle,"
replied Pyrrhus, "I owe it to you, for you
are the wings by means of which I have
risen so high."
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ACQUAINTANCES
If we could prove by statistics the number
of acquaintances a man had fifty years
ago, and those which the modern man has,
the difference would be enormous. The
tendency is everywhere to enlarge one's
circle—ambitious people with discernment,
but the foolish, blindly, without any interest
or inclination to guide them. I once heard
a woman announce with pride, "I have 2,000
visits to make this winter." She flaunted
this fact before her less favored friends, who
had only 1,000 names on their visiting lists.
Could there be anything more futile than this
thirst for increasing one's bowing acquaintances?
What useless ballast are these interminable
lists, in which no place is left for
an hour's intelligent or affectionate inter-*course.
The habit of going from drawing-room
to drawing-room gives certain persons
a style in conversation that is as flat as a
well-drest stone, not one spontaneous word
in it, not an angle, not a defined form!—Dora
Melegari, "Makers of Sorrow and
Makers of Joy."
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Acquiescence in Temptation—See Desires, Inordinate.
ACQUIESCENCE TO PROVIDENCE
Each branch of a vine is bound to a
certain point of its wall or its conservatory.
It is not growing just where and how it
would spontaneously and naturally choose,
but is affixt there contrary to its natural
bent, in order that it may catch the sun-*beams
at that point and cover that spot
with beautiful foliage and luscious fruit.
Sorrow is like the nail that compels the branch to grow in that direction; inevitable circumstance is like the rough strip of fiber which bends the branch, and pain is like the restraint which is suffered by the branch which would have liked to wander at its own will. We are not to murmur or repine at our lot in life, but are to remember that God has appointed it and placed us there. (Text.)
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ACQUISITION
An interesting side-light on the kind of men who attend the classes of the city evening technical schools was given by a commissioner of the Board of Education in a recent address to young men:
"I visited the forge-room" (said he),
"where a class of twenty-five young black-*smiths
were shaping and welding various
models of iron bars and iron blades. It was
an inspiring scene. No man, however indolent
or indifferent to the world's work,
could have looked on without having his
ambitions revived. The glowing metal
yielded to the hammer blows of these youthful
artizans, because interest in their work
and a desire to become producers directed
their bare and brawny arms. I walked
about unnoticed. They felt no interest in
commissioners of education. At one of the
anvils I noticed a particularly fine, well-*built
young fellow. He was wholly absorbed
in his work, so when I picked up the book he
had partly hidden under his cap on his tool-
