he does, he is lost. The lower coils will expand, bringing the business end, neck and all a few feet nearer; the head points like a leveled rifle, then darts forward with electric swiftness, guided by an unerring instinct for the selection of the least-protected parts of the body. (Text.)
(3087)
SUBTLETY AMONG ANIMALS
It is said that when wolves meditate an
attack upon the wild horses of the Mexican
plains they are very subtle in their maneuvers.
First, two wolves come out of the
woods and begin to play together like two
kittens. They gambol about each other and
run backward and forward. Then the herd
of horses raise their frightened heads in
readiness for a stampede. But the wolves
seem to be so playful that the horses, after
watching them a while, forget their fears
and continue to graze, at perfect ease in
their eating. Then the wolves, in their play,
come nearer and nearer, while other wolves
slowly and stealthily creep after them.
Then suddenly the enemies encircle the herd,
and with one lunge the doomed horses are
in the pitiless grasp of the wily foe. They
desperately fight a losing battle as the fierce
brutes sink their fangs in the horses' throats.
In a similar way evil companions seek
to lay a snare for those whom they
would entrap.
(3088)
SUCCESS
It often turns out that our apparent successes are really our undoing. Croake James tells this incident:
I was mightily delighted with the whim I
was shown on a sign at a village not far from
this capital, tho it is too serious a truth to
excite one's risibility. On one side is painted
a man stark naked, with this motto: "I am
the man who went to law and lost my cause."
On the reverse is a fellow all in tatters, looking
most dismally with this motto: "I am
the man who went to law and won my
cause." (Text.)—"Curiosities of Law and
Lawyers."
(3089)
A Nebraska woman won a prize of $250 for this essay on "What Constitutes Success," written in competition with many others:
He has achieved success who has lived
well, laughed often and loved much; who
has gained the respect of intelligent men and
the love of little children; who has filled his
niche and accomplished his task; who has
left the world better than he found it,
whether by an improved poppy, a perfect
poem or a rescued soul; who has never
lacked appreciation of earth's beauty or
failed to express it; who has always looked
for the best in others and given them the
best he had; whose life was an inspiration;
whose memory a benediction.
(3090)
SUCCESS AND CIRCUMSTANCES
I remember Thackeray saying to me, concerning
a certain chapter in one of his
books that the critics agreed in accusing of
carelessness: "Careless? If I've written
that chapter once, I've written it a dozen
times—and each time worse than the last!"
a proof that labor did not assist in his case.
When an artist fails it is not so much from
carelessness—to do his best is not only
profitable to him, but a joy. But it is not
given to every man—not, indeed, to any—to
succeed whenever and however he tries.
The best painter that ever lived never entirely
succeeded more than four or five
times; that is to say, no artist ever painted
more than four or five masterpieces, however
high his general average may have
been, for such success depends on the coincidence,
not only of genius and inspiration,
but of health and mood and a hundred other
mysterious contingencies.—Sir John Millais,
Magazine of Art.
(3091)
SUCCESS BY EXPERIMENTATION
A few years ago the cotton-boll weevil,
which had increased steadily from year to
year, reached a point at which it destroyed in
Texas over $30,000,000 worth of cotton in
one season. Many men in southern Texas
were bankrupted, cotton-planting was given
up in certain places, and it looked as if
this great wealth-producing industry were
doomed in Texas and probably also in time
over the entire South. The practical farmers
were completely overwhelmed. Here
the Department of Agriculture started three
lines of experimentation; first, to find some
other harmless insect or parasite that would
destroy the boll weevil as the white scale
had been destroyed in California; second, to
develop a species of cotton that could resist
weevil attack; and third, to find a method
of cultivation that would lessen the injury
of the attack of the weevil when made. The
ants, which the department brought from
South America to eat up the boll weevil,
proved a failure, but the development of a
