Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 100, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 April 1919 — ALWAYS HAS HOPE [ARTICLE]

ALWAYS HAS HOPE

Prospector for Gold One of For- ’ tunate Men. With Belief in One's Luck to Be “Just Ahead” the Buffets of Fate Are Things at Which to Laugh. The typical prospector for gold, still met with in the far hills and deserts, may well be taken by all men as an example and an inspiration as far as the blessings of staying hopes are concerned, says the Los Angeles Times. “Hope. deferred maketh the heart sick,” says the proverb. But it is not a good proverb. No matter how long deferred a hope may be ft Ahobld never be abandoned. It should never be anything but an inspiration and an incitement. *' Take this nomadic tribe of prospectors, for Instance. The typical prospector is a man who has spent perhaps the most of his life pursuing a hope that has never been realized. Yet we never find them discouraged. We never know them to end their days in despair. No matter how many their years of failure may be they vArlll tell you that just beyond the next chain of hills or In the heart of a still unexplored desert the treasures they seek are surely awaiting them. A most sincere and persistent man Is the prospector. He believes in his quest and respects it. The little or the much that he wins by spasmodic toil he invests in his dreams. He braves the solitudes and the lonely wastes of the world to reach the goal for which he strives. Hunger, thirst and other hardships and sufferings he endures with a willing heart. And he never despairs. That’s the glory of the prospector—he never despairs. The average man, hedged in by the traditions of towns and cities or settled in the humdrum of the country, looks upon the prospector as a queer and somewhat demented individual. We laugh at this strange fellow who is pictured to us as plodding along in the wildernesses and the sandy desolations with his pack and his burro, following the will-o’-the-wisps of fortune. But the prospector is only doing in his way what we are doing in ours. We are following each our own dream as the prospector is following his. The only difference is that we proceed in safety and without adventure. Otherwise we are the same as the wanderer of the desert and the hills. And also we are soon discouraged and we are easy prey to defeat, while it is death alone that can defeat the prospector. It seems to us that of all the misfortunes there are in life—and heaven knows there are many—the misfortune of hopelessness is the worst. “Only for hope the heart would die/' said a poet It was a true thtng to say. And about this wonderful thing of hope there is another way to look at it and that Is that we should always have at least one hope ahead. That Is to say, we should always have something that we look forward to. Then, if what we have in hand fails us, tiie other thing that we look forward to will stay us. Hope is something to be busy with. It is something of which We should accumulate a store. Always have plenty of hopes and have them so that they will reach out and last away into the years of the future. There 18 really something mysterious about a hope. If you will cherish It faithfully and keep it waftn in your heart you will be almost sure to sometime realize it. It is said that we are what we believe ourselves to be. But perhaps we might better say that we are what our hopes are. Since then a long-cherished hope is most likely to be realized, surely it were foolish of us to harbor hopes that will not bring.us comfort and joy. Hope for the best there is—not great riches, not any material possession, but peace for the heart and a serenepath for the white years of old age.