Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 June 1875 — Little Wanderers. [ARTICLE]

Little Wanderers.

I have al ways noticed that those who were the best at precept were often tbe poorest at practice, and those who were best at practice were poorest at precept. Most people loye to be praised, ami some are so fond of it thai they will take it from those whose praise is a disgrace to anybody. Those who have, real merit are seldom proud of it, and often even unconscious of it. There are just as many joys in this world as sorrows, and we can find them just as easy if we will only hunt for them. I meet but few natural people; this don’t astonish me, for it requires a good deal of brains to be natural. It is good judgment to enjoy life as we go along; we ain’t sure of old age, and if we were, cld age is no time for enjoyment. The man who has Vever been tempted can’t tell anywhere near how much virtue lie has got jn him. - There are but few things that pay so well on the investment as politeness; it gratifies out vanity and don’t cost anything. Th&>really wise are always astonished at how little they know. We all of us charge our blunders on something or somebody else—if a shoemaker makes a misfit he always blames the foot but not the boot Man must have been especially created to paddle his own canoe, for we see nobody. snubbed so often as the person who is always anxious to help somebody else. ® x When a man has lost all his property he generally Ibsgs all his friends, and the world doesn’t hesitate to say they always knyw he was a cussed fool. Truth is very compact, but a lie must have plenty of ro#m or it will smother. Imitators only interest us for a short time; to make a great success a man must either be original or improve on others.

Reading is the means, but thinking is the end, of knowledge. The poorest kina of religion that a man can have is the kind that he is a|l the time bragging about. There are a great many individuals in this world who expect to reach heaven, not on any particular merit of their own, but on the failings of others. The beßt way to satisfy yourself, and' others, too, is to mind your own business One great disadvantage in being" an habitual liar is that when a man does actually tell the truth he don’t get credit for it only at the rate of fifty cents on the dollar. We often hear of men “who know more than they can tell,” and once in a great while we come across one who can tell more than he knows. Energy and judgment are what tell. There have been, and always will be, just as many failures in a good cause as a bad one, if they ain’t handled right. Poverty is a great blessing to some folks, I always think it is good taste, and also good judgment, when a man prays for the sins of the people, to count himself in. I have heard it said that adversity is a great deal safer for a man than prosperity, and I guess it is, especially if the man is a fool. It is no disgrace for a man to fall, but to lay there and grunt is. If you want to get into a tight spot, where you can’t back out nor go ahead, be the confidant of half a dozen sets of secrets; you might as well undertake to help one hornets’ nest break up another and expect not to get stung by the whole of them. The man who is always anxious to tell all he knows will soon run out of stock and begin to tell what he don’t know. Those people who cheat themselves are always easiest to be cheated by others. This life is one of disappointments, and the only way I know of to avoid them is to expect nothing. The man who listens has the man who talks in his power.— Josh Billings , in N. Y. Weekly. ______