A lady relative of the writer found a servant weeping on the back porch one morning. Asking her the cause of her grief, she said she had seen a
snake in the garden, and got to thinking what if that snake had been in the
back yard instead of the garden, and suppose the little boy of the family
had been there, and suppose the snake had seen him, and suppose the
snake had bitten him and off she went into another gush of tears. And yet
neither the boy nor the snake were in the back yard!
The cause of the servants grief, silly and needless as it was, was better
grounded than that of some heart burdens and mental harassment we have
observed in life; because the woman did see a snake that morning, while
others have created their serpents and vipers with their own lively
fancies.
A popular book published several years back, mentions a character who
had the following sentence written in big letters above his mantel: The
greatest troubles I ever had; never took place. This was only another way
of recognizing the spirit and practice of which we are writing.
The writer had a grand-aunt who fairly abounded and overflowed with
worry. When a new barrel of flour was bought and rolled into the storeroom,
she immediately looked to the end of it and not its beginning.
Invariably she would say to her husband on that very morning: Mr. G.
the flour is out. He got to know her so well, that he knew that this strange
speech of hers properly translated meant that the barrel had just been
opened.
One of her Monday morning speeches to her cook and washerwoman
was: "Kitty, here it is Monday morning, tomorrow is Tuesday, the next
Wednesday half the week gone, and nothing done."
It was curious as well as amusing to see how she got wrought up and
highly irritated over her own fancy deliverances.
The habit indicates most unmistakably an utter inability of self-control;
and he who cannot master himself need not expect to manage others. The
great political, military and religious leaders of men, were famous for their power to be calm and silent under criticism, abuse, slander, failure, defeat and every kind of catastrophe.
When Washington saw the Battle of Monmouth turned into defeat from
victory, he was perfectly silent. When Robert E. Lee beheld Gettysburg
lost through the failure of one of his corps commanders to follow his
orders, he quietly removed his field glass from his eyes, and rode off
without speaking a word or showing a sign of the crushing
disappointment which had come to him through another hand.
He who would lead men and succeed in lifes work, must eliminate the spirit of worry, and altogether eschew the language of whining lamentation.
Living Illustrations By B. Carradine.
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