San Antonio Sunday Light (San Antonio, Tex.), Vol. 46, No. 69, Ed. 1 Sunday, March 28, 1926 Page: 29 of 92
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SDITORIA L HIITYTJF F I
.M J& Sunday March 28 1926 0
“God’s in his heaven;
All’s right with the world.”
| r ■ ■ —i]E who quotes those two lines of
H Browning’s usually does so because
HE has what he happens to want.
Those that suffer worry and
/fk strive in vain do NOT feel that
@ O “all is well with the world.” They
do not criticize Providence or Divine management
but far removed from “the top of the world” that
they long fcr they bemoan their fate criticize and
denounce the selfishness of other human beings
and feel that all is NOT well.
This picture like others published each Sun-
-1 day on this page is intended to stir up the thought
of readers rather than to SUPPLY them with
thought ready made.
It is the thinking that each man does FOR
HIMSELF that counts and pushes him ahead.
Ready-made thought absorbed and forgotten
has little value.
• • e
WHAT IS WORTH WHILE? And where IS
that “top of the world” upon which so many think
they are “sitting pietty”?
Each of us men and women boys and girls
has his ideal his ambition and locates his “top of
the world” to suit his wishes.
Uu little boy thinks that if he could have a
gun a barrel full of candy a dog that could beat
other dogs a sled a knife and NO SCHOOL he
would be “on top of the world.”
Ten years later as he gazes upon some lovely
charmer he believes that a life of perfect happi-
ness with her would be “the top of the world” and
। higher. Too often he finds through his own fault "
that he was mistaken about that.
Man’s ambition his “top of the world” de-
pends upon his education physical condition age
supply of nervous energy ancestry environment.
We are what our ancestors and surroundings
make us.
Born in the African jungle there is no.possi-
bility of ambition for there is nothing there to
stir it up.
Born in a millionaire’s house there is LIT-
TLE chance of ambition. Flattery in youth
money that comes without effort every whim sat-
isfied without work—all that means killing
ambition^
ON TOP OF THE WORLD
He Is Happy.
He THINKS He is Happy.
How high is your ambition? Just what is it? Answer those questions and
you describe yourself
“Sitting on top of the world” is a popular American expression. The man
who HAS what he WANTS or THINKS he wants says that he is sitting on top of
the world.
In this picture you see three that THINK they hold the topmost position.
And you see one that if earnest and capable REALLY DOES HOLD IT.
What is worth while in this world? A bag of PEANUTS to a monkey a bag
of GOLD to a miser a new DANCE to a fool and WISDOM TO A WISE MAN.
From country to country from century to
century and from period to period of our lives
our characters wishes and ambitions change.
Read once more one of the best things ever
written Shakespeare’s description of the seven
ages of man. No matter how often you have read
it you will find something new. The world to him
is a stage “and all the men and women merely
players.”
While they are “merely players” they are
players seeking for the limelight for the centre of
the stage and that place in the theatre is the “top
of the world.” This is how Shakespeare describes
man’s seven ages:
All the world’s a stage
And all the men and women merely players.
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
And then the whining schoolboy with his satchel
And shining morning face creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover
Sighing like furnace with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier.
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard;
Jealous in honour sudden and quick in quarrel.
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice
In fair round belly with good capon lined
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut.
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
As so he plays his part The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon.
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose well saved a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice
Turning again toward childish treble pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all
That ends this strange eventful history.
Is second childishness and mere oblivion
Sans teeth sans eyes sans taste sans everything.
In ail of those seven ages there are varied de-
Copyrirht 1929. by N.v York American Ino.
sires changing ambitions. The infant wants to
walk a few steps. The “whining schoolboy”
would like to play instead of going to school and
so on down “to the last scene of all that ends this
strange eventful history.”
Extreme old age too often not knowing what
things are really worth while clings to wealth that
can no longer be used for pleasure as you see in
the second picture above and believes that “the
top of the world” is the top of a money bag.
.* * e
Ambition with its different “tops of the
world” reaches from the ridiculous to the sublime
as feeble human beings understand the sublime.
Each of us looks upon the world as an oyster
from which something worth while can be ex-
tracted.
Why then the world’s mine oyster
Which I with sword will open.
After the oyster is opened some of us are sat-
isfied if we can extract three meals a day with
freedom from worry. Others like Alexander the
Great having conquered the world sigh because
there are no more worlds to conquer.
Others “with deep conviction” would repeat
Sydney Smith’s warning: “Avoid shame but do
not seek glory—nothing so expensive as glory.”
To most of us freedom from worry plus a few
ordinary pleasures represent the height of ambi-
tion. NOT to be worried NOT to be driven NOT
to work too hard. Such a fate contents the aver-
age man.
t * e
There is only one position that can really be called
“the top of the world’’ and that is the position in which
a man or woman is doing the best most useful most
WORTH WHILE thing that he or she can do.
Whether your accomplishment be little or big impor-
tant to the whole world or unimportant your place ip
He Doesn’t Think at AU.
The REAL lop ot the World.
secure you are entitled to honor and congratulation if you
are doing THE BEST THAT YOU CAN DO.
One man controls vast armies wins with his intellect
a great war and decides the destiny of nations.
HE IS ON TOP.
Another man name unknown obeys orders marches
against machine guns falls riddled with bullets. He is
dead soon picked up and carried off with other corpses.
But he also is on top for he also has DONE HIS BEST.
We all amount to so little that a few years smooth out the
differences among us.
• * ♦
Of the four pictures above the one that will interest
readers and make them think is that of the man in his
library. He is at the bottom of many shelves of books but
if he adds the Knowledge of those books to his own and
USES WHAT HE KNOWS producing something worth
while he is the one “on top of the world.’’
There are fortunately thousands of such men working
late into the night in the cities studying the stars in the
astronomical observatories working out scientific problems
in chemistry physics electricity in the laboratories.
The powers of nature make the world go round safely
spinning in its track about the sun. The powers of those
higher intellects ceaselessly working make the human race
MOVE UP higher and keep civilization moving while the
earth moves.
e e *
In the eyes of eternal justice perhaps we are all of us
doing about the best we can do considering heredity en-
vironment and opportunity or the lack of it.
The monkey is content with his peanuts. They repre-
sent the top of the world to him. That is the best he KNOWS.
The miser with his gold is content. He is simply a dif-
ferent ki.* ’ of monkey with a different kind of peanut his
mind concentrated on the golden peanut that he cannot eat.
The dancing gentleman has his brains in his feet but
he is not U be blamed for that; and young he may change
and later shift the scene of his activity.
“Ever’ man is as heaven made him sometimes a great
deal worse’* as Sancho Panza said It is not for one to
criticize the other but for each to find his place on top of
the world—HlS LITTLE WORLD—by doing the best he
can to be useful in the BIG world.
There is no such thing as failure to the man that really
TRIES and often failure that seems most complete is in
reality glorious victory.
When Fulton sent his first steamboat up the river the
crowds mocked him but he changed the navies of all the
world.
When the first automobile appeared on the street the
drivers were mocked and advised to “get a horse.” They
did away with hc-ses.
The founder of Christianity Himself was mocked in
His anguish by the ignorant who said that He had come to
save the world and could not save Himself. And He HAS
SAVED THE WORLD.
e e *
The world is round so every spot on it is “the top of
the world" one spot being as high as another on our globe
eight thousand miles through twenty-five thousand mile*
round. And the spot where you WORK sincerely and use-
fully whatever the work may be is in reality and LITER.
ALLY the top of the world.
May you enjoy yourself on your particular " to» ” -
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San Antonio Sunday Light (San Antonio, Tex.), Vol. 46, No. 69, Ed. 1 Sunday, March 28, 1926, newspaper, March 28, 1926; San Antonio, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1631548/m1/29/: accessed June 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .