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editorial and City Cife Section of Bearst’s Sunday American, Atlanta, Hooentber i, W
COULD YOU ANSWER DEFI
NITELY?
Could you tell just exactly what
your plans, YOUR MEANING,
are?
It is important to you to answer
that question.
A man who means to do a certain
definite thing may fail, but he MAY
succeed. The chances are with him
if he really MEANS IT.
A man who MEANS nothing in
particular will DO nothing in par
ticular, and of that you may be sure.
This is the donkey of all the ages.
‘ ‘I didn’t mean to, ’ ’ he says, and thinks that
all foolishness is wiped away by that foolish word,
“I didn’t mean to.”
MEAN WHAT YOU DO.
Plan your WORK AND its results so that you
may say at the end, “That is what I DID. AND
that is what I MEANT.”
[jpEEn^l] HERE are two kinds of
jjlj prp [jjj criminalit y—the
[jjj JO) vicious and THE
FOOLISH.
VICIOUS criminality PLANS
evil and carries it out. The mur
derer kills, the thief steals, the bur
glar breaks in. And we all recognize
the three as criminals and refuse to
accept their excuses.
The other criminal is the “I didn’t
mean to” donkey.
He does more harm in the world,
undoubtedly, than murderers,
thieves and burglars.
He lives in every block in every
city.
You hear his voice a dozen times a
day.
Above all the foolishness and
harmful idiocy of the world there
arises a silly cloud, and on it the
words, “I didn’t mean to.”
cursed his own life and that of
others.
“I didn’t mean to,” says he. “I just
drifted into it and little by little I
went down. But I didn’t mean to.
I have brought sorrow upon all of
those about me, but I didn’t mean
The man who cannot tell what he
means to do is as ridiculous as the
ship captain who cannot tell in what
direction he means to saiL
Ask a captain just leaving port,
“Where are you going? At what
port do you intend to end this voy
age?”
How will you feel if he answers
vaguely?
If he should say that he did not
quite know—he might go north, he
might go south, or he might just
float around, you would pity him
sincerely, as an idiot, or despise him
as a fool.
What difference between such a
captain, without meaning, and the
ordinary human being?
The difference between a man
and a mouse, or a man and a donkey,
How many men do you know
whose lives have a real meaning and
a real plan?
How many have decided what they
intend to accomplish and HOW they
will accomplish it?
How many question themselves,
criticize themselves, and direct
themselves with that WILL which
is to man what the rudder is to the
ship?
When a man says “I didn’t mean
to,” and thinks that he has cleared
himself, tell him what you feel about
Say: “The whole of life is MEAN
ING. The spirit of man is his
WILL, and meaning and will are the
same.
Will power is the power TO
MEAN, TO PLAN, TO CARRY
OUT.
And the poor thing on this page,
with long ears, weak face and weak
will, is the personification of “I
didn’t mean to.”
NEARLY one hundred millions
of us in this country, AND NINETY
PER CENT OF US DRIFTING.
Ninety and more out of every
hundred with no definite plans, no
meaning.
Here and there a man of power
comes up, moves steadily forward,
leaves the mass behind him and
gains his end.
THAT MAN HAS MEANING.
The meaningless floaters envy
him, attack him, perhaps. They
might better criticize and attack
themselves.
“I didn’t mean to,” is the cry of
the sorrowful old man who sees that
his sons are extravagant or drunken,
or both, and wonders at his misfor
tune.
He gave them money that they
hadn’t earned, tolerated in them
vices and weaknesses that in his
servants he would have punished
with dismissal.
He saw them, cursed by his power
and wealth, drift to destruction—
and then “I didn’t mean to” was his
silly cry.
“I didn’t mean to” is the feeble
plea of the weak drunkard, who has
6wmm-
or a man and the thing on this page,
lies in the power to form resolutions,
TO HAVE A MEANING, and live
up to it.
In everything on this planet the
most important thing is its MEAN
ING.
To the sailor the NORTH STAR
has a meaning above all other stars
and planets—there is the NORTH,
to the right is the East, to the left the
West, and opposite the South.
To the serious man there is
MEANING in every day, every
plan, every action.
To the mechanic in charge of the
great engine there is a meaning to
every sound of the wheels, gears and
valves.
world is based upon meaning, plan
ning.
The weakest, feeblest of all the
excuses that human donkeys offer to
their friends is “I DIDN’T MEAN
TO.”
The idea of this picture is to make
ridiculous the poorest, commonest
excuse that ever quieted the dull
conscience of mediocrity.
Cut out the picture and the line
ibove it, and paste it up where others
will see it. It teaches a lesson
needed by more than eighty millions
of us proud Americans.
THIS WHOLE WORLD IS A
WORLD OF MEANING.
Laws say what men mean shall be
done.
Education expresses the meaning
and plans of the human brain.
Everything worth while in the
Suppose you were asked to-day
“What do you mean to do? What
do you mean to make of yourself?
How and where do you mean to
end? How do you mean to get
there?”