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THE FLOWERS COLLECTS «*" ■’ 1- * Per Copy ti ■ r..i. Per Year 5Cts. Inc Future utzen $1.00 A Paper With a Purpose, Printed by the Reformatory Boys Doin^ the Best They Can. Volume I. Millcdgeville, Ga., Saturday, January 30, 1915. Number 42 SELF-DISCIPLINE IS A VALUABLE ASSET The Gratification of Desire is an Endless Task. It is Like At tempting to Fill the Bot tomless Pit With Wa ter from a Tin Cup It is bitrer medicine, but the only thing most needed in the hu man soul is discipline. It is well to have force, genius, vigor, enthusiasm, power; but you may have them and be dishonest, a maniac, or a cad ; you become great only when you add self-control. You may attain to the true aris tocracy of the world. These are overcomers. These are they -who have passed through the cleansing fires. These are they who rule their own stormy passion, their own mighty ambitious and boundless longings with a will of tempered steel. And these are the beloved You know them in every walk of life you have met them, soldiers of the light, the old guard of the best things of humanity. How then, can I learn the art of self-mastery? you ask. Here are a few suggestions. First, it comes by practice. Y^ou must learn it as you would learn to play the violin,, It is a matter of patience and persistence. And sure ly if you are willing to exercise to develop your muscles, you ought to be willing to exercise to develop your character, your power to en joy yourself and your ability to be a source of happiness to others. Don’t make a resolution. Just b€gin do ing it. Whenever you have a con viction, whenever your reasons points out a certain thing to do, do it at once. Then, when you see clearly what you ought to do, do it cheerfully. Don’t pity yourself. Don’t adver tise your virtue. Don’t wrestle, fight and pray. The essential element of a strong personality is quite power. Those A DEER AND A DEAR “One hundred and fifty years ago There was a wilderness here— A man with powder in his gun Went out to get a deer; Now the times have greatly changed And on a different plan; A dear, with ^powder on her face, Goes out and gets a man.” who fight are weak. Do what you have to do, dismiss the matter, and go ahead. The first of all insurance policies, to insure oneself the maximum of happiness and efficiency, is to learn how to make oneself do what he knows he ought to do, yet what he hate to do, and to learn to do this smoothly, withouC’struggle or self- torture. Without that, there is pos itively no peace. Without that, life is sure to turn bitter. The contented people are those who have themselves in hand. The gratification of desire is an endless task It i? like attempting to fill the bottomless pit with water from a tin cup. But the control of desire is a sure road to a full and joyous life. The man who has disciplined-himself can be happy whether poor or rich. He is the'master of the world, not its slave. Your vision must be clear. You must see plainly that to let your de sires master you means self-con tempt and degradation. And you must learn, whenever you have com manded the fierce waves of passion to be still, when you have resisted the storm of fierce and evil longing, and the waves and winds have sub sided, baffled by your strength, you must learn then, to laugh in pride, to realize how good it is to be a man. You know them, the real ladies of the world, a real gentleman not by heredity or endowment, not by display or cheap vanity, but by the open, free, happy, strong life that comes from self discipline constant ly exerted—Frank Crane. CERTAIN SIGNS OF SNEAKING SPRING Soon the Birds and Flowers and Trees Will Wake Us Up to Get Busy for a New Crop. Tired of Loafing Want to Work The rainfall has caught up with its program, and we are all glad to see fair weather come again, and oh how gladly we will welcome the first signs of approaching spring! Frogs and snakes and other reptiles are not the only things that hiber nate in winter. Practically all na ture ceases its accivity and goes into winter quarters when the chill ing frosts come bringing the dis comforts of winter. February is here and we are looking for the briars and elder stalks to give us warning that the season is near for fish to bite and swimming holes to to be dammed up. We want to plow, build terraces and work in the soil and earth when it begins to warm up for another crop of na tures bleessings. When the birds begin to sing, and wake you up in tlie morning with that tired feeling and you get out in the mellow sun shine and it makes you want to go work in the garden. You wonder why every man is n’t a happy prosperous farmer, and resolve to make two blades of grass grow where only one grew last year. And when the long yulter days come and the “Lazy Lawrence” begins to dance on the fences,.the inviting shade in the back yard and the easy’ chair on the porch sing their siren songs of ease. Then you wake up at the end of a long wet spell and take a stroll out in the garden and field and then take a survey of General Green with his terrible ar my with banners, and for the first you realize how successfully and literally you have cartied out your resolution. The signs of spring are scarce and seldom but you may take our word for it, old sore-toe time’s a-comin’. Georgia has no hall of fame, nor roster ot immortals; but our subscription list is the next thing^Lo it, ( . -• i< *1 r'i . kJ'.jG Uy i.iiij -Llf