232 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



In niakinji; tli!s broad assertion, the term lazy is to be applied to 

 mental and not i)hvsiral labor. In other words, to the use of the 

 brain instead oJ' tlie muscle. How many men do yon know, and you 

 can })(Kssibly include yourself in this, who would not cheerfully go out 

 and i)low all day or cliop wood or do any other hard manual labor 

 rather than sit down and study out some dilTicult problem in farm 

 management ; or on the needs of his soil, or his livestock, or even write 

 a nice long love letter to his wife if she is away from home, or an 

 urgent letter to his wife's mother, urging her to come and spend the 

 winter with him. 



It is mental laziness that is referred to not physical, and is as com- 

 mon among farmers as good healthy thirsts are in dry territory. It is 

 great thoughts that make great men. Clear thinking puts in motion 

 actions that bring big results. We take our hats off to the great 

 thinkers of this country. Did you ever stop to consider that one man 

 was just as much of a thinker as another? He can't help but be. God 

 put brains into his head, wound them up and started them off — ^just 

 like the watch-maker puts wheels and springs into the watch and 

 starts it. He can't help but think. He'd die mentally if he didn't. 

 The only surcease is when he is asleep — and even then some men dream 

 things that are more rational than their thoughts when awake. The 

 neglect, or delay, or abhorrence of getting right down to work on lines 

 of thought that stand for something and mean something for mankind 

 in general, and the thinker in particular, constitute a laziness that has 

 meant failure in more cases than has ever been recorded against the 

 sluggard or the tramp. 



David was a shepherd boy. That would mean to-day that he was a 

 farmer boy. He tended the flock and possibly did the chores and 

 churned the butter and answered the telephone and cranked the auto- 

 mobile and oiled up the flying machine for Jesse, his father. Possibly 

 he pumped the pianola and run the phonograph for his mother. These 

 are some of the things that he would have to do to-day if he acted in 

 the capacity of a farmer's boy- But David did one thing more. He 

 kept his thinker going in the right direction and acted upon his 

 thoughts. He heard the sweet songs of the birds while in the groves. 

 It |)ut an idea into his head and he worked it out. His mind ran some- 

 thing like this: If the birds are capable of making such sweet music, 

 why can't I? The same hand that gave the birds their songs gave me 

 brains, more brains than all the birds in the mountains round about. 

 I am superior to all other living things because (Jod made me so. It 

 is a great responsibility but T accept it and will use my talents. David 

 did some good, clear thinking. Result: the mastery of the harp — 

 music that inspired the highest thoughts of those Avho heard it and 

 enabled the player to write songs in Inter life that for beauty and 

 grandeur of thought have never and never will be equaled. 



But David did another thing that brought him into the limelight 

 probably more than his playing the harp. He learned to throw 

 ^straight to hit the mark. He may have learned this while chasing the 

 woodj)eokers out of the cherry tree or pelting the cats in the back- 

 yard, but he learned the art and he did it well. A big lesson lies 

 right here. It is the easiest thing in the world to throw a stone and 

 the hardest thing in the world to throw it absolutely straight, 

 (loliath used his muscle to carrv his armor and sword, which would 



