The Victorious Attitude

ugly scars on the grown tree, so the suggestions of inferiority etched

you, when everybody else denounces you even,

words, "I am a fugitive," "I am a thief," or others indicating their crime or

etimes branded with a favorite poetical passage of their master. In France the branding iron used on slaves and criminals often took the form of the fleur-de-

of the suffering inflicted on the moral delinquent by Puritan moralists in Colonial days. The tragic heroine, Hester Prynn, is never allowed to forget her sin. The sinister scarlet letter with which she is branded proclaims

mark people to-day with the scarlet letter of outlawry, the brand of ostracism. We put the criminal badge on our prisoners by shaving their he

nctive livery to remind them that they are menials, a lower grade of being than ourselves. As a matter of fact, if it were not for these branding distin

below the level of a human being; we have no right so to bombard him with the suggestion of degradation, of inferiority, that we are almost certain to make him less a man; to lower his estimate of himself to such a degree that we rob him of the power even

lighted ambitions, more stunted lives, more failures, more misery and unhappiness than almost any other single cause. Just as the constant dripping of water will wear away stone, so the constant iteration of a state

in the jingo press all over the world, one day, walking the floor in the White House, he was overheard saying to himself, "Abe Lincoln, are you a dog or are you a man?" During thes

ce of a vast multitude, in a public square in Paris, of all his insignia of rank as an officer in the army of France, the epaulettes and buttons being cut from his uniform and his sword broken, although conscious of his innocence of the crime imputed to him he actually looked like the guilty thing he was accused of being. And all but a very few

estion of stupidity, badness, and dullness by teachers or parents, filling a child's mind with the idea that he is a blockhead, always

d experience, which seem wonderful to him, and when they tell him he is stupid, dull, slow, or bad, he takes what they say for granted. He makes

will never be anybody or amount to anything in life. The effect on a sensitive child is disastrous. Thousands of boys and girls hav

came to believe that they were partial idiots and could not possibly make anything of themselves. Many of them n

ation even with other boys and the neighbors whom he had known from babyhood. The boy really had a fine mind, and when the death of his father threw him on his own resources, he managed, by sheer will force and dogged persistence, to succeed in making an honorable place in life. But he has never been able to get away from the early conviction of his inferiority, of his lack of ability compared with others around him. All his later life has been handicapped by those pernicious suggestions. Whenever he is asked to assume any responsibility, to take a place on a committee or a board, to speak i

. In short, he will take on all the appearance of a "whipped cur." Thoroughbred horse trainers say that after a horse has been beaten or abused a few times he loses confidence in himself. His spirit is broken and when he sees the other ho

and teachers alike. In other instances the stupidity and dullness for which children are berated are only apparent. They are often the result of timidity, shyness, excessive self-consciousness. The yo

acute sense of inferiority. Every year quite a number of public school pupils and students in academies and colleges suffer nervous breakdown, become insane or commit suicide because they fail to pass t

s powerful enough to drive young people to suicide, certainly the opposite, the suggest

ith, confidence in himself, in his powers, in his great possibilities. As the twig is bent the tree is inclined. The child who is impre

mployers, who are constantly reminding them of their shortcomings, scolding them for every trivial mistake, and ne

he is constantly being told that it is no good, that it is in fact disgracefully bad, that he should be ashamed of himself, and

t he has made a mistake in his calling. Harsh critics, editors and book reviewers have deterred many young writers from developing their talent. The fear of further criticism or humiliation, of being called foolish, dull or stupid, has blighted in the b

of ridicule. In other words, unless a youth is made of very strong material and has a lot of pluck and indom

ng their utter failure and ruin, parents, teachers, employers and others in responsible positions would recognize an

and and other European countries, for example,-who can measure the harm it has done in the form of "caste." Think what superb men and women have been held down all their li

footsteps, though they may be infinitely superior in natural ability to those they serve, these men remain waiters, butlers, coachmen, gardeners or humble employees of some sort. No matter what talents they possess they are held in

Crichton." How skillfully he portrays the clever and resourceful butler, Crichton, who in the crucible of

an artificial environment, where hereditary rank and wealth determine the status of the man, Nature unmistakably asserts herself, and Crichton, by the tacit consent of all, becomes leader. By the force of his inborn ability he controls the situation. He co

similar snobbishness, especially in regard to one section of our fellow-Americans-the Negro race. No matter how highly educated, how able,

e them in public places, in churches, on trains and cars, everywhere they can possibly avoid it. In the South they are not permitted to ride in the same cars with whites, and in other parts of the country, while they may travel on the ordinary day coaches, they are no

m, reminding them that they belong to an inferior race, and they take their places according to the valuation of those born to more favorable conditions. This constant suggestion of inferiority has done much to kee

imilarly affected by our environment. We unconsciously take on the superiority or inferiority of our surroundings. Employees who work in cheap, shoddy stores or

ernment to pick out the worker in the superior environment from the one in the inferior. To spend one's best years selling cheap, shoddy merchandise will inevitably leave it

anding in their community. Keep away from occupations that have a demoralizing tendency. Ever

e tend to reflect their qualities. If we mingle much with those who use slangy, vulgar, incorrect English, people who are not careful about their manners or their expression, these things will reappear in

its tendency is to pull down all standards and to cut down the average of achievement. We are all living sensitive plates on which the

ssociates himself with inferiority and harbors a low estimate of himself. Get away from both. Have nothing to do with them. If yo

icture of yourself; if you doubt your efficiency you are shackled, you are not free

h is the bulwark of achievement. No matter what others say or think of you, always hold in mind a lofty ideal of yourself, a picture of your own efficiency. Never allow yourself to doubt your abi