2019 Winter Newsletter

deference, hard work and class application would win invariable success and recognition. That if one is wor thy and deserving, men will hold out a helping hand and give him a lift on the upward climb. But what I know now is quite different from this. Do not mis understand me-these qualities are very desirable and produce a citizen who will never be an annoyance to his neighbors- but they are not the qualities which will win you success. Today, more than ever, a man must have the goods and then he must have to fight like the devil to make people recognize the fact. Every morn ing and night at the rush hour in New York, the streets are packed and jammed with workers, men and wom en, boys and girls, 95% of them are loyal, industrious, and steady; but they will always be in subordinate po sitions- working hard and earning money- for other people! Let me say again that those qualities are valuable and desirable, but they are not the main thing in the business and commercial world. In fact, in all realms of life a person’s financial success depends chiefly on two big things: the ability to produce and the ability to sell. If you are employed by another person, what you receive will depend on what you bring in! Caruso received $3000.00 every night he sang at the Metro politan Opera House because he brought dollars into the box office. Some singers that you never heard of are as great as he was but they did not sell-people did not want to hear them. When I left PHS, I had the idea that the world would help me! Moreover, I had a far more false idea—that the world should help me!! I know how terribly I was hindered by these two ideas and I hope you are not beginning with the same handicap. The sooner a man quits expecting help from others and decides to help himself, the better- and this is a strange fact; just as soon as you show that you don’t need help, people want to help you. Another big mistake of mine was over-caution and the fear of making a mistake. This attitude of mine will paralyze an able and well trained person. Mistakes are our best friends and rarest teachers, and a man should make plenty of them, then study how it happened, and then see the thing that should be done. One of the greatest thinkers that ever lived, Nietzsche, said, ”Live dangerously”, which if properly interpreted, I be lieve to be good counsel. He didn’t men to do things which would endanger your life, such as fighting, mak-

ADVICE FROM THE PAST Milton E. Thorpe (Buckeye Bill) was a resident of Mi ami County from 1880 to 1910. He was an auctioneer locally and travelled around the Midwest calling many sales during his lifetime. He and his wife Barbara had 4 children: Ray Thorpe, Harry Thorpe, Nelle Thorpe and Gaynelle Thorpe. Harry Thorpe, the subject of this article, was my father’s uncle and a graduate of Paola High School and went on to get a degree in mu sic. He taught music and voice for many years in New York. The following is a copy of the handwritten letter that he wrote to my father (his nephew) upon my dad’s graduation from Paola High School in 1930. Dear Raymond, We were glad to receive the invitation to your graduation exercises and I wish we could be there to see you get your diploma, but as you know this is not possible, so we are sending a little token of congratu lation which I hope reaches you safely. My wife and I are happy to know that you have had this four years of training and education, for every bit of knowledge that you have and every particle of physical and men tal skill will help you that much to reach some goal that will spell happiness for you. The thought of your commencement naturally makes my remembrance turn back to those ancient days when I was a student back in old PHS and partic ularly to the spring of 1909 where I became like you a full fledged graduate. Since then my experiences have been quite varied and my ideas of life and its conduct have, in many instances, undergone radical changes. I have often thought of you, Raymond, and wondered what was happening in your mind, for in the end, that is the biggest and in fact practically the one thing that determines ones future. I wonder now if you are starting out in life with a store of ideas very similar to those that I had at your age. No doubt you are, for after all, boys at the age of 17 or 18 who have grown up in the same environment are bound to have many of the same ideas about life in general. Of course, you and I have different interests and all that-but I am not speaking of those things-I refer to what you might call general principles. Here is what I mean. When I left school, I had ideas such as these: That loyalty to employer or superiors,

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