From twenty to forty your
efforts have been foundation work, and the foundation does not show up
much above the ground. From forty to fifty you are building the
superstructure, and when you commence building that your progress seems
more rapid.

Healthy indebtedness is a great incentive to hard work and a material
benefit in building character and gaming experience that in later years
will be of untold value to you.

Brains--Birth--Boodle

One of the weaknesses of the human race is envy. No one is entirely
free from envy, although the true philosopher who has studied himself
and has things sized up correctly is nearly free from envy.

Human kind have three measures for gauging the other fellow. We measure
the other fellow either by his knowledge--which is brains, by his
pedigree--which is birth, or by the money he has accumulated--which is
boodle. These three Bs are like three stars in the sky. The first
star--Brains is usually the dimmest, but it is really the brightest
star of all. Mankind is prone to look at the brighter stars of birth
and boodle.

These three stars of Brains, Birth and Boodle, are three aristocracies.
The first aristocracy has no less authority than that of the Almighty.
The aristocracies of birth and boodle are sham counterfeits gotten up
by man. They do not mean anything when put into the crucible and tested
by fire.

The aristocracy of brains differs from the aristocracies of birth and
boodle as the sun differs from the jack-o-lantern, or as the music of
the soul differs from the bray of the burro, or as a pure woman's love
differs from the stolen affections hashed up by the fourth husband.

Brains like air and water, are not always appreciated until we have
analyzed and investigated thoroughly. The foolish man thinks champagne
is the finest drink. The wise man knows water is the best drink, even
though water costs nothing. The foolish man has for his ideal--money or
birth. The wise man takes off his hat to brains.

The measure of a man is his brain and not his birth or his boodle.
Thought, reason and knowledge are possible to the man who has a brain.
No man can buy brains, and truly he is an aristocrat of the highest
order who is blessed with a good brain.

Some people whose ancestors came over with the Pilgrim Fathers have a
picture of the Mayflower in their homes and they seem to take a great
deal of pride in the picture of the Mayflower. There seems to be a halo
around th