Page:Cyclopedia of illustrations for public speakers, containing facts, incidents, stories, experiences, anecdotes, selections, etc., for illustrative purposes, with cross-references; (IA cyclopediaofillu00scotrich).pdf/596



Instead of that, I placed him on probation for a year.

"He must report once a week to the probation officer. Also, he is watched, not suspiciously, but merely as a matter of precaution. If he is caught entering a saloon—I warned him of this—he will be punished. It's simply giving him a chance to make good.

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See.

Problems, Gaging—See Distance. PROCRASTINATION  He meant to insure his house, but it burned before he got around to it. He was just going to pay a note when it went to protest. He was just going to help his neighbor when he died. He was just going to send flowers to a sick friend when it proved too late. He was just going to reduce his debt when his creditors "shut down" on him. He was just going to stop drinking and dissipating when his health became wrecked. He was just going to provide his wife with more help when she took her bed and required a nurse, a doctor and a maid.—Success Magazine.

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PRODIGAL, THE

Theodosia Garrison shows in these verses the melting power of love:

When I came to you banned, dishonored, Brother of yours no more, And raised my hands where your roof-tree stands, Why did you open the door?

When I came to you starving—thirsting, Beggared of aught but sin, Why did you rise with welcoming eyes And lift me and bid me in?

You have set me the first at the feast And robed me in tenderness, Yet, brothers of mine, these tears for sign That I would your grace were less.

For I had not been crusht by your hate Who courted the pain thereof, But you stab me through when you give anew, O brothers, your love—your love! (Text.)

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This pathetic incident is told by Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman:

Mr. Moody told me that he was once invited to luncheon in one of the great homes in the city of New York. He noticed that his hostess was continually rising and leaving the room. He said to himself, "She must be in trouble. If she goes again I will follow her." She did go out again and our great evangelist rose from the table and went out into the next room. When the mother saw him she was plunged into confusion. Her face flushed a fiery red. Seated upon the couch in the room was a boy with dishevelled hair, with bloodshot eyes, with clothing in rags. The mother recovered herself in a moment, walked across the room as if she had been a queen, threw her arms around her boy. Then, walking over to our great preacher, she said: "Mr. Moody, I do not think you have ever met my son. This is my boy, Mr. Moody; he is a prodigal, but I love him." Mr. Moody said she put her lips up against the boy's cheek and he suddenly burst into a flood of tears, dropt on his knees and, after Mr. Moody had spoken to him, he came to Christ. (Text.)

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PRODIGY, A

Professor Boris Sidis has given, in response to requests, an authentic account of the scope and aims of his son's intellectual career. "I do not believe in the prevailing system of education for children," writes Professor Sidis. "I have educated my son upon a system of my own, based to some extent upon principles laid down by Professor William James." This system, Professor Sidis insists, has justified itself by its results in the case of the boy prodigy of Harvard. He knows as much at eleven, the father says, "as a gifted professor of mature years," and when he grows up "he will amaze the world." Nor is the result due to heredity or to abnormality of the child's brain. The results achieved in the case of this eleven-year-old lad are due wholly to the methods of training pursued. To quote the father's words as given the New York American:

"As the baby grows more rapidly after birth than at any other time, so his brain develops most rapidly then and becomes less sensitive to impressions as he grows older. The process of education can not begin too soon.