Deseret Evening News

Why They Failed.

An interesting chapter has been published by the New York Press about why people fail in life. A number of the failures tell their own story. One man is a failure because he always wanted to study theology and the destiny of the human soul. He was so much interested in this that he found it impossible to become interested in anything that would serve to maintain the human body in comfort. This was unfortunate, as in a comparatively short time man becomes a soul without a body, and will have a chance to solve without trouble the mysteries our friend pines to know.

A woman teacher failed because she married. She had an excellent place, was highly educated and capable and saved most of her salary, with a fair prospect of being rich in time. But she "thought she must marry," and she did. It does not appear that she particularly had any wild attachment for the man she married, but she merely "thought she must marry." Now she has to go back to teaching again with two children to support, and no place for her that begins to compare with the one resigned when she thought marriage was the proper thing for a woman on general principles. Marriage was the cause of her failure, she says.

It is sufficiently plain why certain other writers failed. One actress confessedly is left behind because she was not very good tempered and was "fussy." Good temper is one of the first requisites of success. Nobody can get on without it. Others went down through sheer want of gumption. One man who ought now to have been a millionaire failed because a railroad company "insisted" that he should buy a million dollars' worth of property for the railroad in his own name. He was foolish enough to do so, and, as he might have known beforehand, was held responsible for the payment. Of course it broke him up.

Yet another person owes his failure in life to the fact that he was over anxious to accumulate property and mortgaged what he had to buy more. Then a crash came and doubled him all up. Want of pluck and perseverance seems to be a prime cause of failure too. Many who have failed through bad business judgment or otherwise appear to give down and believe there is nothing more for them in life. There is no more fatal mistake. There is a good living in the world for every human being if only he has the dauntless spirit that can never be downed. Having that he can always succeed at last, no matter how old he is or how often he has failed.