21 [Illustration: DR. FRANK CRANE] _"We may all possess wisdom if we are willing to be persuaded thatthe experience of others is as useful as our own. Why give to oldage alone the privilege of wisdom? What would be thought of one whoprided himself on possessing bracelets when he had lost his two armsin war?"_ --_Yoritomo, the Japanese Philosopher. _ 21 BY DR. FRANK CRANE Being the article "If I Were Twenty-One" which originally appearedin the _American Magazine_. Revised by the author NEW YORKWM. H. WISE & CO. 1930 _Copyright, 1918, by_ WM. H. WISE & CO. _All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreignlanguages, including the Scandinavian. _ COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY THECROWELL PUBLISHING COMPANY CONTENTS CHAPTER A Foreword Prelude I. If I were Twenty-One I would do the next thing II. If I were Twenty-One I would adjust myself III. If I were Twenty-One I would take care of my body IV. If I were Twenty-One I would train my mind V. If I were Twenty-One I would be happy VI. If I were Twenty-One I would get married VII. If I were Twenty-One I would save money VIII. If I were Twenty-One I would study the art of pleasing IX. If I were Twenty-One I would determine, even if I could never be anything else in the world, that I would be a thoroughbred X. If I were Twenty-One I would make some permanent, amicable arrangement with my conscience A FOREWORD _The following note, by the editor of the _American Magazine_, appeared in conjunction with the publication of this story in thatmagazine:_ In most of the biggest cities of the United States, from New Yorkand Chicago down, you will find people who, every night of theirlives, watch for and read in their evening paper an editorial byFrank Crane. These editorials are syndicated in a chain ofthirty-eight newspapers, which reach many millions of readers. Thegrip which Crane has on these readers is tremendous. The reason isthat the man has plenty of sensible ideas, which he presents simplyand forcibly so that people get hold of them. In reality, Crane is a wonderful preacher. Years ago, in fact, hewas the pastor of a great church in Chicago. But he left the pulpitand took up writing because he had the ability to interest millions, and could reach them only by means of the printing press. Doctor Crane lives in New York and does most of his work there. PRELUDE The voyager entering a new country will listen with attention to thetraveller who is just returning from its exploration; and the youngwarrior buckling on his armour may be benefited by the experiencesof the old warrior who is laying his armour off. I have climbed theHill of Life, and am past the summit, _I suppose_, and perhaps itmay help those just venturing the first incline to know what I thinkI would do if I had it to do over. I have lived an average life. I have had the same kind of follies, fears, and fires my twenty-one-year-old reader has. I have failedoften and bitterly. I have loved and hated, lost and won, done somegood deeds and many bad ones. I have had some measure of success andI have made about every kind of mistake there is to make. In otherwords, I have lived a full, active, human life, and have got thusfar safely along. I am on the shady side of fifty. As people grow old they accumulatetwo kinds of spiritual supplies: one, a pile of doubts, questionings, and mysteries; and the other, a much smaller pile ofpositive conclusions. There is a great temptation to expatiate uponthe former subjects, for negative and critical statements have aseductive appearance of depth and much more of a flavour of wisdomthan clear and succinct declarations. But I will endeavour to resistthis temptation, and will set down, as concisely as I can, some ofthe positive convictions I have gained. For the sake of orderly thought, I will make Ten Points. They mightof course just as well be six points or forty, but ten seems to bethe number most easily remembered, since we have ten fingers, firstand "handiest" of counters. 21 I IF I WERE TWENTY-ONE I WOULD "DO THE NEXT THING" The first duty of a human being in this world is to take himself offother people's backs. I would go to work at something for which myfellow men would be willing to pay. I would not wait for an IdealJob. The only ideal job I ever heard of was the one some otherfellow had. It is quite important to find the best thing to do. It is much moreimportant to find something to do. If I were a young artist, I wouldpaint soap advertisements, if that were all opportunity offered, until I got ahead enough to indulge in the painting of madonnas andlandscapes. If I were a young musician, I would rather play in astreet band than not at all. If I were a young writer, I would dohack work, if necessary, until I became able to write the GreatAmerican Novel. I would go to work. Nothing in all this world I have found is sogood as work. I believe in the wage system as the best and most practical means ofcoördinating human effort. What spoils it is the large indigestiblelumps of unearned money that, because of laws that originated inspecial privilege, are injected into the body politic, byinheritance and other legal artificialities. If I were twenty-one I would resolve to take no dollar for which Ihad not contributed something in the world's work. If aphilanthropist gave me a million dollars I would decline it. If arich father or uncle left me a fortune, I would hand it over to thecity treasury. All great wealth units come, directly or indirectly, from the people and should go to them. All inheritance should belimited to, say, $100, 000. If Government would do that there wouldbe no trouble with the wage system. If I were twenty-one I would keep clean of endowed money. Thehappiest people I have known have been those whose bread and butterdepended upon their daily exertion. II IF I WERE TWENTY-ONE I WOULD ADJUST MYSELF More people I have known have suffered because they did not know howto adjust themselves than for any other reason. And thehappiest-hearted people I have met have been those that have theknack of adapting themselves to whatever happens. I would begin with my relatives. While I might easily conceive abetter set of uncles, aunts, cousins, brothers, and so on, yetDestiny gave me precisely the relatives I need. I may not want them, but I need them. So of my friends and acquaintances and fellowworkmen. Every man's life is a plan of God. Fate brings to me thevery souls out of the unknown that I ought to know. If I cannot getalong with them, be happy and appreciated, I could not get alongwith another set of my own picking. A man who is looking for idealhuman beings to make up his circle of acquaintances would as well goat once and jump into the river. The God of Things as They Ought to Be is a humbug. There is but oneGod, and He is the God of Things as They Are. Half of my problem is Me; the other half is Circumstances. My taskis to bring results out of the combination of the two. Life is not a science, to be learned; it is an art, to be practised. Ability comes by doing. Wisdom comes not from others; it is asecretion of experience. Life is not like a problem in arithmetic, to be solved by learningthe rule; it is more like a puzzle of blocks, or wire rings--youjust keep trying one way after another, until finally you succeed, maybe. I think it was Josh Billings who said that in the Game of Life, asin a game of cards, we have to play the cards dealt to us; and thegood player is not the one who always wins, but the one who plays apoor hand well. III IF I WERE TWENTY-ONE I WOULD TAKE CARE OF MY BODY The comfort and efficiency of my days depend fundamentally upon thecondition of this physical machine I am housed in. I would look outfor it as carefully as I attend to my automobile, so that it mightperform its functions smoothly and with the minimum of trouble. To this end I would note the four X's. They are Examination, Excretion, Exercise, Excess. EXAMINATION: I would have my body thoroughly inspected byintelligent scientists once a year. I do not believe in thinking toomuch about one's health, but I believe in finding out the facts, andparticularly the weaknesses, of one's mechanism, before one proceedsto forget it. EXCRETION: By far the most important item to attend to in regard tothe body is the waste pipes, including the colon, the bladder, andthe pores. Most diseases have their origin in the colon. I would seeto it that it was thoroughly cleaned every day. In addition, I woulddrink plenty of water, and would take some form of exercise everyday that would induce perspiration. Most of my sicknesses have comefrom self-poisoning, and I would make it my main care to eliminatethe waste. EXERCISE: I would, if I were twenty-one, take up some daily systemof exercise that would bring into play all the voluntary muscles ofthe body, and especially those which from my occupation tend todisuse. I would devote half an hour to an hour daily to thispurpose. EXCESS: I would take no stimulant of any kind whatsoever. Whateverwhips the body up to excess destroys the efficiency of the organism. Hence I would not touch alcoholic drinks in any form. If one neverbegins with alcohol he can find much more physical pleasure andpower without it. The day of alcohol is past, with intelligentpeople. Science has condemned it as a food. Business has banned it. It remains only as the folly of the weak and fatuous. I would drink no tea or coffee, as these are stimulants and notfoods. Neither would I use tobacco. The healthy human body willfurnish more of the joy of life, if it is not abused, than can begiven by any of the artificial tonics which the ignorance andweakness of men have discovered. If I were twenty-one, all this! IV IF I WERE TWENTY-ONE I WOULD TRAIN MY MIND I would realize that my eventual success depends mostly upon thequality and power of my brain. Hence I would train it so as to getthe best out of it. Most of the failures I have seen, especially in professional life, have been due to mental laziness. I was a preacher for years, andfound out that the greatest curse of the ministry is laziness. It isprobably the same among lawyers and physicians. It certainly is soamong actors and writers. Hence, I would let no day pass without itsperiod of hard, keen, mental exertion so that my mind would bealways as a steel spring, or like a well-oiled engine, ready, resilient, and powerful. And in this connection I would recognize that repetition is betterthan effort. Mastery, perfection, the doing of difficult things withease and precision, depend more upon doing things over and over thanupon putting forth great effort. I would especially purge myself as far as possible of intellectualcowardice and intellectual dishonesty. By intellectual dishonesty Imean what is called expediency; that is, forming, or adhering to, anopinion, not because we are convinced of its truth, but because ofthe effect it will have. A mind should, at twenty-one, marry Truth, and "cleave only unto her, till death do them part, for better, forworse. " By intellectual cowardice I mean all superstitions, premonitions, and other forms of mental paralysis or panic caused by what isvague. To heed signs, omens, cryptic sayings, and all talk of fateand luck, is nothing but mental dirt. I have seen many bright mindssullied by it. It is worthy only of the mind of an ignorant savage. V IF I WERE TWENTY-ONE I WOULD BE HAPPY By this I imply that any one can be happy if he will. Happiness doesnot depend on circumstances, but upon Me. This is perhaps the greatest truth in the world, and the one mostpersistently disbelieved. Happiness, said Carlyle, is as the value of a common fraction, whichresults from dividing the numerator by the denominator. Thenumerator, in life, is What We Have. The denominator is What WeThink We Ought to Have. Mankind may be divided into two classes:Fools and Wise. The fools are eternally trying to get happiness bymultiplying the numerator, the wise divide the denominator. Theyboth come to the same--only one you can do and the other isimpossible. If you have only one thousand dollars and think you ought to havetwo thousand dollars, the answer is one thousand divided by twothousand, which is one half. Go and get another thousand and youhave two thousand divided by two thousand, which is one; you havedoubled your contentment. But the trouble is that in human affairsas you multiply your numerator you unconsciously multiply yourdenominator at the same time, and you get nowhere. By the time yoursupply reaches two thousand dollars your wants have risen totwenty-five hundred dollars. How much easier simply to reduce your Notion of What You Ought toHave. Get your idea down to one thousand, which you can easily do ifyou know the art of self-mastery, and you have one thousand dividedby one thousand, which is one, and a much simpler and more sensibleprocess than that of trying to get another one thousand dollars. This is the most valuable secret of life. Nothing is of more worthto the youth than to awake to the truth that he can change hiswants. Not only all happiness, but all culture, all spiritual growth, allreal, inward success, is a process of changing one's wants. So if I were twenty-one I would make up my mind to be happy. You getabout what is coming to you, in any event, in this world, andhappiness and misery depend on how you take it; why not be happy? VI IF I WERE TWENTY-ONE I WOULD GET MARRIED I would not wait until I became able to support a wife. I wouldmarry while poor, and marry a poor girl. I have seen all kinds ofwives, and by far the greatest number of successful ones were thosethat married poor. Any man of twenty-one has a better chance for happiness, moralstature, and earthly success, if married than if unmarried. I married young, and poor as Job's turkey. I have been in some hardplaces, seen poverty and trial, and I have had more than my share ofsuccess, but in not one instance, either of failure or triumph, would I have been better off single. My partner in this task ofliving has doubled every joy and halved every defeat. There's a deal of discussion over sex problems. There is but onewholesome, normal, practical, and God-blessed solution to the sexquestion, and that is the loyal love of one man and one woman. Many young people play the fool and marry the wrong person, but myobservation has been that "there's no fool like the old fool, " thatthe longer marriage is postponed the greater are the chances ofmistake, and that those couples are the most successful in matrimonywho begin in youth and grow old together. In choosing a wife I would insist on three qualifications: 1. She should be healthy. It is all well enough to admire aninvalid, respect and adore her, but a healthy, live man needs ahealthy woman for his companion, if he would save himself a thousandills. 2. She should have good common sense. No matter how pretty andcharming a fool may be, and some of them are wonderfully winning, itdoes not pay to marry her. Someone has said that pretty women withno sense are like a certain cheap automobile: they are all right torun around with, but you don't want to own one. And 3. She should be cheerful. A sunny, brave, bright disposition isa wife's best dowry. As to money, or station in life, or cleverness, or good looks, theyshould not enter at all into the matter. If I could find a girl, healthy, sensible, and cheerful, and if I loved her, I'd marry her, if I were twenty-one. VII IF I WERE TWENTY-ONE I WOULD SAVE MONEY Money has a deal to do with contentment in this workaday world, andI'd have some of my own. There isn't a human being but could save alittle. Every man, in America at least, could live on nine tenths ofwhat he does live on, and save the other tenth. And the man whoregularly saves no money is a fool, just a plain fool, whether he bean actor getting one thousand dollars a week or a ditch-diggergetting one dollar a day. And I would get my life insured. Life insurance is the mostpractical way for a young man, especially if he be a professionalman, or any one not gifted with the knack of making money, toachieve financial comfort. The life insurance companies are as safeas any money institution can be. You are compelled to save in orderto pay your premiums, and you probably need that sort of whip. Andthose dependent upon you are protected against the financialdistress that would be caused by your death. I believe lifeinsurance to be the best way to save money, at least for one whoknows little about money. VIII IF I WERE TWENTY-ONE I WOULD STUDY THE ART OF PLEASING Much of the content from life is due to having pleasant peoplearound you. Hence I would form habits and cultivate manners thatwould please them. For instance, I would make my personal appearance as attractive aspossible. I would look clean, well-dressed, and altogether asengaging as the material I had to work with would allow. I would be punctual. To keep people waiting is simply insolentegotism. I would, if my voice were unpleasant, have it cultivated until itbecame agreeable in tone. I would speak low. I would not mumble, butlearn the art of clear, distinct speech. It is very trying toassociate with persons who talk so that it is a constant effort tounderstand their words. I would learn the art of conversation, of small talk. I would equipmyself to be able to entertain the grouchiest, most blasé people. For there is hardly a business in the world in which it is not agreat advantage to be able to converse entertainingly. The secret of being a good conversationalist is probably a genuine, unselfish interest in others. That and practice. It consists more inmaking the other person talk than in talking yourself. I would learn how to write so that it would not burden people toread it. In this matter, one hint: The English language is composedof separate letters, hence, when you have written one letter, if youwill move your pen along before you write the next we shall be able, probably, to discover what you intend, no matter how imperfectly youcompose your separate letters. I would not argue. I never knew one person in my life that wasconvinced by argument. Discuss, yes; but not argue. The differenceis this: in discussion you are searching for the truth, and inargument you want to prove that you are right. In discussion, therefore, you are anxious to know your neighbour's views, and youlisten to him. In argument, you don't care anything about hisopinions, you want him to hear yours; hence, while he's talking youare simply thinking over what you are going to say as soon as youget a chance. Altogether, I would try to make my personality pleasing, so thatpeople would in turn endeavour to be pleasing to me. IX IF I WERE TWENTY-ONE I WOULD DETERMINE, EVEN IF I COULD NEVER BEANYTHING ELSE IN THE WORLD, THAT I WOULD BE A THOROUGHBRED Thoroughbred, as it is currently used, is a word rather difficult todefine, perhaps entirely non-definable. Yet we all know what itmeans--it is like Love. But it implies being several things: One, being a good sport, bywhich I mean the kind of a man that does not whine when he fails, but gets up smiling and tackles it again, the kind of man whose fundof cheer and courage does not depend upon success, but keeps braveand sweet even in failure. Let me quote what I have written elsewhere on this point: In one of the plays of this season, "The Very Minute, " one of the characters says something to this effect: You go on till you can go no further, you reach the limit of human endurance, and then--you hold on another minute, and that's the minute that counts. The idea is a good one. That last minute, the other side of the breaking point, is worth thinking about. It is that which marks the thoroughbred. There is a something in the hundredth man that bespeaks a finer quality. It is unconquerableness, heroism, stick-to-it-iveness, or whatever you have a mind to call it. We have a way of attributing this to breeding, after the analogy of horses and dogs; but while there's something in blood I doubt if it is a very trustworthy guaranty of excellence. So many vigorous parents have children that are morally spindling, and so many surprising samples of superiority come from common stock, that heredity is far from dependable. But the quality exists, no matter how you account for it--a certain toughness of moral fibre, an indestructibility of purpose. Any mind is over matter, but there are some wills so imperial, so dominant over the body, that they keep it from collapse even after its strength is spent. We see it physically in the prize fighter who "doesn't know when he is beaten, " in the race horse that throws an unexpected dash into the last stretch even after his last ounce of force is gone, in the Spartan soldier who exclaimed "If I fall I fight on my knees. " Of all human qualities that have lit up the sombreness of this tragic earth, I count this, of being a thoroughbred, the happiest. It has saved more souls than penance and punishment, it has rescued more business enterprises than shrewdness, it has won more battles and more games, and altogether felicitously loosed more hard knots in the tangled skein of destiny than any other virtue. Most people are quitters. They reach the limit. They are familiar with the last straw. But the hundredth man is a thoroughbred. You cannot corner him. He will not give up. He cannot find the word "fail" in his lexicon. He has never learned to whine. What shall we do with him? There's nothing to do but to hand him success. It's just as well to deliver him the prize, for he will get it eventually. There's no use trying to drown him, for he won't sink. There's only one creature in the world better than the man who is a thoroughbred. It is the woman who is a thoroughbred. X IF I WERE TWENTY-ONE I WOULD MAKE SOME PERMANENT, AMICABLEARRANGEMENT WITH MY CONSCIENCE God, Duty, Death, and Moral Responsibility are huge facts which nolife can escape. They are the external sphinxes by the road of everyman's existence. He must frame some sort of an answer to them. It may please the reader to know how I have answered them. It isvery simple. I am familiar, to some extent, with most of the religions, cults, and creeds of mankind. There are certain points common to everydecent religion, for in every kind of church you are taught to behonest, pure-minded, unselfish, reverent, brave, loyal, and thelike. These elements of religion may be called the Great Common Divisor ofall faiths. This G. C. D. Is my religion. It is what more than fifty years ofthought and experience has winnowed out for me. It is my religion. And I think I glimpse what Emerson meant when he wrote that "allgood men are of one religion. " And the matter can be reduced to yet plainer terms. There is but"one thing needful, " and there's no use being "careful and troubledabout many things. " That one thing is to _do right_. To do Right and not Wrong will save any man's soul, and if hebelieves any doctrine that implies doing wrong he is lost. So, let a man of twenty-one resolve, and keep his purpose, that, nomatter what comes, no matter how mixed his theology may be, nomatter what may be the rewards of wrong-doing, or the perils andlosses of right-doing, he will do right; then, if there is any morallaw in the universe, that man must sometime, somewhere, arrive athis inward triumph, his spiritual victory and peace. And the corollary of this is that if I have done wrong the best andonly way to cure it is to quit doing wrong and begin to do right. Ifany man will stick to this, make it his anchor in times of storm, his pole-star in nights of uncertainty, he will cast out of his lifethat which is life's greatest enemy--Fear. He need not fear man norwoman, nor governments nor mischief-makers, nor the devil nor God. He will be able to say with the accent of sincerity that word ofWilliam Ernest Henley, to me the greatest spiritual declaration inany language: Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from Pole to Pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud, Beneath the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed. It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul. Let me repeat that I have not been telling what I did with theimplication that the youth of twenty-one would do well to follow me. I did not do all these things. Far from it! I wish I had. I only saythat if I were twenty-one, as I now see life, I would do as I havehere suggested. But perhaps I would not. I might go about barking myshins and burning my fingers, making idiotic experiments in theendeavour to prove that I was an exception to all the rules, andknew a little more than all the ancients. So let not the young manbe discouraged if he has committed follies; for there seems toemerge a peculiar and vivid wisdom from error, from making an ass ofone's self, and all that, more useful to one's own life than anywisdom he can get from sages or copybooks. In what I have written I have not tried to indicate the art of"getting on, " or of acquiring riches or position. These usually arewhat is meant by success. But success is of two kinds, outward andinward, or apparent and real. Outward success may depend somewhatupon what is in you, but it depends more upon luck. It is a gamblinggame. And it is hardly worth a strong man's while. Inward and realsuccess, on the contrary, is not an affair of chance at all, but isas certain as any natural law. Any human being that will observe thelaws of life as carefully as successful business men observe thelaws of business will come to that inward poise and triumph which islife's happiest crown, as certainly as the stars move in theircourses. I would, therefore, if I were twenty-one, study the art of life. Itis good to know arithmetic and geography and bookkeeping and allpractical matters, but it is better to know how to live, how tospend your day so that at the end of it you shall be content, how tospend your life so that you feel it has been worth while. THE END