The Odd Moment.

We are indifferent to the odd moment. We are blind to its possibilities careless of the opportunities it offers. We squander them in prodigal wastefulness. If we do not have an hour or more available for a certain task, we let the precious moments slip by. We postpone until a more convenient time tasks which might be started and possibly finished. We plan our lives on a slip-shod basis. And then we wonder why our college careers are barren of achievement!

Senator Horr, in an address to Harvard students, remarked that in his judgement, the men who succeeded best in life are the men who have made the best use of their spare time in college. You can probably think in a moment's time of several men in college who are contributing largely to their alma mater in the form of personal, unselfish service. They are not men of distinguished talents or of remarkable native ability, and yet they manage to turn out a great volume of work. You wonder how they do it. The simple truth is that they possess a peculiar knack for developing the odd moment, operating their lives on an efficient basis.

Many short-sighted college students console themselves for the lack of industry on their determination to labor conscientiously, once they enter the professional school. There is no greater fallacy than the one that leads us to think that it is safer to loaf in college than to loaf in a professional school. The young lawyer who has neglected the law may make up his deficiencies in the early years of his practice--"he will have plenty of time then." But there is no recovery of the years thrown away at college.

The offenders against this principle are divided into two groups. The one includes the ignorant, to whom the folly of a course of idleness is not clear. The other numbers those who, in full consciousness of the situation, deliberately choose the primrose path. The latter class is hopeless. If to the former, however, this danger signal shall be a prod and a stimulus, we shall be glad, for we feel that the curse of loafing is far from being on the decline. Clogate Maroon.