A Good Slang Phrase.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XL, Issue 20, 13 May 1908, Page 56

A Good Slang Phrase.

Most slung is a slovenly attempt to take a short cut in speech, but, once in a while, there comes along a slang phrase that is a world of vigorous and telling speech within itself. Such a phrase of solid meaning is “making good.” There is a world of reality, hard work and honourable success behind those two words which gives them a tonic quality. They mean that a man has kept his word: that he is justifying the hopes of his friends; or that he has risen to an opportunity and met it with vigour, intelligence, and adequate power. Society is full of young men who promise all manner of achievements, but who do not “make good”: their work falls below the standards they set lor themselves: they miss or misuse their opportunities: they start with a flourish of trumpets and for a time make a show of strength; but their pace slackens, and before they drop out of the race all interest in them has faded out. To “make good” is to do something worth doing, and to do it well. It involves both character and energy. No man can “make good” unless he holds himself thoroughly to his work and puts his mind and heart into it. To do anything really worth while one must first be a man: he must govern himself instead of being “run” by others, beguiled from his task by pleasure or confused by passion. “This one thing I do” is the resolve not only of the religious man, but indeed of any man who gets, through drudgery, to skill and freedom: who commands his place because he does his work thoroughly and well. There is something inspiring in a young man who, by selfcontrol and hard work, is “making good”: he helps everybody about him. For success breeds success.