The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1877-12-20
The independent.
Glitter, Not Gold.

tells a good story on himself, how
when he first went to the Nevada
mines and with ecstatic delight gath
cred a great quantity of mica and
other glittering stuff and thought he
had made ga strike" He joined his
comrades at camp and thought to as
tonish them with the revelation of his
discovery. When appraised of the
true character of his specimens he
exclamined-"All that glitters is not
gold" Whereupon one of his COM
rades, an old miner, told him he might
go further than that, and lay it up
among his treasures of knowledge,
that ''othiag that glitters is gold.
Mark then philosophers as follows:
$50 | learned then, once for all, that gold
in its native state is but dull, monumental
stuff, and that only law born metalsSxcite
the admiration of the ignorant with an osten-
tatious glitter. However, like the rest of
and clarifying men of mica. Commonplace
human nature cannot rise above that"
Without entering into an argument
about common or uncommon human
nature or what it can or cannot do,
it is sufficient for the purpose Of this
article that we recognize the fact as
stated by this humorous though
sometimes truly philosophical writer,
that, ordinarily, people do not, in their
estimates of men, rise above the gilt
ter which gold and ostentatious dis
play can make. Now, true nobility
of character and great soul, are as
much more precious and better than
silver and gold, as these metals in
their turn are better and more precious
than the glittering mica and other
low-born metals. But, even in this
boosted age of enlightenment and
freedom, how many and extravagant
are the tributes paid to the god of
wealth and the glitter of outside show,
to the disparagement Of the truly
good and truly beautiful. How many
men in the world, like Mark when
gathering the glittering mica, are
taxing their energies Of body and
mind to amass wealth, forgetting the
cultivation Of that higher nature with
in them, wherein forever lies latent
the fountains OF perpetual joy;
rewards which they cannot hope to
gain by life of blind devotion to that
which they al but too surely and sad
ly find to be glitter and not gold.
The young ambitious, hopeful gold
digger has made story for US which
will both do to laugh at and moralize
over. His prototype is seen every
where. He was not the only man
who was fastening with bated breath
in search Of baubles; for away on
the other side of the Rocky noun
tains by the Atlantic sea board, down
where the agosies Of commerce flow
on the broad Mississippi, and up
among the forests of Wisconsin, Maine
and Washington, were thousands
more who were just as truly gather
ing glittering mica and low-born
metals, as was Mark Twain on the
desert hill-sides of Nevada. He and
they were in pursuit of the same OBJ
ject-something to glitter. lie aban-
doned his search when the great dis
solvent, truth, was cast upon his find
ings; they will do likewise, for men
learn sooner or later that sail that
glitters is not gold" The wisdom
that is better than rubies, the con
science void of sffense and the soul
ever attuned to that spiritual melody
ofloYe to men, are all attributes OF
divinity in man. They do not glitter,
for over them all is cast the mantle
of humility and reserve. As com
pared to the thirst for gold, for pomp,
and worldly ease and to sel6shness,
they are like the pure gold and silver