Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-06-18
HANDICAPPED.

For the Sunday Appeal
What sportsman, provided he be a true
lover of the horse, has not felt emotions OF
indignation, creditable to his best manhood,
upon witnessing the struggles of some noble
animal, straining every nerve-heroically,
desperately, vainlyI Painting with excess OF
ambitious zeal; displaying unconscious pride
in every motion; eager desire to test his own
superiority flashing from his eyes, only 10
stand finally before the judges stand, the
race run and losti The dropping head,
quIveriDg nostrils, relaxed muscles-all elo-
quent OF spent force and pathetic in their
mute acknowledgement of failurei All by
reason of being too heavily handicapped.
Yet those same men will walk side by side,
from the cradle TO the grave, with men and
with women, who are struggling in Just the
same heroic, desperate fashion on their ap-
pointed race-courses, fatally handicapped,
and falling to the rear by reason OF carrying
too much weight; the bitterness of defeat
augmented by the deathless conviction that
with a truer adjustment, they might have
sped swiftly and unerringly on straight to
the goal OF their most ambitious desires,
amid the loud acclaims of the very men
who, when they finally stand before the
Judges, faint and weary, branded with fail
ure, accord them the niggardly dole OF con-
temptuous pity, or add the smart of indig-
nant reproach to a burden of WEAKNESS and
humiliation already too great for poor HUI
mainly to bear. But the hand tender to
adjust the handicap, and the judge wise
enough to temper justice with mercy, are not
always TO the fore, and many an aspirant
capable of the most glittering triumphs
sinks, at last, to the level OF dumb driven
cattle, sullenly subseryient to the fatal ad-
iustment that has crushed out his most mag
pifcent possibilities. The "weights" that
are so often unseen, but irresistible, causes
of failures in life-failures at which the
unseeIng many ignorantly wonder-sre
OF descriptions as varying and as numerous
a. those failures themselves. A scolding
wife may blunt the brightest susceptibilities
OF a mans brain; an incorporate husband
may make a dull-eyed drudge Of a Corinne
or an Hypatia. Poverty, a sort of black
frost that nips the best mental possibilities
of any nature, il one OF the commonest kinds
of "weights" Iil-health. sneers, domestic
cares-ohi the Rumberless burdens that are
laid upon the struggling sons Of toll. Shock
ing lugubriously r, 9ctions into which this
prosy moralizsr was cast, by reading the
following scrap OF Thackery's at too early
an hour Of the morning, perhaps, Tor healthy
mental digestion: "Who ordered toll as the
condition Of life ordered failure success; 10
this person foremost place, 10 the other a
struggle with the crowd; TO each some work
uson the ground he stands on until he is laid
beneath IL. Our mental changes
are like our gray hairs or wrinkles, but the
ful6llment Of the plan of our moral growth
or decay. Lucky he who can bear his fail
ure generously, and give up his broken
sword to fate, the conqueror, with 3
manly and humble heart. Are We TO under
stand BY this that we started out on the race
handicapped for failure or success2 One
does not like TO think that the Great Ad-
ulster should order 10 one foremos. place,
10 another the struggle with the crowd. Il
accords better with our ideas OF Infinite jos
tice that the success should be as is the effort.
1t accords with our experience that lie who
Isbors most valiantly, may be the one hrzi
called upon to give up bis broken sword 10
Fate, the conquerer. In one OF the rsmbies
that ! have wisely regulated by the ther-
mometer lately, I had pointed out to me,
under the gaslights, man Prematurely
gray. His shoulders we're rounded, his atti-
tude listless, his eyes dull and heavy.
He glanced neither TO the right nor
the left; the electric lights cast a
pallid brillIsncy over him, bring
ing out in bold relief a certain dogged- don't
care look about him that was DItiful 10 be-
hold. Many eager tbrongs were fitting by
him, pressing forward to secure car for
Estival Park; anxiety to be in at Leyy's
first cornet flourish, visible IN every eve
Apparently he mad no epecisl motive FOR
tsanding still or for moving on. The latter he
did, presently, with the same Indifferent Ian
guor that characterized all his movements