The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1884-04-05
APRIL 5, 1884.
Success and Failure in Life.


The following is portion of the bril-
liant address to the students of the Univer-
sity Medical College, of New York city,
delivered by Chauncey NJ. Depew, ESQ.,, on
the evening of their graduation, the 18th
of March.
In our American vocabulary and popu-
lar philosophy everything almost is as
cribed to luck and opportunity. The
country is crowded with men whose careers
have been wasted or wrecked by the spec
ulations, feverish anxieties, lack of fixed
purpose and persistent industry, and the
hopes and disappointments thus incurred.
| While these elements form part of the
phenomenal successes which astonish the
world Of business, the prizes in the profess
sions belong only to those who honestly
win them. Crowded as are all the avenues,
there is always about as much room for a
man as he is able to occupy. Failures are
due to two causes-one that you have mis-
taken your calling the other that you will
not or cannot work. The men who are
early and late at their vocations, who are
alert to take advantage Of every opening,
| who are not swerved to the right or left
by WEAKNESS or desire for change, who do
the best they know how whatever they at
tempt TO do at all, form the minority which
invariably wins. Commodore Vanderbilt
once remarked to me in regard to an ex-
ceptionally brilliant man, who fell contin-
ually exasperatingly short of what his
| friends expected: "There is a cog loose
somewhere in his machinery" The old
Commodore was not metaphysician or
mental philosopher, but with his usual
keen, hard sense he pointed out the diff
Guilty of the mass of professional failures.
Their mental equipment is for some other
purpose The moment a man discovers
that nature intended him for something else
let him stand not on the order of his going,
but go at once, before starvation drives him
and orders him up. The sooner poor
doctor, lawyer or clergyman recognizes that
his genius is for merchandise or types, the
skilled trades or accounts, the better for
himself, the profession and the world. |
have secured positions for two lawyers, one
as a brakeman and the other as freight
clerk, and both are advancing with earnest
strides and confident anticipations towards
the presidency of the road. The disappoint-
ments and heart-burnings in Il career come
largely from our false standards of success.
We are over-educated in the view that
wealth, income and expenditure are its only
induces. In the absorbing rush for more
money come the tampering with trust funds,
populations and suicides, which are the
sociological problems of the hour.
| Dot rubo,, proYaylk, froinad ond Hffan
certain as the rising and setting of the sun
so sure as the doctor of position and income
sufficient for clean and healthful life and
its opportunities for usefulness and honor.
The first few years of self-denial and strug-
gle are not the dreaded evils they are pic
tured, but rather the athletes training, the
soldiers discipline, their hardships forgot
ten, their experience and value happily re-
membered after the victory. We lawyers
are accustomed to saying that We owe to
you the most lucrative part of our practice
-contesting the wills and settling the es-
tates of your victims.
Every professional, every educated man,
! owes something to the community in which
: he lives. All the educational humanita-
: rian, social and political work of the neigh
horhood have legitimate and imperative
: claims upon him. His advantages impose
T upon him public activities and, in sense,
, leadership. The doctors opportunities sur
pass all others. The demands upon the
pulpit to-day are so great that the pastor
becomes almost an impossibility On the
worldly side, as guide, adviser, friend, the
doctor takes his place. The most sacred
secrets of the family are his. He settles
the disputes, reconcies the estranged, re-
, claims the lost, and soothes the sorrowing.
In its largest and fullest sense he is and
must be teacher, and his quiet influence
reaches all classes and conditions. He
should be then Republic informed and in
terested in all public questions, the friend
of good government, the enemy of bad ru-
lers. But he cannot go to the Legislature
or Congress without running both his prac-
tice and professional standing. His strength
is the confidence his patients have in his
personal skill and fidelity, and it cannot
be transferred. The public-spirited doctor
is always popular, and ambition sometimes
tempts him to listen to the flattering plau-
dts of his fellow citizens, but no physician
ever tried it who did not regret it the rest
of his life. | know of no career so full
rounded, so successful in the best sense, as
that of an old and faithful country DOCTOR
Never much richer than his modest home
he has always had enough for his simple
wants. He has given his children little of
fortune, but all that was attainahle of a
liberal education. Every good cause has
felt his influence, and the poor his silent
charity. In his life all of every age feel
that in him they have friend, and when
be dies they know they have lost one.
Anoiant Dentiatrv