The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1886-12-16
The Old Rut.

We hear d great deal to-day shout
the world jogging along in an old rut.
Many people are constantly complain
ing that things, are moving after the
same old style. They speak as though
they considered the world and the
people in it at q dead standstill-at least,
if not at a standstill, only treading
round and round in a circle, like a lost
man without a compass or landmarks
to guide him. Il.
If these people have the true concep-
ton of the present condition of things
then that condition is a bad one. But
the writer. thinks it safe to say that
nine-tenths of those who make this
kind of talk either do not stop to realize
the full import of their words, or could
not understand them did they pause to
consider. 1.-THE same old rut" is a
stereotyped phrase which we have
heard used for years. BY hearing an
expression much used we naturally
and almost unsconsclously come to use
it ourselves, perhaps without stopping
for a moment to consider the import
of it's full meaning.
This is an Age.of Progress! People
who keep up with the times do not
need to be told that. 1t is only those
who have fallen behind the times and
are swiftly being left far astern the
ship of progress, who. understanding
their own words, are saying n to an
other that the world is moving along IN
the same old rut. They are not pro-
crossing, and for that reason they inn
agine no one else is. There are peo-
pie who cannot keep up with the times
though they try. 1t takes a man fully
wde-awake to do that. If he fall
asleep long enough to take a short
nap, even, he is apt to wake up and
find that the world has gone on and
left him, and it may prove a hard task
for him to succeed in ~overtaking it.
1t is needless to cite proofs of the
worlds rapid advancement; such an att
tempt would be time wasted. Let any
one who wishes to know what advance
ment the world has made, look back
over a period of time even briefer than
one short century and see what a host
of wonderful inventions of practical
value have come into use during that
time. Surprising that, Rip Van
Winkle-like, some n had fallen asleep
one hundred years ago and not awak-
ened. until the present day, do you think
that upon looking around he would say
that the world had moved along in the
same old rutp Do you think that,
should a person fall asleep to-day and
awake a hundred years hence, he would
find that the world had advanced He
would be amazed and bewildered by
the strange inventions he would find
around him. Inventive genius has not
yet reached the top of the ladder. At
the present time the world is breath
lessly awaiting 1.-The next new thing"
It is sure to come. The one who first
holds it up to the world may be laughed
at as a crank, but has not that ever
been the wayP The geniuses have all
been cranks.
At no time during her history do we
find that the world has made such rapid
progress as she is making to-day. And
yet there are people who believe that
the acme of discovery has been reach
ed, and that there is nothing more to
be found, out. These people are as
much in error as those who believe
that W. r plodding along in a we'll
rut, There are yet depths to be
explored and heights to be reached of
which we do not dream William q.
Pntten. in The Current, !