The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1888-06-30
Men Who Get Side.Trac'led.

The Boston Herald lately published
a number OF interviews with men who
had become "side tracked" in life.
BY this is meant men who, though
willing to work, yet were unable to
find anything congenial to do.
They were men who had somehow
got out of the current of the great
forces in which the world is moving,
and were stranded, as it were, like
helpless hulks along the sands of time.
There are more such men and women
in every community than most people
imagine.
Perhaps the most numerous class of
men who get side-tracked are those
who start in life in an occupation for
which they have no natural aptitude.
There are thousands of farmer bows
who never should remain on the farm
the loud protestations of the agri-
cultural press to the contrary not
withstanding. There are, doubtless,
men who make a life business of
stirring the soil when they ought to
be stirring the Senate ; and, on the
contrary, perhaps, there are men who
are trying to stir the Senate who ought
men are frequently spoilt to make poor
preachers; and there are many large
and heavy lawyers who would make
ideal blacksmiths; and there are some
slender and unsuccessful blacksmiths
. with the keen logical brain and the
shrewd masterful mind of the lawyer.
Such men are side for life, I'M
less there is some great event crosses
their track, such as crossed the track
of Grant the teamster, OF Cromwell
the country squire. But no doubt
there are many Grants who always
team, and many Cromwells who never
leave the farm. There are many men
who start out in life, like hunters, on
the wrong trail. They never bring
down their game because their game
has gone in another direction. They
are like fishermen who bob for cod in a
trout brook, or start awhaling on an
inland pond.
There are some men who are side
tracked for life at their very birth.
They are born into mesh of circum-
stances from which there is no extrica-
tion. OF course it is easy enough to
say that a man, like water, will always
find his level; but it is hard for water
to rise plumb with its fountain head
when confined in an underground pipe.
1t would have been difficult for Shaks-
peare to assert his claim to immortal
ity ii he had been born in Patagonia,
and he would never have heard of
Plato if he had first seen the light in
ScYthia. To say nothing of tho hered-
itary influences that mold the unborn
man, the environment of the young
humans infancy usually shapes and
directs his destiny, SO irrevC oa3iy that
only men of the strongest will and the
toughest mental and physical fiber
can ever counterfeit the impetus that is
given them in child God. To be sure
there are few who
Burst their births iuvidious bar,
and grasp the skirts of happy chance,
And breast the blows of circumstance,
Aud grapple with their evil star,
but men of such heroic breed are al
ways so few that they are perpetually
a source of special wonder.
The lesson that Young people should
gain from all this is the Importance OF
studying their own aptitudes In
choosing profession do not consult
your egotism, but your personal fit
ness; and if the surroundings of your
birth are unfavorable to your fullest
development, overcome them as much
rs possible by the indonlit BILE stub
bornness of your own will. To do
this, learn to think for yourself at as
early an age as possible, and You Will
soon learn that man we'll intrenched
within himself is able to rise above the
repressions md contracting force of
circumstances. Above all things, do
not get side tracked at the start
.Sam Fo5s.