The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1889-05-24
A PRACTICAL AGE.
Why In Our Day Men Stand or Fall rs Their
Themselves Prefer.

Why In Our Day Men Stand or Fall as Their
Themselves Prefer.
We are living in a severely practical
age. an age of sharp competition in
well nigh every field of human effort.
Education has become so general that
the professions are now recruited from
every walk in life, and it is contest
of humanity, and not of any privileged
class, for the worlds highest honors.
The genius of hard work, of earnest.
diligent, intelligent effort, is the key
to success in whatever direction such
effort may be employed, and he who
bears off the palm to-day is entitled to
it as a prize well and deservedly won.
In the sO-called darker ages, when
education was restricted to the favored
few. and the many were but considered
as the natural servitors of the former,
the favored ones found it easy sailing
for honors on the sea of intellectual eff
fort. The polished crystal may outvie
the diamond when the latter is in its
crude. rough state, it's lustre hidden by
its earthly incrustations; but the lapid-
airy comes to the aid of the real gem,
and 10! the crystal is ANONYMOUSLY
cast in the shade. And so it was with
the self-conscious crystal of the privi-
legged classes; it shone because that
which could eclipse it was kept away
from the light. Not but these same
privileged classes gave us some won
drous examples whose fame is honored
to-day; but they were not called upon
for the exertion of their great gifts to
the fullest extent. The path of prefer
ment was rosy one, and the COMPETE
tors for the prize few in number. Occa-
sionally some diamond blazed out
among the common herd" startling
his generation with wonder, and leav-
ing the impress of name that is i'm
perishable, but this was necessarily
rare. The masses were handicapped
by their burdens; and so the few, in
the main, divided the honors easily.
Life was holiday race to them, and
work was not to be mentioned in their
presence.
At last that great discoverer of
human diamonds, that intellectual
lapidary, the schoolmaster, went about
removing the incrustation of ignor-
ance; and 10! the light of popular edu-
cation revealed the glory of earth's
hidden treasures. The honors of life
were not henceforth to be confined to
the few, but became prizes for the COM
petition of the many, and civilization
made such a move forward in a few
years as it had not hitherto accom-
plished in as many centuries. We have
but to look at the progress of the
present century, it's record of discovery
in every field. the manner in which it
has revolutionized the world affairs
for the worlds good, to see what
human effort. unhampered by unnat-
ural restrictions, has produced. That
which has already been accomplished
is but an earnest of what is to follow.
Man stands or falls to-day, as he HIM
self prefers. The world is all before
him, its avenues for the employment
of his powers are all open to him and
nothing but his own incompetency, his
own lack of wisdom, energy and in
tegrity, can prevent his rounding out
his life to that completeness, to that
point of usefulness and honor, for
which he has been equipped by the
Creator.
1t is practical age. The senti-
mental glamor of birth and descent is
little aid to the former or little loss to
the one who has not been Graded in
its effulgence. The age demands a
practical demonstration of human
powers and human energies, and upon
the thoroughness with which personal
worth is so demonstrated depends the
measure of success it proposes to &C
cord. In whatever honorable direction
mans energies are to-day employed,
he finds ''a fair field and no favor"
and his success or failure depends up
on himself. Budget.