The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1890-07-26
LIKE PoErs-BoRN, NOT MADE.

There the Similarity Ends-Men OF 6Xs
pedients In Business.
II have been reading with considerable
interest,"" said q New Yorker yesterday,
'the discussion that has been presented In
the columns of The Tribune on the advan-
tages or disadvantages which acollege edu-
cation confers upon q young man who has
his own way to make in the world. Leav-
ing aside for the time being the fact that
far too many people think that success in
life means either great wealth or distinction
(second ate results, both, and not to be
compared to culture of the mind and to
healthy, let me say that of all the traits
with. which a man can be endowed, none
will be so helpful to him in any walk Of
life as that Of being ready with expedients,
of being prepared for the emergency. You
hear plenty of men who have the average
amount of intellect and education grum-
bling that they never get q chance to suc-
coed and envying those who do. The truth
is that they have not that instinct which
sees opportunities to enter where others see
only an insurmountable wall Of difficulty.
'aTake the case of B. T. Babbitt, who died
the other day a millionaire several times
over. He began life as a blacksmith's"ap-
prentice, and devoted the best of his days
and the best product of his brain to max
ing soap-not an exceedingly lofty calling,
but he made a colossal success at it where
a great many others failed, and just be-
cause he was q man of almost inexhausti-
bic e~xpedient. Whenever a rival came too
near him in the race Mr.. Babbitt used to
sit right down and think o1t some new bit
| Of machinery which would turn out the
-,.~1. - 1SxxIo oh1o~o~ %ho, tho old ono or6
then he would go to work and build 1t.
"'Ah,' you say, he was an inventor
few men have the gift of invention
Invention, my friend, is only another
word for e~xpedient. It's the same faculty,
whether expressed in q new machine, or q
new way to bear stocks, or a new way to
| advertise patent medicine. It's often anus
| ing to hear men who have not got this fac
ulty, men who could not be pushed into
making money in any but the old beaten
paths, speak with anger and suspicion Of
the success of others. There is something
positively dishonest to these men in the
extraordinary adaptability of those others,
and the power of turning into gold oplor-
tunities which are absolutely invisible to
most men seems wizardlike and unholy.
'sIt always has been so, no doubt, and
| probably always will be. Countless men
have striven for wealth in this city since
the days of the first John Jacob Aston un-
til now. They were ready to take any and
every chance, honest or dishonest, to amass
fortune, and have been unable to do so;
so they have solaced themselves somewhat
by carping at others, who, with the same
advantages, or less, thesame opportunities,
honest and dishonest, have steadily reaped
their thousands and tens of thousands in
The same fields where others could find only
| the stubble of bare livelihood.
"To be able to see anything from all
sides at once, in fact to be fertile and ex-
pedient, is the master secret to fortune and
TO distinction, if that is what a man sets
put to win. It is not impaired by an edu-
cation, either at the college or in the shop,
but is born in certain individuals and not
in others. OF course few people are born
without any of it, and I think the proper
kind of education might be evolved to de.
velop the embryo that turks in most of us;
but after all, this idea is a good deal like
] the discussion over the best kind of food
for brain workers. AS some clever fellow
has said, the very best thing for a brain
worker is brains, and plenty of them.' "
\ New York Tribune,