San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-07-24
A Popular Fallacy.


of Mrs. Celia Bender at 4, Allen
A Popular Fallacy.
Boston Courier.
When good old Sir Thomas Browne
devoted himself to the examination
of popular errors it is not probable
that the proverb which declares that
there is always roorn at the top was
| commonly current, else so clear
headed writer would surely have
included this among the mistakes
which 1t was d part of his life work to
do away with. There is no proverb
in the whole delusive and delud-
ing list which is more deceptive than
this. 1t is to all superficial appear
| ance so plausible, SO self-evident, that
it IS only upon the most careful ex-
animation that one perceives that it
is altogether a delusion and snare.
In . sense it is true, and therein lies
the dangerous nature of the thing.
The proverb that Is true in q way has
always power for deception which
is not shared by many of it's brethren
that are really worth a dozen of it so
far as genuine utility goes, but which
can make no shallow pretense to
literal truthfulness.
There is always room at the top,
just as there is always room at the
bottom, but the only universal SYM
Dol of sublunary things is the pyra-
mid. There is always tapering off
as one goes upward, and there is pro-
portionately as much less room at
the top as there are people to occupy
it. When one has climbed to the top
of an art he addresses himself to the
most limited of audiences; when he
stands at the head of a profession
there are comparatively few men " no
can afford to employ him, who can
appreciate him, and. in q word,
to whose wants and means his
services are adapted. 1t Is all very
well to say that at least everybody
would be glad to be served by the
best of talent and the best of skill,
but as a matter of fact the majority of
people are so far from approaching
either that, were the two put before
them they must every time choose
the ordinary instead of the exraordi-
nary, since the latter would be too
unintelligible to be at all appreciated
by them.
If the proverb is intended for the
use to which it is generally put, that
of encouraging the youths who are
beginning the practical fight for life,
it Is misleading and vicious. There
are about as many men-aud, indeed,
there are more-at the top now than
can make living there, even with a
good deal of eXertion. How many
70 ha
of Millet! One might stretch out ex-
amples by the column if it were at all
worth while; but surely 1t must be
evident to any candid thinker who
takes the trouble to reflect moment
that, in the ordinary sense, there is
by no means "room at the top"
And what then is the moral? In
the first place 1t is to be said that if
this or any other saying be not true,
the sooner 1t is done away with the
bette. Moreover it may be set down
as the moral that he who struggles
toward the top for the mere sake of
making a success in the material way
is wasting his time. The road to
this sort of success lies through the
regions of comfortable Mediocrity
If there is room anywhere in the
practical sense it is now, as 1t always
has been, and as apparently railways
will be, at least to the
end of this world and the
folly thereof. in the ranks OF
the middle class workers in what
ever branch of industry, of art, or OF
learning. Here one has all the
world to sustain him. He appeals to
the classes, who are enlightened
enough to know what is unknown
farther down on the pyramid, that
they should admire something, and
who have not the perception of what
is really good. The aspiration for the
top becomes the msrest folly from a
practical point of view when it is
coupled with desire for material
success.
The conclusion of the whole matter
Is that he who wishes to squeeze him,
self into the already crowded narrow.
ness of the top must make up his
mind to endure hardshIps, to be not
only scant of room there, but of every
thing else; to be not only nipped by
the thin air of the altitude, but tt
find that comfort and space and al
rewards save the intangible are fol
those on lower levels.
And yet for those who appreciate
the fact that the intangible reward 6
are the best that lite has to offer
there is always room at the top, anC
in this sense the fiimsy old provert
does not lie.
Fred B. Walsch, a wealthy st
Louis citizen, is looking at the town