Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1891-11-28
OUR SATURDAY NIGHT.


The star has five points but
emits only one ray of light. IL it
emitted a score Of flames it would be
more shOwy hut would lose its
grand simplicity. The tree has
many branches but one trunk. The
bapyan tree with many trunks does
direct violence To ur idea of tree.
Hence we regard it as monstrosity
or a brush heap. Our minds inter
upon units of Thought. Nature is a
multiplicity of expressions in units.
Intelligent mankind tends to unity.
No educated civilized race was ever
capable of polytheistic belief. We
all grow in the direction of our in
dividualtity. That is the one most
graphic outward picture of our real
self presented to the world. We
may seek to sink it in the common
place of custom. We may try TO b.
or do as the Romans much as we
like, the one predominating feature
of ourselves that will leave its inn
preston on Others will be our indi
viduality. We cannot suppress it.
1t is the unit of our character To
which our whole nature will tend
and in which it will seek constantly
to express itself. individuality is
the background upon which the
most graphic image of our being
pictures itself.
In view of this one decisive fact
of our existence, how weak are our
atlectations, how futile to be any
thing but ourselves, Nothing is so
cheap and tawdry as borrowing
atfectations that do not belong to us.
Yet some lives are so overwhelmed
with the borrowed plumage of
atiectation that they resemble a
crudely constructed artificial os.
trich, the maker of which sought To
supply all his ignorance of the real
bird by heaping on a moutain of
miscellaneous feathers. The coun-
try girl who buys cheap and
snowy frippery to make herself APP
pear like city lady only makes her
self ridiculous. There is nothing
sweeter or more wholesome than a
plainly dressed, healthy looking
country lass, her cheeks ruddy with
he glow of health that comes from
manual labor, life largely in the
npen air and no trivialities or dlssi-
pations. Such young woman is
certainly in greater danger of catch.
ibg sensible city husband than tho
she went to town laced up like a
wasp, and dressed in flashy imita-
lion of her city cousins. In the lat
ter guise every sensible city youth
will pass her by as ill-bred.
The foolish young man may be
caught by her affectatlons, bat she
will not catch any other. Suppress
sion of individuality at the back of
affectation will prove q costly in
dulgence. The young man from
the country who apes the city boys
will never win by 1t. He may smoke
cigarettes, spending his money at
the bars,or buck the tiger, he will be
the country boy still, He has moth
ing to gain and all to lose by his ex-
change of individuality for affecta.
tion. There is no more honorable
badge of citizenship today than g
certificate of good character from the
farm. The whole nation is bowiHg
to the farmer. The world is taking
off its hat to agriculture as an art.
The writers and thinkers in all
fields of science and political
economy are giving their best en-.
ergies to benefit aud ennOble the
avocation Cf farming. Then be a
solid, sturdy citizen from the farm.
Do not be a bOOr. Do not be low in
your tastes. There is nothing in
consistent with being perfect
gentleman and a good farmer. Land
is increasing in value. Broad acres
will confer a nobility in time that
the dweller In cities and towns can
never initiate. In casting aside the
individualities of thought, the indie.
pendence of life, generated by farm
ing, you are contracting your broad
acre manhood TO the narrow limita-
tions of town lot speculations. The
young man from the farm, ambitious
TO play the part Of a cheap town boy
is belittling himself In sinking his
better manhood to follow fast town
life he sells himself for a mess Of
bitter thistles.
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