The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-10-18

has brought him the spirit of that he
desired or only tantalized him with the
empty letter? More often, however, the
girl only encourages him enough to
keep him along and uses him as a butt
and foil for her other fiirtations. a bette
de souffrance to be finally dropped with
a scornful laugh or a pettish disclaimer
when the man she loves finally makes
his definite offer.
But outside Of sentiment or Iovemak-
ing there are plenty of people who,
trusting TO this delusive promise prove
for themselves its falsity-the young
man. for instance. who intends TO be
rich. He is told OF the millionaires who
have begun life with two or three pence
In their pockets and the traditional
bundle under their arms" and some
body with that exasperating air OF Civ
ing an invaluable formula OF success
who VIII but walt"
So he goes TO work at s. per month.
and after awhile is raised TO $40 and 500
and so on, and keeps waiting with the
most generous reliance upon that charm
ing promise, waiting through boyhood
and youth and young manhood, until
some fine day he suddenly perceives that
he is gray-haired, middle-aged man
with a few most painfully saved thou
sands I'm the bank and a salary which
just enables him to live comfortably and
to put by little every year. And those
are all the things that have come
round to reward his waiting.
Perhaps he has no ambition TO be a
Vanderbilt, perhaps he only desires 10
have a house OF his own. a horse and
trap, a comfortable home for the girl he
means TO marry: perhaps he is n good
young fellow and wants 10 take care OF
his widowed mother and little sisters as
well as the wife. He goes bravely about
his task. knowing that he cannot nearly
reach the mark Just yet but then, you
know
He finds hundreds-yes. thousands-of
other Richmonds i'm the field: he finds the
labor market glutted; he finds trained
skill demanded where he has only will
Ing service TO render. He Is not one of
the exceptional few who hit upon the
royal road TO success through some in
vention or some system as yet unheard
of. He is only capable of routine work
performed In plodding sort OF fashion.
and although he is never out OF employ
ment he never makes any great success
or receives any great emolument until
at last, when the mother Is dead, and the
sisters married or earning their own liv-
Ing as school teachers or typists. and the
wife worn and fretted with hope too
long deferred, he sees that he might
have horse and trap perhaps, but after
all he doesn't care for driving, and the
boys will need the money. or the girls
must have IL, and so IL goes.
Yet another class Of patient walters
upon this ignis fatuus of a promise are
the brethren of my own craft-the writ
ers.
A man, or for that matter IL is in
these days more often a woman, who
feels within herself the cacoethes scri-
bendi, Immediately stakes out her home
stead on Parnassus and selects her
niche in the temple of fame. Shak-
speare, Milton, Bulwer, George Eliot,
Dickens and the rest are her brothers
and sisters. They had to make a begin
ming, and so will she. They have made
glorious endings, and so will she. Their
names are known all over the world,
and hers is not known at all, but then
AL things come round to him who Will
but wait" and she doesn't mind watt
ing for year or haply two.
So the poor thing begins, and if my
tone is playfully soothing my heart Is
full of the tenderest sympathy and
pity. for / have seen and known IL all
so often, tried to warn some of these
gallant adventures of the perils Of their
voyage and to point out the fact that
amid such crowded fleets as daily put
to sea upon the inlky ocean comparative
~ few of the brave little craft reach the
harbor of success. while the rest are
stranded on Charybdis, or swallowed up
in Scylla, or swamped by collision with
their rivals. or lost and wrecked from
any one of hundred causes impossible
to foresee.
But 1 am brave and patient the as
pirant VIII answer. with a smile, Il can
wait for months. or even a year or two.
and all things come round to him who
will but wait"
So the victim starts out, writes her
poem. or her essay or her serial story
for these hopeful people never think Of
doing less than the heroic and never
descend TO the level of the short pithy
story. which is the only salable kind of
manuscript, and she or he sends Il first
TO the leading magazines. with perhaps
line suggesting that the author knows
that Longfellow received $500 for sim
liar work, but she is content to begin
with 500. The editor smiles compassion
ately and sends back the Ms. Then it
Sits down through the lower channels
or literature until Ii finally reaches home
for the last time and sleeps in the grave
Of rejected addresses"
Now, not wishing to be misanthropic
or discouTa gipg to any brave endeavor.
1 appeal to all literary experts to decide
out of their own experience and obser-
walton the truth to such a one as this
author of the proverb which has buoyed
him or her up. Does anything of conse-
quence come round" after long wait
ing? Is It not rather the rule that the
author who fails to gain some measure
of success and recognition in the first
two or three years of mature effort never
VIII succeed? II relying upon his false
maxim he persists in Offering his wares
here, there and everywhere, and accept
ing the lowest prices and poorest places,
he Will doubtless earn some money and
have the pleasure Of seeing himself in
print but alas for the dreams that prom
iSed to become golden realitiesi
But Nemesis, or Fate, or whatever we
call the destiny that shapes mems
ends" is fond OF her little joke and is
constantly amusing herself by fulfilling
the letter OF her agreement while break
ing the spirit OF it all to pieces.
Often enough she does bring round
'all things TO him who will but wait"
but at such a time and I'm such fashion
as to make success even more bitter than
defeat. The lover wins his lass, or the
lass her lover, only to find that the ap-
pie of Sodom, fair and rosy without, was
all bitterness and dryness within, mere
dust and ashes which perforce the win
ner must swallow and put as good
face as possible upon the unsavory NOR
sci.
The young man wins his fortune when
he is too old, too decrepit, too world
worn TO enjoy it. / knew one such man
whom nature had intended for an artist
and whose early dream was 10 earn
money enough to go to Italy and study
At fifty odd he told me Of this youthful
vision and added, 81 have plenty of
money now, and last year I went to
Italy only to find that pictures bored
me. and looking at galleries tired me
more than Wall-St. or the corn ex-