The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1894-08-03

by all the hounds of political
parties from ocean to ocean.
And yet, there are a hundred
men to-day struggling for that privi-
lege, and there are thousands of men
who are helping them ia she struggle
Now. that is not a life ~OTtA l:ys4y.
You can get slandered and abused
cheaper than that Take it on
smaller scale. Do not be so ambitious
to have a whole reservoir rolled over
you. But what you see in the matter
Of high political preferment you see in
every community in the struggle for
what is called social position.
Tens of thousands of people trying
to get into that realm, and they are
under terrific tension. What is social
position? It is a difficult thing to de-
fine, but we all know what it is. Good
morals and intelligence are not neces-
sary, but wealth, or the show of wealth,
is absolutely indispensable. There are
men to-day so notorious for their lib
ertinism as the night is famous for its
darkness who move in what is called
high social position. There are hum
dreds of out-and-out rakes in American
society whose names are mentioned
among the distinguished guests at the
great levees. They have annexed all
the known vices, and are longing for
other worlds of diabolism to conquer.
Good morals are not necessary in many
of the exalted circles of society.
Neither is intelligence necessary.
You find in that realm men who would
not know an adverb from an adjective
if they met it a hundred times day,
and who could not write letter of ac-
ceptance or regrets without the aid of
a secretary. They buy their libraries
by the square yard, only anxious to
have the binding Russian. Their igno-
rance is positively sublime, making
English grammar almost disFeputa-
bic. And yet the finest parlors
open before them. Good morals
and intelligence are not necessary,
but wealth, or a show of wealth, is
positively indispensable. 1t does not
make any difference how you got your
wealth, if you only got it. The best
way for you to get into social position
is for you to buy large amount on
credit, then put your property in your
wife's name, have a few preferred
creditors, and then make an assign
ment Then disappear from the COM
munity until the breeze is over, and
then come back and start in the
same business. Do you not see
how beautifully that will put out all
| the people who are in competition with
you and trying to make an honest liv-
| ing? How quickly it will get you into
/ high social position! What is the use
of forty or fifty years of hard work
when you can by two or three bright
| strokes make great fortune? All! my
| friends, when you really lose your
money, how quickly they will let you
drop, and the higher you get the harder
| You will drop.
There are thousands to-day in that
/ realm who are anxious to keep in it.
| There are thousands in that realm who
are nervous for fear they will fall out
| of it, and there are changes going on
every year, and every month, and
| every hour which involve heartbreal1s
that are never reported. High social
| life is constantly in a fiutter about the
| delicate question as to whom they shall
| let in and whom they shall push out,
and the battle is going on-pier mirror
against pier mirror, chandelier against
| chandelier, wine cellar against wine
cellar, equipage against equipage. I'm
| certainty and insecurity dominant in
that realm, wretchedness enthroned,
! torture at a premium, and a life not
worth living.
But ! shall show you a life that is
worth living. A young man says: Il
am here. am not responsible for my
ancestry; others decided that. / am
not responsible for my temperament;
God gave me that. But here I am in
the afternoon of the nineteenth cen
fury, at twenty years of age. l am
! here, and / must take an account of
stock Here l have a body which is a
divinely constructed engine. l must
put it to the very best uses,
and 1 must allow nothing to
damage this rarest of machinery.
Two feet, and they mean locomotion.
Two eyes, and they mean capacity to
pick out my own way. Two ears, and
they are telephones of communication
with all the outside world, and they
mean capacity to catch sweetest music
and the voices of friendship-the very
best music. A tongue, with almost in
finity of articulation. Yes, hands
with which to welcome, or resist, or
lift, or smite, or wave, or bless-hands
to help myself and help others.
Here is a world which, after six
thousand years of battling with tenn
pest and accident, is still grander
than any architect, human or angelic,
could have drafted. have two lamps
to light me-a golden lamp and a sill
yer Tampa golden lamp set on the
sapphire mantel of the day, a silver
lamp set on the jet mantel of the
night. Yea, / have that at twenty
years of age which defes all inven-
tory of valuables-a soul, with capa-
city to choose or reject, to rejoice or to
suffer, TO love or to hate. Plato says it
is immortal, Seneca says it is immortal,
Confucius says it is immortal An old
book among the family relics-a book
with leathern cover almost worn out,
and pages almost obliterated by oft
perusal, joins the other books in saying
| / am immortal. / have eighty years
for a lifetime, sixty years yet to
live. l may not live an hour, but
then must lay out my plans intelli-
gently and for a long life. Sixty years
added to the twenty have already
lived, that will bring me TO eighty. 1
must remember that these eighty years
are only brief preface TO the five hun
dred thousand millions of quintillions
of years which will be my chief resi-