Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1895-09-27
TIMID MEMS ERRORS.

TIMID MEMS ERRORS.
THEY SUFFER A GREAT DEAL FROM
A MISTAKEN NOTION.
A Typical American Said to Be Marvel.
ously Resourceful-Timid Men Do Not
sion In Women.
We are timid at all times, but some men
seem horn especially timid and grow more
SO the longer they live. Unless they make
a bold stand against their %inclinations in
this respect, they are not likely to increase
their little stock of self esteem, and they
are fortunate if they gain a livelihood.
The writer has cause to remember one OF
his attacks of timidity. He had embarked,
not too wisely, in a stock exchange specu-
lation with an acquaintance. That same
evening he hurried to the latter's house
and said he was so tortured by,anxiety
that he would like to be out Of the enter
prise. The other laughed and said that he
would take all the risks if he might have
all the profits. He there and then guaran-
teed the writer against loss, on condition
that he would be satisfied with the return
of his original Investment. The result was
that the timid nan stood where he was,
and the other made 50 per cent on the pur.
chase. fz --r
Unless he struggles hard against his in
%stincts, the timid man is bound to lave to
suffer a deal Of despair, if only in the earn
ing of bread and cheese. He is apt to get
Into a groove and think that because he Is
there he is safe and snug for life. He.
makes no allowance for the accidents of
existence just because it frightens him to
imagine they may occur to him. And so
when, through no fault of his own, he Is
thrown out of employment, it is as if the
world were suddenly turned upside down.
Contrast him with the typical American
whose determination and resource are mar
velous to some of the rest of us. This gen.
tleman, having failed as q printer, turns
hopefully to a farm, and if that also works
out badly consoles himself with the
thought that he is cut out for trade and
s~traightway takes a shop
We once knew a city magnate who ten
dered us words of great comfort upon &C.
casion. my boy" he said, "the best step
l ever made in my career was q downward
step. l was getting e12O a year, but I
liked not the faint prospects of that Office.
l therefore joined Messrs. B. on e7O a
year, Thirty years afterward this gen.
tleman was "Messrs. B." himself,
with thousands a year income. The thing
for the timid man to do is to impress upon
himself one important truth. He fancies
that he is quite extraordinarily timid and
humble; that hardly any one can be found
so unfortunately endowed. But it is moth
ing of the kind. The majority of men are
innately timid. Call it supremacy cautious,
if o will. Percciving, however, that
you are undoubtedly timid, other men I'M
mediately assume an air of audacity,
which deceives you if it does not deceive
themselves. A certain brave man who
lived for years among the Maoris, before
they were anything like civilized, says OF
COURAGE: II don't believe in it at all nor
ever did, but there is something far better,
which has carried mo through several seri-
GUS scrapes with eclat and safety-I mean
the appearance of courage. If you have
this, you may drive the world before you"
This is comforting and more than plaus-
ible. Experience confirms the truth of it.
So do Lord Wolseley and other men who
have had to do with soldiers in time Of
battle. So, too, does Emerson, the quiet
thinker and u%nraveler of the tangled roots
of the mind.
"Always do what you are afraid to do"
says Emerson, quoting some n else. And
again: every man is actually weak and
apparently strong. To himself he seems
weak, to others formidable. You are
afraid of Grim, but Grim also is afraid of
you"
Words like these ought to the timid
man, not yet enlightened about his neigh
bors, to be worth much, perhaps millions,
perhaps the premiership in England.
The unenlightened timid man is over
whelmed with fear when he does some
thing that seems likely to land him in
difficulties. He would rather hide his head
in a bag than face the trouble. But here,
also, if we will only see it, he may have his
profit as well as his momentary loss. AS
Ernest Renan reminds us, "He who can
commit blunders with IMMUNITY is always
certain to succeed"
A roughish road to success, though, and
not the one to be Immediately recommend
ed if IN easier offers.
AS may be supposed, upon q fair knowl-
edge of feminine nature, with women the
tiInid man is likely to win no great regard.
They may love him, of course, especially
the stronger among them, who see in him
their ordained complement and mate. But
nothing is less likely to induce in them
the noble absorbing passion which the best
of women oftentimes feel foc the bold and
determined man.
The timid man who tries t. be content
ed with his Unborn timidity looks, when
suitably married, like a small cockerel try
ing to nestle under the wings of a some
what assuming hen. 1t may be comforta-
BILE for him, but it certainly isn't digniled.
If men are to be deceived by the appear
ance of courage in other meu, it ought not
to be difficult for a ma to deceive a wom-
an also. Nor is there anything very shame
full about such deceit, for it is only by
constant practice of it that we can get near
to the real virtue of courage, of which at
first our efforts at valor are but the phan-
toms.
cts just the jumping in that I didn't
like the first time" a man who had been
the means Of saving four persons from
drowning in canals at different times said
to the writer.
He was a hero because he declined - be
deferred by his physical disinclination ior