The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1898-06-04
In OURSELVES THE FUTURE LIES
BY ANNA ESTELLA BOLAND.

(Oration delivered at the commence
ment exercises of the Ncihart High
School, May 27, 1S9S.)
1t has been said that we may collect
materials for dozen pianos, the parts
all alike, all from the same shops, and
the twelve may be made according to
the same model; yet when each is COM
plete, tuned and tested by the touch of
its keys, it will be found to have tone
peculiar to itself, as if divinely ordained
to differ from all others. So with human
beings. We are very much alike in com
position, the same handiwork is in all.
Alike in race, in land and language, yet
each peculiar unto himself according as
his talents in life have been improved or
wasted. 1t is only when we have made
the most of our God-given opportunities
that we best produce the harmonies di
vinely inte nded. Most of the jargons,
the wiry, twanging discords, struck out
of this humanity of ours, come from the
people who have idled and drfted along
the stream of life caring nothing for the
morrow or the morrow's duties.
Livery man hath his proper gift of
God, one after this manner, and another
after that" The efficiency of each one
and his success greatly depend upon the
use he makes of this gift Personal eX-
ertion and earnest work will develop our
peculiar talents. Idlers are quite alike,
and unless we consider forty degrees
below the zero of Indifference a sublime
point of attainment, their lives are neg
ative quantities.
Some one has said, "Self-reverence,
self-knowledge, self-control, these three
alone lead life to sovereign power" and
as we read the biographies of great men
and women who by noble and heroic
deeds have written their names on the
pages of history, we cannot but be i'm
pressed by the truth of the saying. We
wonder that they who have had, perhaps,
no better opportunities than we, should
have accomplished so little, and we say
to ourselves, "Self-reverence, self-know-
ledge and self-control.'
The remark has often been made that
there is no particular use in possessing
more than common school education
that we cannot all he great The truth
of the latter statement we do not doubt
Nor do we wish to attain eminence for
its sake alone. But if each person would
try to prepare himself for some position
in life, whereby he could earn his living,
and lead a life of usefulness; if he would
feel it his duty toward his fellowmen
and his country, as well as his right and
privilege, to make himself useful in
strument for the progress of his kind,
the counties would have fewer paupers
to support, there would be fewer prison
ers in the prison cells, and the world as
whole would be better and grander.
The individual is formed for society
and not society for the individual. The
future lies before us; and we should push
out along some line of effort to do some
good in the world We should be not
like river that loses itself in the sea,
but like the Gulf Stream, moving among
the kindred waters and never lost So
ciety then will not make us what we are,
but we help to make it what it is. Our
power goes far to individualize others.
We then become an element in the social
life.
Perhaps there are some who think they
have not the opportunity enjoyed by
others, or that they arc not gifted as
Others with talent and power, and there
rore cannot accomplish as great work.
This is wrong idea. The old saying,
"Where there's will there's a way" has
been proved in the successful lives of a
number of our most noted men and