Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1899-11-09
The Measure of Success.

The Measure Of Success.
In recent contribution to the Phila
delphia Saturday Evening Post Mauric,
Thompson gives utterance to some
sound sentiment and philosophy re-
garding our social and business life. He
says:
Americans have been described by
foreigners, and by sincere home-bred
critics as well, with great show of jus.
tice and franl1ness, as worshipers OF
the money god. On the surface of our
life, both domestic and national, we dc
expose a great area devoted to sordid
aspiration. And, after all, there may
be less evil in this fact than hasty
judgment would comprehend. To a de-
gree, financial success is a just measure
of superior intelligence and character.
1t is indisputable that the periods OF
highest civilization have always been
strongly marked by aggregations Of
wealth. We are apt, in our despair at
the thought that we can never be rich,
to make the sweeping charge of un-
righteousness, and even brutality,
against those whom the god of gain
has highly favored. Do you wish you
were rich? If you do, what right have
you to arraign the man who has wished
the same thing and had it come true?
Speaking of American humor, what
would be more delightful in that line
than the recent financial success of the
man who a few years ago headed a So
called army of tramps and marched in
to Washington? A shrewd negro ex-
pressed sound philosophy when, just
after the revival of prosperity in the
south, he said: DE po' white man done
grab what de rich white man use ter
hor fas'. l tell yo', Wen de bottom rail
git on de top O de fence deys somefin'
a gwine ter happen!' Money is not
happiness, nor is financial success the
whole of life. A very little observation
shows that our existence here gathers
such enjoyment az it is capable of real
iZing from sources not controllable by
the purchasing power of money. The
laws of health, for example, are more
important than the secrets of trade in
the race for true goal of human sue
cess. OF what avail would millions of
money have been to Keats when he be-
gan to die at 20? The fawIess health
of Gladstone at so made his voice a ma
tons trumpet blast. Bismarck's sound
nerve centers were more to Germany
than the gold of all the banks. A sound
body, with a sound character imbuing
it, will command success when a ma
tion's overfowing treasury may be
wasted in vain against the tide of ca
lamity. In a word, success comes of
health. Not mere physical equilibrium,
but that higher health which insures
contentment based upon justice, char
ity and righteous regard for life, is the
sine qua non. A healthy soul in pure
physique will find its way to such sue
cess as may well be envied. Again turn
ing TO Gladstone for lofty example, we
see how the currents of his moral aspi-
ration and his political ambition ran
together through long, beautiful and
powerful career. Weakness of char
acter makes even religion a reflection
from insipidity; force of character ad
vances every object that it touches. III
directed, it plunges it's bearer, and
mayhap a nation with him, into the
whirlpool of evil; well directed, it
brings the true success, which may be
but happy life on a remote farm, or
long series of public triumphs for the
lasting good of mankind. And as phys
ical health has strong influence upon
character, it should be assiduously
guarded in our homes and schools
equally with moral health, which also
gives efficiency to the whole human or
ganism. The measure of success is but
the measure of a well-lived life"