The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-02-19

Superintendent Of Schools Frank 3.
Cooper gave a very interesting talk to
a large audience at the Young Mems
Christian association rooms yesterday
afternoon his delivery was Of an easy
but earnest kind, that carried convic-
ton with it. and he held his listeners
attention closely FOR upward of three
quarters Of an hour. He said:
We are prone to glorify the man
who lifts himself into respectability by
dint Of hard work and a series of for
lunate circumstances. Such a man
would be described as a self-made man,
nut It's not my purpose this afternoon
10 weave chaplet for him; I am going
10 consider those who have not sue
ceeded from the worlds point Of view
or success. Just a word or two about
fortunate circumstances.
Struggles Are Helpful.
The favorable circumstances, so
called, are against the man who is sup
posed To profit by them; the chances
are in favor of the boy or man who has
some initiating circumstances to over
come Do not bemoan d fate that has
caused you to struggle. Take the his
tory of our own nation. for example.
You remember how the Puritan fathers
landed on the bleak and uninviting New
England coast and the innumerable
difficulties they had to overcome TO OBJ
tain foOthOld on the inhOspita BILE
shores; how the star of the empire has
taken its westward fight and Difficult
ties have been overcome at every. step
between the Atlantic and the Pacific
and beyond.
As il is with nations. so it is with
the Individual Now. I state a para
0nT- i a q no
man is a self-made man. In the first
instance, every man is the logical pro-
duct Of his own efforts, thoughts and
desires; no man can shift the response
bIlity for his being on some one else,
and no man can shirk the responsible
ity for the outcome of his own life.
NO man is self-made; no man is so
FAR removed from his surroundings that
they do not affect his character more
or less strongly. Character was not
made in a day, and it cannot be I'M
made in a day. The past always infiu-
6nceS a persons actions to some extent
and when a man falls il is because he
has been falling; we fall because We
have been giving way until the very
foundation stones of our character have
been loosened.
Life is not the issue of a dream; it
l is the issue of thought and prayer that
are likened unto tools in the hands Of
the sculptor. You are carving your
( characters now. and whether or not the
elimination is a column worthy Of be
I ing placed in the halls of fame de-
ponds on yourselves. The day has gone
/ by when the destinies of man were
! controlled by a vision you must be up
and doing for time will not wait upon
| you. Whatsoever a man soweth that
shall he also reap 1 am sometimes
sorry that this Isl So 1 sometimes Ia
ment that I have TO reap what I have
/ uuwitungly sOwed in tie past.
Shakespeare's Ignis Fatus.
/ Shakespeare says: There is a tide
/ in the affairs of men which, taken at
/ the food. leads on to fortune Why,
that is an ignis fatuus. Shakespeare
has set up false light along with some
+ good ones. You cannot succeed by
/ waiting for a flood tide Of fortune. Viii
| kins Micawber tried that, and his coun-
/ terparts are today waiting for the long
/ delayed something to turn up. If we
/ achieve success, il is by the little ef-
forts that We put out day after day,
not by waiting around for the grand
! climax to happen our way
( Nothing is trUer than that life and
character grow. The laws which gov
( ern them are as inevitable as those
which govern the plant world They
too, have their soil. sunshine ara al
] muSnhere. and each grows according
to its kind. With man there is this
difference. a spiritual breath was i'm
parted TO his being when he first took
on the image of his Maker. Environ
ment plays an important part in the
formation of a mans character, and
finally traits will always be more OF
less in evidence because of the blood
which flows in his veins.
Both these things viii affect his Cd
reer. but God has given him the power
to overcome them if he will Where
there is "a viii there is always a W9v
and the thing for US to do is 90 make
out of ourselves that which God has
made possible Literary, civic, indus
trial. social. companionship environ
ments al tend to influence for good OF
! L.. p