The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1900-12-06
Written for The Prison Mirror.
OPPORTUNITY.

There is an old prOverb that once in
every persons lifetime there comes an
opportunity when by stretching forth
his hand he will find success within
his grasp.
Now, this is all right so far as it goes;
but I believe that if sufficient energy
and common sense is injected into the
present, we can create those opportuni-
ties, not once but many times. All
that is required is strength of will and
indomitable perseverance. If you
possess these valuable gifts-Ecco
Homo
A dreamer will never achieve success
in this world. This is practical
world and the man who expects to sue
ceed must be intensely practical One
does not have to be successful to per-
cieve this.
There are various classes of men
who cannot succeed, who do not sue
ceed, and who as general mass, never
will succeed. Here are few of them:
The man who enters the struggle pre-
maturely, that is, without being pre-
pared to meet powerful opposition.
Also, the man who throws up his hand
after the first battle in which he is
defeated, and admits he is conquered.
Also, the man who expects to occupy
his time with four or five other things
and yet be successful along one certain
line. He will fail. If there is any,
thing in this world that has been
clearly demonstrated it is the fact that
the human mind can only receive and
transmit intelligence on one subject at
a time. And yet some people dawdle
along day after day, pursuing one path
today, and another tomorrow; and
somehow though they have no idea
how they expect to come out on top at
least But they never will. And lastly
the man who, allows vicious and
vulgar habits to override his reason,
when he is perfectly certain that those
habits will be the very cause of his
failure. He also will fail.
Let us take the first case mentioned
in this essay, the one who enters the
struggle without previous preparation.
There is one fact that is and always
has been mathematicaly irrefutable,
that the man who expects to raise
himself from the ranks to position of
eminence must expect, and will meet
the most bitter hatred and hostile op-
position that can be conceived of. He
is pitting himself against the shrewdest
intellects and pitiless and resourceful
enemies. So you can see how foolish
it would be for him to enter the
struggle without any knowledge of
what he was engaging in, or the
enemy's strength and tatics. And to
obtain this knowledge takes years of
patient observation and preparation
for the inevitable struggle.
What would you think Of man who
expected to lead successful military
campaign without knowing even the
rudiments of military tactics. Yet l
assure you there are men who every
day make the same blunders along
other lines of achievement.
The next one mentioned in this
essay is the man who gets discouraged
and quits after the first failure. He is
only an object for pity and contempt.
He whines about "fate," and "destiny,"
and is under the impression that Provi-
dence takes special delight in baking
him at every turn. He multiplies his
trivial misfortunes in his own imagina-
tion until they assume gigantic pro-
portions and thinks he is the most mis-
erable and unfortunate creature in
existence. He has not as much self
respect as we'll bred hog.
Let us look at man who is the
very opposite of this. If he receives
good knock down blow, instead of
taking it and groaning he gets on his
feet and resumes the struggle, and