Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-01-01
VIEW YEAR REFLECTIONS.

s6V0 = S60SSVWSs
With today's inaugural of the new year
there comes to the mind of man a
thoughtful consideration of the past, and
an almost endless variety of speculative
imaginings for the future. In the at
tempt to use the present as a bridge be-
tween the events Of the past and those
which are to come, not only in the wider
domain of the world, but in the personal
universe of the individual as we'll, man
discovers a limitless field in both direc-
lions. A review of the past, be it that
of an Individual or a nation, affords a
bewildering scope for aimless rambles
among the might have beens," with
their concomitant conclusions as to pos
sible results in the future.
By far the greater part of such specu-
lation, whether looking forward or back
ward, is worse han idle-idle, because
impossible; and worse than idle, if pos
sible, for unlooked-for situations would
arise wholly inconsistent with the pro-
gramine SO clearly mapped out by the
mind as an aftermath. Human events
are far less subject to personal control
than the average man is willing to admit.
1t is pleasant to reflect that "a man is
the architect of his own fortune"-that
his life is what he makes it! But the
conclusion which every sensible man
must reach, as he takes an inventory of
his WI life on the glad New Year, is
that a very large proportion of his goings
and cornings, his ups and downs, during
the past year, have not been of his own
choosing, but have been due to environ
one year ago. Much of his time has been
employed-and much of his energy ex-
hausted-along lines not reckoned with
when he outlined his future for the faded
year only twelve short months ago..
To h extent unlocked for affairs.
injected into his life by no design of his
own, have changed and modified his
career, only the man who has carefully
analysed his own course of life can de-
termine. It is the idle boast of the sue
cessful that their progress has been due
alone to their honesty, their industry and
their ability, rather than to fortuitous
circumstances which threw good fortune
at their feet. Human vanity is fed on
cheap adulation of this character, while
the unfortunate brother, whose failures
may be equally the result of circum-
stances over which he had no control, is
looked upon as lacking within his W
personality the elements of success. The
world has learned to misjudge both it's
princes and it's upe
While all the virtues belonging to a
we'll balanced mind are recognized as
qualities that should be exercised, and
the conduct of the good should be emu
lated by all, 1t does not necessarily fol-
low that they will bring to a man that
which the world calls success. They will
bring to the true man that peace of mind
which is more to be priced than the gilt
tering gold Of a sordid Croesus, but only
through the venues of fortuitous cir
cumstances will they ripen into the
emoluments of ambition, and place
within his hand the fame or fortune for
which he may have hungered in vain.
1t would be far more creditable to the
intellectually of the human race: and
q better exhibit of it's moral worth. were
men to be weighed in the scales of en-
vironment. rather than praised for the
successes they have not earned. deen-
sured for the failures they coufo It
avoid. The road to success followed In
some men is paved with more heartaches
than a century of failures could produce.
If measured by the sum total Of results
upon the humanity to which they belong,
h disappointments and failures of some
men do more good to themselves and to
the world than their successes could have
accomplished.
1t Is meet and proper. therefore. at the
beginning o< a new e to look upon the
past-nOt as the sepulcher OF. wasted op-
portunities-but as a play upon the
chess-board of human evolution, in
which each individual has performed his