Amador ledger., 1900-04-06
Their Relation as Generally
Understood.
IL KIP PRESENTS AN IMPRESSIVE ARGUMENT
He Says the Practical Theorist Makes
the Fest Time and Is the Sure
est of His Results.

Aeofy anu prdcClce are quite COM
monty set at opposite poles. They
seem to be regarded as occupying a
sort of an east and west relation to
each other, and not being on speaking
terms, and that whatever one may be
the other is not. Now. this is a very
erroneous idea. In all wise, safe con-
duct theory underlies practice. A rail-
road time table, a physicians prescrip-
tiOn, an architects plan, are all theo-
ries. All action that implies a volun-
tary and conscious agent is the ex-
preston of plan. 1t is the practical
theorist who makes the best time and
the surest getting there. There is
truth in the old couplet, IA good rule
is good tool" And the emphasis
rests on the adjective. In rules or
tools we want those that will work.
1t just ABOUT makes all the difference
we observe in people as to success in
life whether they are practical theo-
rists or mere idealists, whose heads
buzz with chimerical notions. Some
people wonder why they do not get
along better, and at the same time
those who are familiar with their
modes and methods wonder how they
get along at all. 1t is not because they
are not Industrious, not necessarily be-
cause they are extravagant, nor that
they lack equipment and facility
Their heads may be good enough, but
they fail to gear them to their work.
Rules and plans are largely at the dis
cretion of the individual, who, if he
has discretion, can make them sub
servient to his interests. Their appli-
cation he must find out for himself.
Sometimes the exception is better than
the rule. Circumstances alter cases.
A horse is horse. Yet when a man
buys he selects in accordance with his
purpose. He does not get for the coal
wagon or the plow what he would take
for the boulevard or the track. A
farm is farm. Yet if the farmer ex-
poets to pay off his mortgage and
make home for his old age, he must
discriminate in his methods between
upland and lowland, clay and sand.
All farms may not be worked just
alike. A certain young Englishman
went to Australia many years ago, and
in the course of a few years succeeded
in establishing himself comfortably
and securely on moderate tract OF
land. But after while he became am-
bilious TO be master of vast estate.
So he sold his pleasant and secure do
main, and took up great block in a
distant section. 1t required all his
capital to make the new start, and by
the time it was stocked and fitted up
with needful improvements he had
rolled up large burden of debt, and
he soon found his theory in practical
realization very different from his
dreams. There were contingencies he
had not counted on. By and by, when
his resources were expended and his
credit stretched to its extreme limits,
just as he hop.d to REIN burse his
large and long outlay by the sale of
stock, the country was visited by a
terrible devastating drouth. Vegeta-
ton withered, streams dried up, sheep
and cattle and horses died, and the
banks foreclosed their mortgage and
sold him out. He was still young and
energetic and took hold anew. He
worked as day laborer and watched
every possible opportunity to retrieve
his losses, and was in condition some
years afterward to buy back the place
which he had at the dictate of his
wild ambition abandoned.
Glitter is not always gold, as many a
one who has been attracted by spark
ling invitations has ascertained to his
sorrow. 1t is well for every one to
hold the helm of his course well in
hand, and know just where he is steer
ing. There may be time when, as
Napoleon said, "Rashness is prudence;"
but as rule discretion is the better
part of valor Conditions of success
remain about the same from year to
year, and century to century. The
hill difficulty has never been graded
very low. The labor saving machinery
or improved equipment will separate
thriving and driving. Perseverance
and perspiration will be as indispen-
sable in 1900 as 1900. Air castles will
be no more likely to materialize in the
future than in the past, and our
chances of success will always be in
to-day rather than in tomorrow. Our
fortunes are no more likely to be built
by fortuitons circumstances than a
CARLOAD of bricks to resolve them
selves into a house, and we are sure to
find pluck more practical theory than
luck.-Isaac L. Kip.