The Republican., 1900-07-26
THE POOR MANS CHANCE.
Ex-senator Ingalls, Says it is As Good Now
As Ever.

Ingalls, Says it is AS Good Now
As Ever.
One summer evening in pensive
thought | wandered, fifteen odd years
ago, with a schoolmate under the
''butterwood,' in Hayerhill, on the
shore of the moonlit Merrimac, writes
John j. Ingalls,.
We talked long, as thoughtful
schoolboys will, of the mysteries of
the universe and the enigmas of des-
tiny. To out defective forecast the
future appeared dark, troubled and
uncertain. Times golden age was
behind. The battle for fame and for
tune was more deperate.
We did not know, we could not
know, no one knew, that we were
standing at the portal or the thres-
hold of the most marvellous of the
worlds history; All age of such in
credible achievements in science, war,
wealth, luxury and national power,
growth and glory, that by compari-
son the most exaggerated fables of fic
tion, the lamp of Aladden, the purse
of Fortunatus, the philosophers
stone, seem like the trivial common
places of the nursery, and the widest
hyperbole becomes tame and prosaic.
Lincoln and Grant, neither suspect
oJ of o,,ootnooe 1rapa xro itipp in homo
ly indulgence the summons that, ten
years labor, was to call them to i'm
mortal fame. Edison, the mightiest
magician of the forces of nature. was
tramping telegrapher. Carnegie
was messenger boy in Pittsburg.
Huntington was selling picks, nails
and horseshoes in Sacramento. Jay
Gould was book agent in Delaware
county, The Rockfellers and the
mob of plutocrats that excite the en-
Wy and arouse the Indignation of
those who have failed all began in the
lowest and humblest ways of life.
What chance has the poor man in
1905? About the same, l should say,
he had fifty years ago. In some ways
rather better if he can adapt himself
to the changed conditions of sociey.
Many avenues open then are now
shut. Many opportunities once free,
no longer exist. Competition is more
strenuous, but the world was never
so ready as now to pay for what it
wants. There has been no time when
/ the man or woman who can do any
thing better than anybody else was
| so sure of instant recognition and re-
muneration.
The poor mans chance, then, de-
pends very much on what the poor
man has to sell. If his stock in trade
consists of unframed muscle, dul
brain and sullen discomfort he vii
work for wages, dine from tin bucket
when the noon whistle blows and die
dependent or mendicant. If he has
courage, industry, enterprise, fore
sight, luck and the willing mind ht
will gain competence or fortune. HI
will establish his family in comfort
educate his children and accuston
them to the environment of refined
habits, which, after all, is the best o
life.
The real difference in men is not il
the want of opportunity, but in wan
of capacity to discern opportunity
and power to take advantage of op
portunity.
Society is reinforced from the bot
tom and not from the top. Familie
die out, or fortunes are dispersed, tn
recruits come from the farm, tn
forge and the workshop and not fron
the club and the palace. Those win
will control the destinies of the TWEEN
tieth century are now boys wearing
homespun and handme-downs, an
not the gilded youth clad in purpl
and fine linen, and faring sumptuous
ly every day at Sherry's and Delmon
ico's. This is the poor mans chance