The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1901-05-12
IS ARILlTY A HANDIcAP7
five years. see

With reference to ability, experience hourly confirms
two cancellations Of ability viii sooner or later
make his way There never urgent and so general
demand for every form Of ability there is
the New York Journal
The Journal continues: Unfortunately the relations Of
these two facts to certain little understood
It is generally assumed for instance that ability is dis
tinct advantage Is it not. instead handicap?
Let it be stated again and with emphasis that ability
Is very much in demand. The market for it, But
this does not mean that ability viii be recognized Capac
iy to discern ability others. distinguished from
pacity ability in ourselves is the rarest Of all
capacities Unerring acumen exquisite discrimination
alone measure ability sift it. choose form and adapt
another No one would value clodhopper's opinion Of
Plato but every Tom Dick and Harry feels qualified to
sit in judgment upon ability. IF could only hold Of
man with ability" the fatuous employer to whom
never occurs that capacity to distinguish ability from
its semblance is the exquisite of the faculties
For over twenty-three hundred years has
stood pre-eminent as judge human ability. That man
was Pericles His gift this direction little
than divine. It enabled him to lift the Athenians
heights achievement above which the intellect
never reached That was abty golden age for it then
had patron who only sought it but discerned it
washington possessed this heavenly endowment At
risk seemingly periodically partial may say
he equaled Pecles in his unering perception In those
years ordeal from 1876 1885 again 10
1872 find Washington astray in his estimate
ability He could choose men-a thing infinitely harder
than choose pictures pianos or potatoes-and
in choosing them he very truth father his
country.
Ablitys first handicap therefore is the rarity Of ca
pacity trained discern it. The absence of this capacity
the man who chooses men ruins great enterprises
every day But the who makes botch of choosing
dreams that the fault is his own There never
such q demand for ability there today" say
rather there never such need Of capable of
estimating ability.
There is such thing ordinary ability All ability
is extraordinary. Hence when it dscloses itself med
ocrity-aways the neutrality-suspicious. against it, This
is abiitys most Notifying handicap. Medocrty does not
detest ability 1t simply has for it. There is the
natural antipathy between mediocritv ability
that there is between truth and vested interests or be-
tween dog and
Bourget koeny remarks that when several suit0rs WOO
maid. he who loves her most wiu lose her The very
excess of true love throws the unfortunate into fever
Ho loses hs selfcommand in the crisis of the game
cooler rival without sentiment controls his faculties and
wins The same phenomenon is witnessed when ability
competes for favor with mediocrity Ability loves to
work and is excited by prospect 1eaocrtv regards ali
prospects coldy Ability perfects itself in secluson
Medocrty pulls wires Ability breaks its heart IN the
pride Of conscious capacity and not even asked To
the wedding when mediocrity marres the only child 81
the head Of the firm. Ability compelled 20 create ft
environment This means long obscuritv of hrza-
and humiliation. Think Of Columbus obieed 10 mass a.
decade in teachng thar the earth is round before b
could begin his life work,
There is one sweet that medocrty tastes soon