The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1902-12-11

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dinned sself-made man. into his ears,
ne began to believe there must be some
truth in common report. Only great
man is proof against continued fattery,
and j. M. wasn'tand isn't great man;
he comes at least 359 degrees short of
it. But l wouldn't have you think
j. M. was altogether bad or foolish.
AS the immortal bard of-Arkansas-
Tom, by name-puts it in his celebrated
Satire on the Present Generation
There's good in him, but more of evil
He's one part man, and two parts devil.
He may turn out decent fellow
The chances are he'll turn out yellow
If pride, or the desire for riches
His puny intellect bewitches;
Or if some fiatt'rer, fool or liar
Profess his greatness to admire.
The parasitic, smooth h-tongued knave a
His sordid soul knows to enslave.
His danger from insanity
Lies in his bump of vanity"
When the old man had fired these
very poignant lines from his favorite
poet at us he refreshed himself with a
pinch of snuff, and heaved a sigh of
relief. In the meantime five more of
his listeners stole silently away, to
escape the wrath to come. Their heads
were level.
"Boys," continued St. Louis, "just
few more words about j. M. Under
orders from his wife he made trip to
his old home in West Virginia and
built church in his native place. He
also gave $4,000 to charitable institu-
tions. Everybody speaks well of him
now, for charity covers multitude of
SINS The home papers failed not to
call him 'self-made man. and people
who once wouldn't have tolerated his
presence now We'd with each other to
pay him homage, and to cringe before
him. When he came back to Iowa he
brought all his relations with him, and
they swear'J. NJ. always was a good
boy. He entered politics, and was
elected to the state senate. He be-
came practical politician He
made a speech or advocated measure,
but his reputation as a 'self-made man
made him a center of interest. His
wife controls him, and he in turn con-
trolls the legislature. His wealth is
estimated from SO to rs millions of dol
lars, and his friends predict in a few
years he'll be rich enough to enter the
United States senate-if his wife doesn't
die! This is short history of one
'self-made man. and there are others
very much like him-only worse. 4,
"Now, boys, let me put bug in your
ears. These so-called self-made men
wouldn't be such bad fellows if it were
not for the fact that fools and idiots
like you-continualiy sing their praises,
and bow down before them as if they
were little gods. In country where
sycophants flourish not, self-made men
die of starvation. Men like J. M;
men of very ordinary intellects, and
with no morality to speak of, happen
to accumulate wealth because circum-
stances favor them, or because they
are unscrupulous enough to bend all
their energies in one direction-the
piling up of filthy lucre; and a multi
tude Of apologies for men witness and
applaud! If the meanest, most con-
temptible of men grows rich-no mat
ter by what means-thousands of fools
like you-stand ready to call him a
saint; if he coins the sweat of small
army into gold dollars he is considered
q benefactor to mankind; and if he
throws sop here Or there in the shape
of a town pump or cheap reading
room, they deify him. An undutiful
son, a bad husband and father, and the
poorest kind of citizen, has all his
sins forgiven him by an admirlng null
titude of-well, let us just say plain
idiots, like you~ because he is able to
build. railroad or. buy legislatures;
and virtues are imputed to him, which
he, poor man, does not even under
stand. Have any of you ever heard an
upright, honest man who mot only
breaches brotherly love, but acts it, 4
brag about being 'self-made?'',> y Not
much you haven't! He knows that he
would not could not-have become
what he is without the help of others.
And at least two-thirds of our so-called
'self-made mem would have turned