Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1903-11-27
Remember: - r.r
& That ali Goods are Engraved Free Al IHt'
The Value of Friends.

P o.
What is the secret of your life7"
asked Elizabeth Barrett Browning OF
Charles Kingsley. Tell me that l
may make mine beautiful, too" II had
a friend, !" was the reply. This is the
secret of many q great and successful
life. says o. s. Marden in September
Success. Many man would have lain
down disheartened, long before he
reached his goal, but for the stimulus
and announcement Of some friend
whose name the world has never
heard. Hundreds who are lauded in
the press and honored all over the
world for their achievements owe their
success largely to the encouragement
Of wives, mothers. sisters, or other
special friends.
The avera &c man little realizes how
great part even Of his material sue
cess he owes to his friends. He takes
to himself the entire credit Of every
achievement, boastlng Of his own mar.
velous insight, Judgment. and hard
work. However. if we should take out
Of our lives everything contributed,
directly OF indirectly, by friends: II
we should eliminate the inspiration and
the free advertising they have given
us: and if we should deduct from our
popularity the percentage due to their
good words, and give up situations they
helped rs to gain, the majority of ua
would find q great shrinkage in what
we thought our own achievement.
However, the service that friends
render in advancing our material
interests is the lowest standpoint from
which friendship can be viewed. To
choose our friends with an eye to their
commercial value to US would be to
proclaim ourselves unworthy of the
friendship of any noble soul, and in
deed incapable of winning any friend
ship worthy of the name.
Itisin relation to their effect on char.
ac,er that friends must be estimated
at their real value. DR.. Hills says that
destiny is determined by friendship;
fortune is made or msrred when q
yoath neglects his companions. y
Character is tinted by the friends to
which we. attach ourselves. We bor-
row their color, whether it be black
or white We absorb their qualities,
whether they be noble or ignoble.
Men become false" says Charles
Kingsley, ''if they live with liars;
cynics. if they live with scorners;
mean, if they live with the covetous;
affected If they live with the affected;
and actually catch the expressions OF
each others faces" Beecher said he
was never quite the same man again
after be had read Ruskin's works No
one is quite the same again who has
been touched by noble friendship,
and has felt the expression of a lofty
mind, stirring the divinity within him
and giving him glimpse of his real
self.
Some people act as a tonic or an
invigorating and refreshing breeze.
They make us feel like new beings.
Under the inspiration of their presence,
we can say and do things which it
would be impossible for us to say and
do under different conditions. One
stimulates my thought. quickens my
faculties, sharpens my intellect. opens
the flood gates of language and senti-
ment and awakens the poetic within
me, while another dampens my en-.
thusiam, closes the door of expansion.
and chills me to the very center of my
being. There emanates from him an
atmosphere which paralyzes thought,