The Topeka state journal., 1904-10-01

The subject of my remarks this
evening are: "Circumstances-C
We Overcome Them?" My friends,
every human life is full of circum-
stance. Life is made up of it. From
the warrior in the field to the farmer
at the plow, circumstance is occurring
almost every hour of the day. Now
and then good circumstance hap
pens, like finding a dollar in the road,
or going out some morning and ind
ing that the old COW has two calves
instead of one, but most of 'em are
calculated to bark our shins if we pay
too much attention to them We must
set our face towards a certain goal
and walk over circumstances to reach
it. 1t is the man who Dauses to COM
plain of trif1es who is left in the race.
l will not insult this audience by ask
ing if you ever heard of Socrates. OF
course you have. 1t might take some
of you half a day to separate him from
Christopher Columbus, but you'd bring
him out all right in the end. Up to
the age of % Socrates had been meet
ing up with circumstances almost ev-
cry day of his life. He'd had chicken
pox, Inumps and measles; he'd fallen
into the mill pond and been kicked by
COWS and chased by dogs; he'd warts
and freckles and stone-bruises, and
he'd been blown up by his own Fourth
of July fireworks and came down in
blaze of glory.
He'd had enough circumstances TO
discourage anybody, but he didn't pro-
pose to be downed that way. He had
a certain goal in view, and he perse-
yered in spite of all obstacles, and pc
fore he was 40 years old the world
was ringing with his name. The his
tories don't give him full justice. In
addition to what they say OF him can
give you the tip that he invented the
coffee mill and the horseradish CRATER
Had he let trifies dissuade and discour-
age him we'd still be pounding our
coffee in the foot of stocking ana
biting off our hoIseradish in chunKs:
The name of Cicero must be as Ia
miliar to Cranberry Hill as John Doe
is to Chicago. If 1 should ask who he
was or when he lived you might slut
ter and stammer for a minute or two
and get him more or less mixed up
with old Dan Rice, but eventually you
would place him on the right pedestal,
and take off your hat to him, as DO
All through his childhood, bOyhood and
young manhood it was nothing but cir
cumsta tanceS. If he fell in love he got
the throw-down; if he went huckle-
berrying he was bitten by a snake; IL
he rode somebody's horse to water he
got run away with. He always had
stone bruises in summer and chilblains
in winter: He never climbed tree
that he didn't meet with a fall, ana
he never went skating that he didn't
bring up on the bottom of the pond.
Lightningrod men worked off bad
quarters on him, tin peddlers stole ms
dogs and piano agents traded jack
knives and beat him out OF MS eye
Even when he arrived at manhood he
couldn't attend a circus or minstrel
show without having his pocket picked
or being run over by camel 1t was
Pliny who said of Cicero: who could
blame him for dying?" but he wasn't
on the die. He didn't propose to let
circumstances down him. He dodged
them-stepped over them-kicked them
aside and the day finally came when
a nation patted him on the back and
named gondolas and race horses and
steamboats, after him.
Let US come down to George Wash
ington. History pictures him as gl1d-
ing upwards as steadily and as smooth
ly as ten per cent mortgage IN Da-
kota, but don't you let history fool you
fairly buried under circumstances.
There were times when he would have
let go if he had been anybody else
Things were happening to him from
Monday morning to Saturday night,
and had he gone into the back WOODS
and taken to the life of squatter no
one could have blamed him.
History CLOSES over his early Strug-
ples. but those of us on the inside |
know that George Washington might
never have been heard of outside his /
county but for his indomnitable will. |
He got there at last, as you can get
there. He beat circumstance, as you |
can beat it.
owing to my innate modesty, I |
never bring up my own case except to
point a moral. My friends, if you /
only knew what circumstances 1 have |
passed through-how for years 1 was
hampered and harrassed and kept |
down. you would wonder that I did |
not bring up in an idiot asylum in
stead of reaching the pinnacle of
greatness. I was born bow-legged. l |
was scarcely two years old before l
became cross-eyed. AT five I was red
headed and my toes turned in. At
seven I was knock-kneed and lop- |
shouldered and had a step-mother. Up |
to the age of twenty-three it was a !
constant wrestle with circumstances.
While I have not time to particu- /
larize, may mention that in the space |
of six years / was in love no less than /
nine times. and was turned down every |
time. Disappointed love has driven /
thousands to suicide and wrecked the |
lives of other thousands. and there |
were those who said that would sleep