Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1904-10-15

tween his island home and New York's
great metropolis. When an English
aristocrat was dining I'm the palatial
home of the founder of the great Thaw
family of the western part of Pennsyl-
vania he began 10 boast of his great
family connections. Then he turned
to the richest and most honorci man
of Pittshurg and said. From what arts
tocratic head did your family spring.
Mr.. Thaw:" With that William Thaw
answered: MY ancestors. for the most
part, were plain. honest folks. My
own coat of arms. however. is shoe
makers last. for my father was the
best cobbler of his time In all this re-
gion.'
Where did the great Adams family,
or the Beechcrs. or the Van Cortlands.
or the Van Rensselacrs. or the Hamil-
tons. or tie Goulds. or the Armours.
or the Swifts. or the Letters. or the
Otises spring from? Either in the last
generation or few generations back
you can find their ancestors keeping a
butcher shop or working as clerks or
digging as farmers or so poor that they
had To borrow money TO get their start
in life In their chosen career. Now.
my aristocr;itic friends. If the most
honored names I'm I'LL history are for
the greater part names first heard of
in the annals of the poor and the first
bearers of which were born In poverty
and obscurity. why should you hold
your heads so high? Because your fa
Their or grandfather happened to do
something that made his name IA
nous is that any reason why you
should consider yourself above your
fellow men when you have accomplish
ed absolutely nothing for mankind?
The pride of birth is among the silliest
and the most baseless of all kinds Of
pride, for. though some of us may
have the blood of II great man flowing
In our veins. all of us without excep-
ton have the blood of hundreds of OBJ
scure ancestors minglng In our ar
teries. from whom we are just as much
descended as we are from him who
was king among the kings. | would
Infinitely prefer to he the founder of
race than the degenerate offspring
Of Il noble sire who bravely worked
his way from nothing to the pinnacle
of fame. This practical world of every
day life does not ask who WAS your IA
Their. who was your grandmother. but
who are you:
But. though we would denounce the
pretentious pride Of birth. we would
go further than this. We would de-
nounce the arrogant pride of many
men and women who seem to have ac-
complished something in life. II we
are honest we must admit that such
successes as we have achieved have
been due in no small degree to fortui-
tous combinations of circumstances of
which we have taken advantage and
not exclusively to our own merits. We
have no right To take all the credit TO
ourselves or to despise others who
have not had the opportunities which
have helped us in the race. Many of
them have been hindered by poverty
or lack of educational facilities or III
health. and we show disgraceful in
gratitude to Providence II we give our
selves airs of superiority.
circumstances Make Men.
Circumstances make men just the
same as men make circumstances.
When | was lately thinking upon this
theme my eye invOluntarily wandered
down country road to big white
barn where n livery is kept and horses
are rented for the day. About one of
these horses n young man was work
ing Who Is he! He is young man
who for years has wanted to be II law
yer But he Is tie oldest son of large
family of children. His father was
farmer In the east. There that fathers
health broke down. and he had to come
to California climate or he must die.
He bought some land here. After
awhile two years of drought came on.
and he was ruined. Then that father
was confined three years In an inva-
lids bed Then that oldest son had to
spring into the breach. He Is there yet
in the breach. The bread of his moth
err his father and the children was for
years dependent upon that oldest boy
and his work. The horses of the farm
/ WERE HleTeIy CHstiiScu uuTiilS the
drought into the horses of public liv-
cry. If you and had been In that old
est boys place would we not have done
Just the same as he did! Would we be
where we are today!
James 4. Garfield once seemed to
preach the doctrine that there are no
difficulties in life too great for Il man
to overcome. In one of his addresses
he said: NO man who Is worth saving
can ever he drowned in the troubled
sea of life. No matter how far II Is
from shore, pitch him overheard and
he will ut least be able to swim ashore. :
/ ! am not sure that statement of Gar
fields Is always true. believe that
there may come Il time when young
man. like n young colt. can be beaten
too much and his spirit will be gone.
/ believe that 4 young man may have
too many obstacles to overcome until
Mt last he will lose his energy and he
will cease to struggle any more. In
any case. II becomes us all to consider
how much of our success is due to the
| advantages we have eniOyed and neV-