The Wichita daily eagle., 1904-05-29
ITALY VERSUS KANSAS
Who Wrote Opportunity" In
gals Verse?
ITALIAN CLAIMS IT
Kos Harris Ably Discusses the
Question.
"wHo WROTE OPPORTUNITY"

SUOOiiOts
WHO WROTE OPPORTUNITY"
Editor of the Eagle:
! The smasher of idols and ideals is once
more abroad in the land The quest is
now Kansas. Opportunity is his victim;
personally, I am as the Sunday school
scholar. who was called up and asked
abruptly:
who made the world?" He Immediately
and in great fear, exclaimed, Il didn't"
{ didn't write Opportunity" There are
thousands to whom the idea of .'Oppor-
tunity' occurred, who were bereft of
skill or power to put the same in prose
or verse
The following quotations suggest the
idea of Opportunity" all of which are
sfd, some very old and aged and from
time to time have been quoted and put in
speeches, addresses and lectures, viz:
IAN hour there is in the life of every
man. to make his happiness. if he then
seize it
Beaumont and Fletcher, A. D., 1915.
Y, The man who stands with arms set
akimbo,
.sntil occasion tells him what to do:
And he, who waits to have his task
marked out,
Shall die and leave his errand unful-
filled" Lowell.
"Strike while yet the iron is hot,
When cold. the iron yieldeth not"
Scott
'sThere is tide in the affairs of men.
etc" Shakespeare.
.'Who seeks and will not take, when once
It's offered,
Shall never find it more"
Shakespeare.
zeal and danger are not slow,
But on occasions forelock watchful
wait Milton.
"a man must his opportunity create
as often as he finds it''-Bacon.
..An occasion lost cannot be redeemed
or recalled. Anonymous.
IAN opportunity which presents itself.
must not be neglected or ost.'-Turk.
'-Catch the opportunity."-O
Let not slip the golden opportunity,
For Opportunity's bald behind
-Massinger.
Opportunity is more powerful than
conquerors or prophets. Lord Beacon
field.
s'Opportunities neglected are lost
The first occasion offered quickly take.
Lest thou repine at what thou didst for
sake -(Dutch)
'sTake opportunity by the forelock,"-Un-
known
All of the above are from Christys max
trns and phrases, published in 1887.
Phaedrus, writer in 3. c., IS, puts it
thus:
"Opportunity has hair in front, but be-
hind she is bald; if you seize her by the |
forelock. you may hold her; but if she |
once escapes. Jupiter himself, cannot |
catch her again. Cdemo To my mind |
this is what suggested the idea TO Sena-
tor Ingalls)
while we stop to think, our opportuni-
ties we lose.-Syrus b. c., ~; Maxim, 1S5.
cially, politically and financially to reach
the ends at which we aim. Anonymous.
ITO improve our golden opportunity and
catch the good within our reach, is the
great art in life. DIR Johnson.
81 find my zenith doth depend upon a
most alvpicious star,
Whose Influence. if now I court not. but
omit
Ny fortunes will ever after drop"
Shakespeare.
The means that Heaven yields must be
embraced and not neglected.
Else if Heaven would and we will not.
Heavens offer we refuse.
The proffered means of succor and re-
dress. -Shapespeare.
"EIe who seeks and will not take. when
once It's offered
Shall never more find it,
Shakespeare. Henry ".
All of the above suggest Ingalls, poem.
sOpportunty, but from Phaedrus, b.
c.. s.. until Ingalls,. \. n. 1901, no man
in few or many lines. embraced the idea
all in words that are,
Jewels stretched times forefnger to
sparkle forever"
Is there not enough in the above quota
.ions to suggest Senator Ingalls, fourteen
lines 10 the reader. student, thinker. and
master of the lights and shades and color
of words. in the expression 6f thought?
Ingalls, WAS all this. \ man does not .
have to be a warm admirer of ingalls, to
admire Opportunity. any more than he
has 10 render homage 10 the Jeweler,
who cuts and sets diamond one buys, I
wears and admires.
An Italian says he wrote ''Opportun- ,
ity.v and the evidence is the poem printed
In the Kansas City Star on Sunday May ]
g. 1894. ,
Now grant 4 strong resemblance. admit
he use of the same words in part of the
wo poems Concede that the idea is the
anne. 1t no more proves that ingalls,
borrowed his language from the Italian .
shan that Garfield borrowed from Freder- ,
ok the Great his words God reigns,
The government at Washington still ,
Hves," April Is, 1865 Frederick said in
1iss. A. u, in battle My son is slain, j
But Christ still lives; let us on my .
friends" ,