Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-12-13
HARDSHIP AND EFFORT.
Beneficial in the Development of Char
acter.

From the Philadelphia Ledger.
Not long ago a certain American family
achieved widespread variegated notoriety
which was In way interna tional. Sons
and daughters of an honest, Woodworking
man, who had become immensely wealthy
by one of those wonderful strokes of for
tune for which America Is famous, had
tried to spend their fathers money too hur-
riedly. Escapade after escapade startling
Incident succeeded by others more startling
divorce courts and all sorts OF unpleasant
and disgraceful experiences marked their
careers. until finally the American public.
which is very long suffering actually SEEM
ed to become tired of the name of the
family.
The father had beer a common laborer in
one of those great industries which have
tons, trusts, doing business at the rate
of hundreds of millions annually. He had
been faithful in performing his duties, alert,
indefatigable, progressive, strong and force
full and had been promoted step by step
until his profits as q partner were prncely.
His wife. whom he had married when she
was mill girl in the factory town, was a
woman of strong sense and character, and
the two were sturdy. admirable specimens
CT the kind of iron fiber which improves
under stress of circumstances emerging
from trials triumphant and good. The ex-
pectation seems to have been that their
sons ana daughters coming from SO healthy
a stock. would possess somewhat the char
acter and fiber of their parents, and in ad-
dition a broader culture from their educa-
ton and the advantages of contact with
good society" which their parents had
lacked.
These children were, however the most
wretched failures in the world. and their
misfortune. which was more lamentable a
thousandfold than poverty, was due to the
fact that they were SO pampered from their
they
est opportunity to develop that strength OF
character which must be founded on strug
gle and effort of some kind.
The best education in the world" said
Wendell Phillips. Ifs that got by struggling
to make a living" There are myriads in
the world for whom the struggle under ad-
verse circumstances is too hard. 1t is c1nt
to say that riches are in themselves an
evil. when all are seeking to lay by the
money which affords the means of educa-
ton. of safety in old age, Of comfort and
culture. and 1t is q Sinking ins.ncerity to
say to man who is fighting against want
that poevtry is good in Itself. But there is
no doubt that life of ease for the whole,
human race would at the present time ruin
it irretrievably. James Martineau says
finely:
agony could have had no hero and no
saint"
The countries which have bred heroes and
builders of civilization and humanity are
gle and battle against hard conditions
Great Britain's contributions to civilization
have consisted not in her cotton goods or
her commerce or her general progress in in
dustry, but in the men who displayed the
manly resolution not only to carry in
dustrieS and to push out into new worlds
for trade, but to wrest from kings and feu-
dial lords the human rights of liberty and
self-government. Holland fought tyrants
and contended with the overpowering sea
for centuries and Holland and her sturdy
citizens remain solid and capable. Scotias
greatness Is due to her men who have bat
tied with the bleak and barren moors and
the inhospitable climate; the Irish char
acter and bodily vigor were not formed III
beds of ease, and in our own country the
contributions to this nations growth by
New England were made by the stern and
resolute men and women whose characters
were formed amid dire distress and the
hardest kind of hard conditions of all sorts
for generations. The other side of the pic
ture may be seen In some of those Central
American states where bountiful nature
supplies the needs of the inhabitants with
scarcely an effort on their part. They toll
not neither do they spin; they give them
selves no trouble about anything In the
world but pass the days In an idle and
sIothful content and are as the flies of last
summer in their impression nthe worlds
happiness and progress