Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1905-09-19

man.
But things have changed. Glass"
IS only name now, a figure OF speech.
environment" has lost it's old sense
| as word relating to the governing
OF mems lives. The person VINO
through accident of birth is INDECENT,
not only in the things of the world,
put IN character, handed down from
Wen pred prOgenitOrs, can no longer
1old MS hands, shrug his shoulders i'm
potently at fate, and give UP the fight
with the old excuse. The walls that
formerly bound him in have been lev
eled. Opportunity rides at his Shout
der from childhood well into the prime
OF life, shouting its name in language
that is unmistakabe. And it's name
is Legion.
Leaving aside the question of the
hereu1ty the inheritance of some trait
OF character, or bodily ailment that
will work against one in the upward
climb, 1t is doubtful if any man is
nowadays deprived through environ
ment OF his chances in the fight for
what we have chosen to designate as
Success. Along the same line it is
doubtful II environment has much to
do with ordering the life of any man
for good or bad. friend, the manag-
err OF trade paper, in conversation
with me recently bemoaned the fact
that environment had made him what
he was, time-servant, hampered man.
ager Of small enterprise, when, if
circumstances had been different, he
would have been writer of novels.
At least he would have been a writ
or.
"But what could I do? had to
work. | was married, had to make a
living for my wife and family" he
walled. II got into this work, and
here have staid. In this room here,
where l have to burn artificial light
all the time, where never breath of
fresh, pure air comes in, spend my
life. Fifteen years have been doing
this. Now l am just a machine that
fits smoothly and with no jars into
the narrow place in the world that is
made for it. Environment has done
its work we'll, for I am almost salts
fled with things as they are now. On
ly occasionally do I dream of what
might have been. Then l look back
and see how circumstances have
changed me to what l am"
This friend jibes we'll with his sur
roundings. He is small and narrow,
just as his place in the world is small
and narrow. If environment is respon-
sible for him as he is today, then it
has worked well and surely.
But let us look at the matter more
closely. Has environment nodded him
as he is? l have another friend whose
circumstances in life are much like
this paper managers, but he is differ.
ent, quite different. He could, if he
would, wall about what environment
and conditions have done to him, for
what is true with the first friend is
true with him. A chief clerkship in
small establishment is his lot in life,
and he once had dreams of being
writer, just as did the other friend.
But, 10, the difference. The clerk re-
fuses to believe that environment can
shape man to resemble itself. He
mas declared himself stronger than all
the environment and adverse circum-
stances that world could heap upon
| MIN. A professional writer he could
not be, for the stuff that he would
| write is not of the kim that brings
money to the writer, and there was
wife and family. But though he must
spend most of his time earning his
living at work that is entirely oppo-
site to his nature, he is still writ
er. The years have not seen him
change to fit narrowly into the mar
row place that should be his by all
rules OF environment. On the con-
trary, he is the broadcast of men, a
writer, thinker, and, above all, a
philosopher. He is success in life,
IN the best sense that the word may
be used. Better thans this, he knows
himself. 1t was the man here who
made himself. Environment was on
~ the antagonist with which he must
| struggle.
II environment were absolute in it's
control OF man making the world
would be minus fully halt of it's great
men OF recent years. Lincoln would
nave died farmer in some back
woods corner af the middle west, with
out ever reaching out for knowledge
OF the law that was going to start
him White houseward: Edwin Mark.
ham would never have turned poet,
but would have labored DULY through
life as blacksmith; Andrew Carne-
gle would have become a good rolling
mill hand, and Roosevelt, born and
reared in the effete east, would be
bound by the views of the narrower
fastener, instead of seeing things in
manner broadly American. All these
men proved that their environments
were only the stones upon which they
should sharpen their minds and wills
IN preparation for the great and SER
ious struggles of their lives. None OF
them ever stopped and cried that the
conditions We're too hard for them.
III environment governed. the farmer
should be clod, or the broadcast mind
ed man in the world, and he is Meth
er. The city man should grow mar
row, for his environment is essential
ly narrow, and he is nothing if not
the opposite of this, unless he is a fool
who has eyes and refuses to see.
The proofs are on every hand that
1t Is not environment that makes the
man. Man makes himself If he de-
cldes to sit down in the first place
that comes to him, resolved that the
battle against environment is too hard
then he makes himself according to
the false ideals of the shirk, and he
can no more hide behind the old plea
than an embezzler may plead that he
worked in a bank where another man
had once embezzled, and so had to
follow the example. If he decides to
! let his life slide shiftlessly, carelessly,
without any attempt on his own part
at forming character that will bring
him upward in the battle of life, the
great nav of mediocrity will yawn