The weekly true Democrat. (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1905-1912, 1906-02-16
AREgrLRss PEOPLK.


and hurries as. 3ostled and breathless,
on and on, without halt or shadow Of
turning, I" to the next mile post in hfe's
journey--1907. y
In vain we look wistfully back over
the road so lately traversed and sigh for
the. the things evil we have let passion
drive US to do, and the many deeds good
we might have done-gOlden oppOrtu-
mites we let pass ungrasped, through
lack of foresight, pure wantOness or
was it an inhexible decree Of Fate.
Creatures endowed with reason, how
can it be that we are led by selfish, un-
bridled passions so close akin to the low
instinct that causes dumb brutes to
trample each other under foot in graft
flying hunger and thirst, the law of self
preservation which makes us, brute
like, to trample The rights, bruise the
hearts and crush the hopes of our breth-
rem and our equals in Natures law and
in the sight Of Heaven.
If it were to preserve life, or even to
obtain the ordinary comforts of exist
ence that call for such an unseemly
scramble, then something like reason
able excuse could be- rendered But
by far too often, not necessity, but
craze for notoriety, an intense desire to
out-do others in display, is the axle on
which our wheel of fortune spins; and
brain, nerve and even principle are sac
riiced on the altar of our ambition.
How often have we seen an intelli-
gent, ambitious man, seemigly one of
fortune 8 favorites, surrounded by those
things which go far in the forming of
human delight, that make life worth
the living, let ambition scatter prudence
to the winds, and embark his all on the
wave Of speculation. And when the
tide that was to bear him on to for
tune, retreating, leaves him a strand
ed wreck, alone with only dead hopes to
replace departed friends, we pity, but
can only view him as a victim of the
spirit of the times.
And such is the perversity of our inn
agination, that we half-pity the care
less, gaiety-loving Frenchman, we eth
err sneer or laugh at the sturdy, ease
taking Englishman-we of the United
States-when a moments refec tion
should show US the utter absurdity of
deriding their thorough enjoyment of
life. We, who in the hurly-burly and
tumult of our insane rush, defy the
laws of nature, knowing that we shall
surely pay the penalty in diseased bodies
and tortured minds, quickly to sink into
the obscurity of self-dug graves-fame
and treasure left behind, no brow for
aurels, no pockets needed in our
lhrouds
Was it mere difference in longitude
Or was it the congregation and mixing
Of blood of 80 many nations of the Old
World that urges us of the New to such
mighty exertion? Or was it that our
yrandsires' ambition was bounded, like
heir country, by contracted limit of
and, by barriers Of vast expanse of
water until their navigation of the At
antic, when ambition was multiplied by
thousands on beholding the possibilities
# their Western home?
1t surely was no strange thing if they
we're filled with ambitious resolve on
,iewing with comprehensive eye vast
ointment, untouched by civilized man,
of fertile valley and timbered
idge, of gold-veined height and grain
PROMISING plain; with broad rivers to
'ear the products of human skill to the
ca, thence to be borne to the uttermost
arts of the earth.
Be that as it may, we know that our
orefathers brought their mighty inven-
i've genius to bear on these abundant
fits of Nature and with time and labor
aving device-steam made TO labor and
lectricity harnessed-until to-day we,
urselves. seem but a part of the ma
hinery that both plants and gathers,
nat not only brings to the light but
,orks raw material into a finished pro-
uct.
But is it not time, or will that time
ever come, when reaction will assert
self, when we can be content to enjoy
plentiful, garnered harvest with but
passing thought of what the future