Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1906-10-05

|
shall arrive at just estimate of our
| powers.
But there is another fatal error TO
which l want TO call your attention.
Blind cgotism may become insanely
conservative. Ii Is ruinous when IL re-
fuses to mark the progress OF new
methods and discoveries. 1t Is often
| found that an egotist who has made a
success in his younger days Is apt to
mark time and 70 think that the world,
Ike an army, has also been marking
time Instead of going abe I'd. Egotism
seems TO be incapable of readjusting
itself to new conditions of life. Be
cause the world once travelled In canal
boats or in stagecoaches therefore some
cyclists pretend that 1t is never digni-
fed to travel faster than a snairs
pace. Because our fathers and fore
fathers once read by candlelight there
fore these modern cyclists seem to
think that there is no house properly
lighted without candles and that the
cha2deier, smath ifs wires and globes,
f&a dstestabie xbomination. ....-.-
---,-- Behind the Times.
1
or his day became shelyed because he
would not accept the new investiga-
tons which had been made In the
medical world. He not only positively
refused to accept the theory of bac-
terra, but he refused to go into con-
sultstiOn with any practitioner who ac-
cepted THAI theory. His practice left
him almost as quickly as the waves Of
the sea leave the shores on the ebb
| tide. Being called as an expert med
ical authority in murder trial of New
York, the district attorney placed him
| on the stand and so twisted him up in
his answers that he nearly broke down
and cried like little child. The man
in the business world today must meet
other conditions and plan his mercan-
| tile campaigns upon different lines
from those adopted by the merchants
of firty years ago. And yet some peo-
| pie after they have made little sue
cess seem to stand still. In their ego
tism they seem to be unwilling to rec
ognize the advance of the human race
and before they know it younger men
come up to them and then pass them
and leave them behind
Our lives must be a continual prog
ress or else they will be q continual
retrocession. l once read OF a woman
who had strange dream. In her
dream she seemed to be at the bottom
OF well. All was complete darkness
about her. But suddenly she looked
up. There, through the mouth OF the
well overhead, she saw a bright star
glowing. 1t seemed to say to her:
Come, let me lift you. Rise, rise,
rise" And. strange to say, as she
looked at the overhanging star she be-
gan to rise. She felt herself going up
and up. But as she was rising she
looked down. and Immediately she fell
to the bottom of the well. Bruised
and sore she was. Then she looked
lift her up. Higher and higher she
went, but again she looked down and
again she fell to the bottom OF the
well. "Ah," she cried, II know now
what l must do. 1 must never look
down bat always laCk up. Then as i
keep my eyes upon that star IL will
lift NE up and up until / stand upon
the firm ground overhead Thus she
did; thus she rose. Beautiful allegory
that 1t Is the allegory Of life. Life
should have its stars which lift and
not It's introspections and backward
looks which drag us down. A ma,
should not be like n gopher, with .
little hole, now and then rushing out
70 take peek at the world and then
rushing back into his little black dun
geon. He should not sit upon a small
mound OF dirt and look out over the
broad prairies and chatter. "See how
big l am" But he should be like n
traveller. always with his vision focus
ed upon the distant hills. He should
be continually striving to reach that
which he has not attained. Egotism
Tor the most part Is nothing but n
bubble OF self complacency filed with
AZ. One puncture and 1t will burst
and be gone forever.
But the saddest fact to me about
bankrupting egotism is that IL drives
from our sides the very best friends
that we have. 1t drives away those
true men and women who want to be
our friends and who want to help us
II We will only Let them. / mean those
friends who are thinking OF our inter
EFT rather than their own. We simply
turn to them and says THANK YOU,
gentlemen i am perfectly able to take
care OF myself. II you will clean your
own front doorsteps i ; win look after
my own" In one sense we are In ex-
acay the same condition as was the
young Prince ,Rehobsam. who had Just
Inherited King Solomon,s throne.
Rehoboam's Mistake.
You know the simple story. No soon
err was the old king dead than a dele
cation Of the Hebrew people came to
the young prince and said: Your mai
esty' 1t is simply an impossibility for
the people to bear any longer the heavy
taxation which your father put upon
us. These aqueducts and public gar
dens and temples and houses may be
very beautiful, but they are paid for
by the sweat and blOsd OF the common
people. Now. therefore, make thou the
grievous service Of thy father and his
heavy yoke which he put upon us light
er, and we will serve thee" The young
prince answered: Il Will consider your
petition. Come again after three DAYS.
and Will give you my answer" That
was well said, Rehoboam. No man has
n right to decide great question of
life hastily. Now, what did the young
prince do in the meantime? FIRST he
went to the aged counseiers OF bis dead
father. That is. he called in the tried
Old prime minister and the secretary of
the treasury and the minister. OF the ]
interior. These old statesmen had been