The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1909-11-07
kipling to Young Men

Will be confronted by an organized
conspiracy which will try to make you
believe that the world is governed by
the idea of wealth for wealth's sake,
and that all means which lead to the
acquisition of that wealth are, if not
laudable. at least expedient You
will live and eat and move and have
your being in a dorld dominated by
that thought. Some OF you will proba-
bly, succumb to the poison of it.
Now. l do not ask you not to be
carried away by the first rush Of the
great game of life. That is expecting
you to be more than human. But do
ask you, after the first heat of the
game. that you draw breath and watch
your fellows for a while.
Sooner Or later you will see some
man to whom the idea of wealth as
mere wealth does not appeal. whom
the methods of amissing that wealth
do not interest, and who will not &C
cept money il you offer it to him at a
certain price. At first you will be in
clined to laugh at this man, and to
think that he is not smart in his
ideas. l suggest that you watch him
closely, for he will presently demon
strate to you that money dominates
everybody except the man who does
not want money. You may meet that
man on your farm, in your village, or
in your Legislature. But be sure that,
whenever or wherever you meet him,
as soon as it comes to a direct issue
between you, his little finger will be
thicker than your loins. You will go
in fear of him; he will not go in fear
of you. You will do what he wants;
he will not do what you want. You
will find that you have no weapon in
your armory with which you can at
tack him; no argument with which
you can appeal to him. Whatever you
gam ne Will gain moro.
l would like you to study that man
| would like you better to be that man
because from the lower point of view
it doesn't pay to be obessed by the de-
sire of wealth for wealths sake. If
more wealth is necessary to you, for
purposes not your own. use your left
hand to acquire it. but keep your right
for your proper work in life. II you
empl both arms in that game you
will be in danger Of stopping: in dan
ger also Of losing your soul. But in
spite of everything you may succeed,
you may be successful, you may ac-
quire enormous wealth. In which
case l warn you that you stand in
grave danger of being spoken and
written of and pointed out as a smart
man. And that is one of the most
terrible calamities that can overtake
a sane, civilized. white man today
They say youth is a season Of
hope, ambition and uplift-that the |
last word youth needs is an exhorta-
ton to be cheerful. Some of you
here know, and remember, that
youth can be season of great de-
preston. dependencies, doubts and
waverings, the worse because they
seem to be peculiar to ourselves and
incommunicable to our fellows There
is a certain darkness into which the
saul of the young man sometimes de. I
scends-a horror of desolation. aban-
donment and realized worthlessness. |
which is one of the most read of the
bells in which We are compelled to
walk.
Il know of what l speak. This is
due to variety of causes, the chief of
which is the egotism of the human ami |
NAL itself. But can tell you for your
comfort that the chief cure for it is 20
interest yourself. to lose yourself in
some issue not personal to yourself
in another mans trouble, or, prefera-
by. another mans joy. But if the
dark hour does not vanish, as some
times it doesn't: II the back cloud will
not lift. as sometimes it will not: let
me tell you again for your comfort
that there are many liars in the world.
but there are no liars like our own SEN
sations. The despair and the horror
mean nothing. because there is for you
nothing irremediable. nothing inefface-
able. nothing irrecoverable. in any
thing you may have said or thought or
done.
IF for any reason you cannot believe
or have not been taught to believe in
the infinite mercy of Heaven. which
has made US all, and will take care we
do not go far astray, at least believe
that you are not yet sufficiently i'm
portant to be taken too seriously by
the powers above us or beneath us. In
other words. take anything and every |