The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1910-12-08
The Practical Man.
By z. 2. c.

PAP Read Beforeths chau.dnqaa Circle.
The time is too restricted, as well
as my mental scope, to treat this sub
ject in anything like the comprehen-
sive and intelligentmanner to which
it can lay just claim. I shall CON
tent myself, therefore, with few
desultory observations anent what
seems to me a misapprehension by a
great many of them, The Practical
Man."
A year or two ago | heard Ger
tain erudite gentleman express him
self, as he thought, quite profoundly,
when he said: 1T. is sad COM
mentary, but nevertheless true, that
the community considers only that
man practical who succeeds in amass-
ing wealth. The proposition is too
broad to be entirely sound in all that
it embraces, and is susceptible of.
what the logicians s term, many
a "distinguo." Besides, in the last
analysis, I doubt if even this money
mad age considers the object of its
obsession the sine qua non of life.
~
/ have no intention to attack or de-
plore the materialistic tendencies, or
commercialism, if you will, OF the
present age. / leave that to the
theorists and doctrinaires in the enl-
ploy of the lecture bureaus, whose
altruism does not preclude them
from exacting the lions share of the
proceeds of the house. / leave that
to the Chautauquan spellbinder,
whose high sense of duty Ito him
self will not permit of his tragic
portrayal and scatching denunciation
of the evils of great wealth, unless
he has the assurance of the com.
mittee, that he shall receive at least
$4,000 for his rhetorical portrait.
Or, still, I may well entrust the ar
rangement of mammon worship to
the jealous and we'll meaning divine,
who when he receives a call from
another city, at a promised increase
in salary, tells his congregation on
the following Sunday, that the still
snail voice" urges him to accept
and should the call be accompanied
by an offer of four or five thousand
per year, whereas he was only get
ting twelve hundred, til e still
small voice" becomes full brass
band. This only to show the In
consistencies of those who are con
tinually crying out against TIL {
ayoi lance of monster which they
are constantly striving to intercept
No doubt, owing to certain asso,
S citation of ideas, great many con
slider only that man practical, who
succeeds in piling up material treas
.ures, no matter how ruthless hi
process may be. But it is only thos'
who seek to establish the principl,
that the end justi6es that can reall.
think so. It is not only in this ag
and generation that the enchantress
Fortune, has exercised man by he
witcheries. Her spell has beel
wrought over the centuries, for evel
in Shakespeare time the 1earne'
pate ducke0 to the golden fool. :
Is this, however, the true estimate
the real measure of the practics
man? Is he, therefore, a man wht
of necessity, must be stepped j
selfishness; whose ego fills his COS
mos? who views present economi
conditions, not in the light OF ho7
they will affect the community, bt
rather what affect they will have 0
his individual fortunes? Let us se
Who is the truly practical mar
/ mean in strictly concrete sens
That man is really and truly pract
cal, who employs the talents b
Creator has endowed him with, |
they few or many, mediocre I
mighty, TO the ve-y best of his abi
ity. In whatever field he engage
those talents he will have to do wit
the getting Of money, and 1t is we
that it is SO. There is absolutely
escaping it. Money is SO interwo'