The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1913-04-23
OWN Way!
d by Courtesy Of the New York Evening j

physically.
A majority of men believe that they cannot do a new thing. They
believe that what always has been always MUST be.
The same old thing is DONE IN THE SAME OLD WAY,
and millions upon millions of human beings live and die, all of them
thinking that THAT is THE ONLY WAY TO DO IT.
And then occasionally along comes a man who resits the pressure
of the bit, the bride Of custom and habit upon his mind, who de-
termines that he will not be held by any such fimsy power, and we
have the REAL MAN who does the real thing.
Napoleon crossed the Alps in the dead Of winter. When he was
praised to the skies for his daring and his genius he said most truly,
II deserve no credit except for REFUSING TO BELIEVE those
who said it could not be DONE"
That is an instance that we shall quote to you often, for it shows
above everything else the particular quality that made a friendless,
penniless. sickly Corsican lad the greatest ruler that the world has
known, the greatest lawmaker and a most useful man in spite of the
excuses and crimes to which his ambition drove him.
CUSTOM HAD NO HOLD ON NAPOLEON. THERE WAS NO BIT
IN TvA MS m %os"1! No 4 4g covL Ies 4LMARs As see T4 EI NEW 3N1! TING
AND 90 IT..
When his gunners we're shooting at fleeing soldiers or the frozen
lake, shooting at them from a height, Napoleon looked for a second
at the scene and then gave the order to lower the guns and shoot at
the ice.
The cannon balls broke the ice, the fleeing army sank into the
water, to be drowned or rescued at the edge of the lake and made
prisoners.
it TO HIMSELF.
Lucky the man also who can still keep trying, still struggling, to
FREE HIMSELF FROM THE RUT, eve after years Of disap-
pointment.
Napoleon at one time contemplated suicide in his despair Of ever
getting ahead in the world.
After he had become emperor a young officer complained that he
(the young oAfcer) had been a lieutenant in the army for five years
and that there wa n hope of advancement. Napoleon replied,
"Truly, I was a lieutenant for more than five years, yet you ee that
Icould arrive"
When they sent Napoleon to Italy, representing the French ma
ton that had been brought to life and made to think by the splendid
revolution, the old Austrian generals felt only contempt for the lean,
big eyed young Corscan leading soldiers, many of them ragged and
he himself tormented with the itch.
But those Austrian generals were held down by custom.
They did everything in the old way, AND NAPOLEON DID
EVERYTHING IN THE NEW WAY-TIIS OWN WAY.
When a battle was carried on along the banks of a river the Aus
TRANS followed the old plan, which was looked upon as sacred and un
changeabe. They put onehaEf of their army on one side of the river
and the other half of their army on the other side Of the river, march
ing up and down, ready to meet Napoleon and beat him-as they sup
posed-no matter which side of the river he might choose.
Napoleon, free from custom, thinking for himself, kept his whole
army together. He would take his WHOLE army along n side OF
the river, thrash onehalf of the Austrian army, then cross the river
and thrash the other half of the army, and those old generals, held by
the halter of custom, scarcely knew what had happened to them be
fore the Corsican boy had beaten them thoroughly and was well on tho
way to make himself emperor of France and practical ruler of the
world.
we CANNOT ALL BE NAPoLEoNs. THERE is ROOM FOR ONLY
ONE NAPOLEON At a TIME, AND HE MUST BE MADE BY CIR
OURSELVES WHAT THE MATTER s WITH US, WHAT BIT OF
HALTER IS HOLDING US DOWN, KEEPING US BACK.
Do not imagine that it is necessary in order to succeed to GIVl
UP WHAT YOU ARE DOING NOW. Success can be made a
ANYTHING.
Napoleon didn't have to get out of the army, in which he wa
moving so slowly, in order to find his success.
Newton, the greatest mathematical genius produced by the human
race, did not have to give up his little employment with the govern
ment in order to carry on his extraordinary work.
IN EVERY FIELD THERE is OPPORTUNITY. The cer
in a department store can develop himself RIGHT WHERE HE Il
as we'll as anywhere else in the world and perhaps better.
He sees human nature in all of its phases. Opportunity is befor
him if he will take it. But he mustn't imagine that because OTHER
remain clerks he is bound to remain a clerk.
And he mustn't feel that because other clerks ri careful not t
work too much he should not work too much.
ONCE YOU CAN GET A BIT INTO A HORSES MOUTH OR
HALTER ON THE HORSES HEAD YOU CAN DO ALMOST ANY
THING YOU LIKE WITH HIM. AND ONCE THE BIT OF cUSToi
OR THE HALTER OF FIXED OPINION HOLDS A MAN YOU CAN Z
PRETTY MUCH ANYTHING YOU LIKE WITH HIM. FOR YOURSELF