Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1913-08-26
FACTS ARE BRUTAL
sometimes Twisted but Always un-
chanseable and Everlasting.

sometimes Twisted but Always un-
ehanseabls and Everlasting.
The trouble with facts is that they
will not bend themselves, nor be bent,
to our wills. Mahomet himself must
go to meet the mountain. II he wants
to reach the summit, no magic carpet
will fly with him, but he must depend
on his own sinews. The frame Of the
globe Is durable. impreganable. Those
who have been digging the Panama
canal, those who built the sea going
railway to Key West or pierced the
Alps for tunnels and the whole mod
ern tribe Of airmen, feel that they have
little enough to thank nature for. She
has fought them tooth and nail at
every turn. She has conceded nothing.
There has been just one straight and
narrow way to 60 and those who did
not find 1t were lost; disobedience to
the strictest letter Of the rules of the
game had its sequel in q tragedy; In
flexible, uncompromising, adamatine
AS children. It is our painful business
to learn that we must obey or be pun
ished. We think for little while that
we are monarchs Of all In sight, but
we are speedily disillusioned. The duty
Of q parent-and often It Is not ANUS
ing-is to impersonate the impersonal
law, and to teach young hopeful that
he who kicks against the bricks will
stub his toe and gain nothing but the
confusion. The teacher, In loco paren-
tis, has the same task, and must often
make up for the parental neglect. BY
q cowardly evasion, some fathers and
mothers look to the school to discipline
a spoiled child, and then are vexed IL
the miracle is not accomplished. II at
home or In school discipline Ia not en-
forced then the world itself insists
upon conformity with the established
order, except In the case Of a small
wealthy minority Of persons who do
not count at all because they do moth
ing but amuse themselves. They are
shielded by their money from the dis
agreeable opportunities that victimize
the rest Of US.
Yet even they have headaches and
toothaches and are sleepless. Even
they have unflial children and rebel
lious servants. They cannot enjoy
their meals or summer day or q
sunset or a voyage more than we do.
Age comes upon them, too, and finds
them wanting. They, too. are ma
ligned and misunderstood, and II they
are liberal with their money in public
beniflcence they are often accused Of
attempting to buy popularity as kings
Of old on the deathbed tried to buy
from the church the grace Of heaven.
Even their philanthropy is sneered at
and fiouted where the mite OF the
widow Is respected. .si
So that even wealth is not an infal-
lible insulation against unpleasant
things. A million dollars cannot pur-
chase panoply. nor is there any anti
toxin against the remorseless truth.
Just and unjust must walk under the
same umbrella.
The rich. who have everything that
money can buy. rail against the facts
more frequently and more bitterly
than the poor, who have learned to
endure, phlegmatically or hopefully.
A poor man does not mistake himself
for Joshua and expect the sun to stand
still for his benefit. He knows the
purchasing power Of a cent, the finty
nature of pavement or Of the hearts
Of some men. He is well aware that
his daily bread, II It is earned at all.
Is only to be earned by the sweat Of
his brow, and he knows the vast DIFF
ference between mere income and
actual earnings You have to earn
money, to know what 1t Is worth.
When one has made up his mind
to the great outstanding fact Of all
which is, that facts are facts-the
world becomes more plausible as a
place to live in. Nature does not seem
then to be cruelty capricious; she ap-
pears to observe the rules OF the
game. Fire will burn, and water will
drown, and poison will corrupt and
the world spins and the birds sing by
| the laws of the universe or the laws OF
of their being, and all is according to
the rule and not through blind mis-
chance. Meredith says that In one
mood we read nature and she seems
as hard as iron; again she turns to
US a melting phase and We discover
her genial and bland maternity. Our
view of the facts greatly depends on
the way we happen to be feeling. A
welcome letter comes, and 10! the
rainiest day is flooded with sunshine.
We are in the blue doldrums Of mel
ancholy, and friend happens in with
message Of good cheer that-presto
changes the atmosphere as though
fresh breeze blew. When we are hap
py we are inclined TO wonder that
every one Is not even as We are
how can any one be sorrowful when
we stand tiptoe on the crest OF JOY
GUS occasion? The whole world ID
roseate through the glasses Of the
enchantment Of our Joy. The pain
Of yesterday has undergone a strange
mutation. and the voice Of lamenting
has become as the pipes and timbrels
for a dance. We turn nature to the
light or the low pitch Of our own
temperaments, and upon the exacti-
tude Of our own hearing 1t depends
whether we shall have discord or con-
cord. All the while, though we know
It not, the standard established by
nature is invariable. 1t ought to be
great comfort that she stands fixed
on the everlasting verities as her i'm
mutable foundation. II she could be
solicited and bribed to rob Peter and
pay Paul-if she cared for the rich
mans purse and despised the pauper
in his humility, what an intolerable
earth 1t would be! But we can de-
pend upon the cause and the result In
their proper order, and we are reas-
sured to know that there Is no privil-