The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-05-03
(BY WILLIAM r ELLIS.)

Oency, IS Ine way certain new III n
politicians spoke of their efforts TO get
rid of Governor Roosevelt by making
him vice president of the United States
The road o the highest power usually
lies through the valley of obscurlty-
Adversely has often been route 10
prosperity. When Joseph, the favorite
son of Jacob was sent up to Egypt
by his unnatural brothers, they were
forwarding him to the best school or
life, where he could be trained in the
Egyptian civilization. That apparent
disaster linked the Jews with Egypt
and profoundly affected all the future
history of the world. Every active life
has had somewhat similar experiences,
when good came out of apparent evil.
The story is one for our own times,
for it paints in true colorS the career
of young man away from home. rms
one kept his flag flying and never lost
heart in the darkest hours He was
the victim of sore misfortune, but ms
spirit was never broken, and his soul
was never conquered.
TT matters not how strait the gate
How charged with punishment the
scroll;
am the aster of my fate.
I am the captain of my SOUL
Worse than any particular hardshlps
which this youth Lad to endure was
the CALLING fact that he was slave
His proud head had to bow beneath
the yoke of servitude. He was sold as
a chatteI and treated as bit OF prop
erty- Nevertheless, his soul was not
enslaved He knew himself for an
heir of freedom, prince among men,
After all,
'.stone walls do not prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage"
The Officer in OveralIs.
THE best ay to get out of DIS
tasteful position said Thomas JET
effective in it, The story of Joseph !
is a study in efficiency. He made
good" wherever he was put. He was a
first class man in an inferior place;
therefore he either exalted the place or
rose out of il. A meaner sort of man
would have whimpered and wept and
rebelled. Joseph respected himself
and therefore others came to respect
him.
At the recent naval maneuvers and
target practice at Hampton Roads,
when several members of the Cabinet
accompanied Secretary of the Navy
Daniels, the visitors were shown down
into the engine room and fire room
of the Wyoming. They saw man in
overalIs begrimed beyond recognition,
who seemed to be directing the men.
He conducted the party about this
section of the ship, answered all ques-
tions and made explanations so clearly
that some visitor remarked, that man
must be some sort of petty offtcer-he
knows what he is talking about. What
is his grader" The eyes of their con-
ductor tvinkl.J as he replied, If you
had been attending the reception at the
White House last week, you would
have seen that man, Respondent in
gold lace, acting as naval aid to the
president of the United States" The
incident illustrates this story of eff
cheney True ability and dignity fills
its own place well wherever duty may
lie for the moment. Joseph as
slave and as prisoner was as
efficient a man as Joseph as an
overseer of Egypt. He did with his
might what he found to do. That way
came promotion and emancipation.
There are hundreds of second rate
l1ousekeepers, clerks and workmen in
the world who are signing for liter
airy career, not knowing that by their
very ineffectiveness in their present
work they prove themselves unfit for
larger work. AS motto the nursery
wall has it 1.-The boy who does little
things we'll is fitting himself to do big
things better"
When Woman Tempts Man.
The most dramatic incident of JOS
eph's career was his experience with
Potiphar's wife. We can wish the
episode were not there, yet it is true
to life. The idea is a startling one
to a chivalrous youth that woman
can be a temptress and that a young
man should be on his guard againt
her. That is contrary to all the
teachings and ideas of his early train
ing. Nevertheless, every young man
must learn somehow or other that all
women are not as his own mother.
Indeed, one is inclined to say, as
he looks about city life at the present !
time, that perhaps never since Rome
collapsed by the weight of its own /
hmm ortality, has Potiphor's wife been
so brazenly abroad in the land as at !
present BY the styles of dress that
prevail, by the dances of the young
people, by performances at the thea
lf for and
by not a little of the loose talk of the
time woman's enticement to mans
bascr nature is manifest to an appall-
ing extent. This is a phase of the
woman question which is of profound
concern to the world. for it certainly I
nisrepresents the vast majority of {
womankind. Yet it is a problem that I
only woman can solve.
The Young Mans Refuge.
There is a discernible tendency
abroad at present to take refuge in
hygienic, economic and social rea-
sons for personal purity. This is the :
teaching that one hears on every side.
I; should alarm the church for these
ality of society. The fact that v9ri- '
ous disabilities. physical. economic, {
Industrial social and legal. follow in l
the train of impurity. are quite in-
sufficient to safegGar the race.
Joseph's way was better. His
course was in consonance with the
highest knowledge of our own time.
A noble character inspired by high
est ideals is the best armor against
the besetments of sin. Joseph had '
first of all high sense of personal l
honor He would not offend against Y
his employer. the husband of The {
Tenptress That was one of the i
things that a man of standards cah-
not do. Again. he could not do this {
GREAT wickedness and sin against '
God These loftiest ethical and re- l
Iieious considerations We're his de-