Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-12-15

remains unchanged our destinies will
continue unaltered.
OF course. in the dramatic form
the theme is presented with all Mr..
Barrie's exquisite fancy and deli
cious humor; but taken simply as
bald statement. it is rather dreary
and depressing.
1t is rather a favorite subject
with the imaginative writer. | re-
member a magazine story which
read some years ago of two men
who were shipwrecked on desert
island. One had been a financial
success, the head of a great cor
poration; the other. as he bitterly
declared, his industrial slave" Ar
irving on the island, however, their
positions are reversed,
The subordinate by a ruse OBJ
tains possession of all the weapons
and supplies which they nave saved
from the wreck, and during sleep
les up his former employer, refus-
ing to release him unless the latter
agrees to work for him under con-
dltions of virtual slavery. The cor
poration chief, compelled to assent
or starve, enters into the agree
ment and faithfully keeps it for a
year. But by the end of that time,
through the exercise of those char
acteristics and talents which had
previously advanced him and
through the lack of these same quail
ltles in the other man. there was a
second shift in their relative posi-
tons. The moral is, that a special
aptitude will always express itself
under any conditions.
1t is a sort of doctrine of pre-
destination as applied to temporal
affairs. We all have our different
&c nd fhA
achieve success is by following those
bents and trusting to them. The
man on the desert island who usurp-
ed the authority was not a born
executive. His talents lay in a diff
ferent direction. He should have
found out what they were and have
cultivated them. Our destiny is
within us. II myself am good for
tune"
We are not forced like cattle in
the stockyardS to follow certain set
runaways, but are free to roam the
range. If We go slam into Il barbed
wire fence, or get ourselves begged
in the mire, that is largely due to
our own needless blundering. 1t is
silly to blame it on destiny.
There is this to be said, though,
for Mr.. Barrie's thesis in Dear
Brutus," that practically every one
OF us would, as he claims, make eN-
actly the same errors on a second
chance that we did on the first But
it is all nonsense to cry: "Oh. if l
only had a second chance" You
have dozens of second chances.
There seems to be something in
the great scheme of things which
keeps presenting the same problem
to us over and over again-generally
in slightly different guise, but un-
changed in its essentials-until we
finally succeed in mastering it.
1T may be a fear. Again and
again, and at the most unexpected
times and places, that haunting ter
ror will rise to chill our souls until
we deliberately face it. walk straight
up to it, and find that it is only q
spectre. "Oh, friend, never strike
sail to n fear"
Or our special problem may be
some lack of moral stamina or
weakness of character. Again and
again you will find yourself put to
the test until you brace the weak
wall within you and throw out sup
porting buttress of two.
1t is idle to attempt to side-step
or run away from anything The
thing you have fed from will be
the first one to greet you on the
new ground. You have about as