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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 16, 1904)
K&C: iZWff SEPTEMBER 16, 190. The Commoner. 13 "J"" ii' in on others within the party with whom wc have had disagreements, hut who are now working with us for a com mon result. "All men who have attained any de free of prominence Have their friends and the exercise of ordinary prudence forbids the alienation of allies who are willing and anxious to assist. The coming election is not to he deter mined by the September vote in hope lessly republican states, where local issues and candidates even, are griev ously handicapped, but the result in Vermont on Tuesday admonishes us nnd there can be no harm in giving voice to the admonition that har monious co-operation of all and the cliii'inalicn of personal, factional and unimportant differences involving no surrender of principle, are essential to success." Winning HerDIpIoma Booker Washington's story of Anna Davis, a Tuskegee student, is good to read and remember. Because of some misunderstanding about her studies the young woman could not graduate. She accepted her own failure without whimpering, and determined to make the most of what she had. "I have some education, Mr. "Wash ington," she said to him, "and I will go where it will be useful." Then the people at Tuskegee lost sight of her for awhile. But her deeds did not lag behind her intention and her speech. She went into the "black belt" of Alabama and picked out the most hopeless community she could lind. She took the wreck of a log cabin which, was occasionally used as a schoolhouse. The men were poverty stricken and illiterate, and unable to use to advantage what little they had. They mortgaged their crops every year to pay the rents of their hovels. ' It was a situation to appal the stoutest Heart. But" Anna Davis installed herself, in the miserable -log schoolhouse, and first won tne interest and sympathy of the children. Next she induced all the parents to meet there. She taught them enough arithmetic to know tne value of their earnings and to appreciate the folly of their mortgages. She had learned something of the business side of agri culture at Tuskegee, and she taught them that. Then slie went from caoin to cabin to teach by example a better way of- living. The result of that single-handed courage was seen by Mr. Washington when he visited the community a year ago. There was a frame schoolhouse on the site of the old log cabin, and all the children were going to school fight months in the year. The crops had increased; .he men were out of lebt; small, decent frame cottages had taken the place of the tumbled-down shanties, and were owned by the oc cupants. The people had scraped and saved to put up the frame schoolhouse before they thought of bettering their own homes. It had been done in four years, and Mr. Washington asked his old pupil how she had done it all. ' "I will tell you how I did it," she said, simply. Then she showed him an account book with the contributions to the school building, fund. There were some small cash contributions, but there were more contributions of eggs and chickens to be sold for the school. Beside this they had a little cotton Plantation of their own. The children cleared a piece of land behind the schoolhouse and worked on it -every Jlay after school. They raised two bales of cotton a year, and that kept them going. After telling this story, Mr. Wash ington said he wanted to add that iuskegee had since done what it should have had the wisdom to do before. They gave Anna Davis her tupioma." American Woman. The Struggle Between Brute and Human Nature The greatest battle that man ever fought is the one that he. has been fighting from the beginning, is fight ing now and will continue fighting as long as he lives on this planet. It is the battle of man against him selfof man's bestiality against his spirituality, of the body against the soul. There are some who smile at the mention of that word "soul," but they have no good reason for so doing, for the soul is as real as the body. It is as certain that we haye great spiritual instincts and desires as it Is that we have bodily appetites and ani malvpassions and it is between these two sides of human nature that the great struggle of the ages is being waged. We have but to look around in order to see the evidences of the two forces that have made all our history the forces that would lift up and the forces that would pull down; the forces that proceed from the spiritual and the forces that are born of the animal. The- question: "What is your life worth?" depends upon the other ques tion: "In your life which of these two sets of forces is supreme?" If the animal is supreme it makes no difference what else may be true of you. Victory for the body, for the bestial, for the appetites and passions, means defeat for your better self, for your true self, and your life is a failure. To rightly measure one's success in this world no account need be taken of the things that, from the beginning right down to the present, have been made to be the criteria of well-doing money, fame, power over one's fellow men, social standing and all the pleas ures of all the creature comforts. One may be rich or poor, famous or obscure, powerful or weak, but if he has conquered the brute in himself and enthroned the good; if he has in sisted upon living not "after the flesh," but "after the spirit;" for love and truth and right, rather than for self and Its low-pitched desires, his life is a success. Phocian, Socrates, Marcus Aurolius, Frmalow. Howard. Emerson, Gladstone. -Agassiz, the conquerers of themselves, of their appetites ana passions, uieir selfishness and vanity such are the ones who succeed. Life is not physical prowess or the accumulation of cash, or the getting oneself talked about and written about and sung about life is character; life is the winning of victories over the lower self and the dedication of the better self to pure and worthy ends. We are all born on the plane of the brutal, and the problem is, How shall we rise above the animalism, using it as tfie stepping stone to something higher and nobler? Ae.Amni nut t; ""Every man is a tamer of wild beasts, and those wild J beasts are his passions. To draw their teeth and claws, to muzzlo and tamo them, to turn them into servants and domestic animals in this consists per sonal education." We are much given to congratulat ing ourselves upon the fact that wo live In the midst of "civilization," so called, but wo do not always slop to think that this civilization is obliged to fight incessantly and furiously to keep itself civilized. There is no discharge in this war. It is a fight all along the line, and all the time. Like the pent-up flro down in tho volcano, tho old primeval brutlshness is liable to spring up within us at any moment, and we have to he steadily on the alert. Every day you arc tempted to do wrong, and every day yJur true self commands you to fight the temptatiou, and fight you must, or abdicate your manhood and self-respect. Every day tho brute in you urges you to be cruel or unkind, and every day your better self begs you to be patient and gentle and kind. Every day this selfish old animal greed in you tells you to reach out and appropriate to yourself all that you can get hold of, regardless of the possible suffering that your greed may cause; and every day your heart says to you: "No! Sink self, like a rock thrown into the sea, and be generous and considerate of others' welfare as well as your own." Every day your lower nature says to you: "What's the use of being a sen timental fool? Have a good time; eat, drink and be merry, for to-morrow you die:" but the good in you tells you to scorn such low advice, to cast it from you with gloved hands and to ever live out of the inspiration of your noblest thoughts. When the animal is master the soul is enslaved and soul-enslavement is life's only real defeat. - No matter how poor one may be when the final summons comes, no matter how humble and obscure, no matter how worthless from the view point of worldly wisdom and prudence, he shall not have lived in vain if ho shall have lived for love and truth, for right and justice. It is high time that we had begun to teach this truth to our children. Toll them, and teJl them plainly, that the greatest thing that one can possibly do in this world is to build for himself a noble character a char acter which shall cause one to be loved and respected while living and mourned when dead a character that shall enrich the world and leave it, in all spiritual ways, some better than it found it. A curse on the miserable thought advocated, to our shame, be it said, in certain high places that in order to be great we must go around with chips on our shoulders and clubs in our DE LAVAL Cream Separators Save $3 to $5 Per Cow Every Year of Use Over the Best of Imitating Cream Separators and last from two to ton '' tim est us long. Send for catalogue and name of rtcareit local agent. THE DE LAVAL SEPARATOR CO. Randolph & Canal St. I 74 Cortlandt Street CHICAGO NEW YORK WORLD'S FAIR ? EXCURSION COMPANY Wc nrc nrcimrcd to nuoto rates for n nr. ald trip Iroin any point In tlio V. H. to tlio Yorld's Fair and return, at an cxinmifiv i... n....... t -. ..in. ' EXPENSE, WORRY AND TIME Included in our intid In hotel aceonuno dnlloiiH, admission to tho J'nlr (round, to 1'lkoBhows nnd other amusementr. Full nor llculura nnd descriptive literature will be furnished on application. When writing, please state length ofproponed vlsltand chnr nctcrpl accommodations desired. Addrcej GEORGE TILLES, GenM Mar. COLISEUM BUILDING, ST' LOUIS, MO I CAN SELL YOUR BUSINESS or RUAL, lib TATE no matter whre located. ProperUei nnd business of all kinds Bold quickly for rash in all parts of the Unllcd BtuttB. Don't wait. Write today, de- w'Wkwm Wf' IB scribing what you have on name. A. P.T0NE WILSON, Jr Psui Estate Specialist. Topckn, Knmns. 41JI Kansas Ave. t?S2MKl&,.J fam wmm " - - iSSfli- fAwTfrVAufiteQAEy ! 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And a curse, again, upon the vile and vulgar idea, too generally enter tained, that life's success is to be de termined by the amount of money one makes, by tho size and splendor of his establishment and by the amount of m r I New' Steel Roofing and Siding lav and will loet longer than any other material. Cheaper than shingle or slate. No- experienco necessary. A hammer or batciicc are- mo oniy loouneeuca, mv.nn PER 100 SQUARE FEET for our No.'lO grade.flat.seiniliardened. t2.10 per lOOsqaaro feet for corrugated steel rooflntr as rnotin in cut, v enrapea ornanuiuic whbi, . .ui . - celllmr or ridinjr. Our catalogue contain f all particulars of theto material Thousands ofbSwingfltbronghouttooworldaroc FIRE, WATER AHO UUHtHlHU fxutr. SendlnyourortJerforasmanysquaresasyoumayncedtocoTeryonrneworoUbulW. wr P4V THF FREIGHT to all points east of Colorado, except Indian Territory. UKuuoma .ana Texa. wruo to day forfurther particulars. 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