BH , v “ i ! ——_ a 4 ¢ 2 { m ate e 4 v tH > . at j { “a « A wa . Ps * » 4 MICHIGAN TRADESMAN 9 KLONDIKE OR NOME? History is repeating herself, and re- cent history at that. The startling story of *49 now from the Distant Northwest has been told to eager hearers, and that part of communities who have been com- plaining that they never had a chance are sure now that the chance has come and that in the Klondike or at Nome they .are going to pick up the nuggets of gold at the rate of nobody knows how many dollars an hour; and a year from now they will be walking the streets of their native town, the nabobs of the place and so at last admitted to be some- body. Just now these future millionaires are halting between two, not opinions, but places. Shall it be Klondike or Nome that will disgorge to them its enormous treasure? The latter will prob- ably be the choice because there the least exertion will be called for to un- cover the precious metal. It can be had for the picking up. One man—the statement is not to be questioned—in an hour picked up seventeen dollars’ worth of gold. Ten hours of toil —the eight hour law has not there been passed—is a day’s work worth doing. There is money in it; but even this amount per diem to the large majority who are go- ing is much too small and it involves too much labor. It is the man with the brain that scoops in the ducats—the other fellow does the work. So then when the gold field has been reached all that is needed is to ‘‘watch out’’ and pretty soon, without the movement of a muscle, the money comes rolling in and presto! home we go millionaires. This kind of idea makes good mate- rial for some very poor day-dreams, and for nothing else,and would not be worth the writing here if it were not a fairly accurate statement of - what is actually going on in the minds of too many of these men who can always get rich or at least make a good living if they can only get somewhere else. Like old Langworthy’s cow they are not con- tented until they get on the other side of the fence and then bellow until they get back again. At home there is no inducement to doanything. Everybody is against them and when mankind is disposed to assist, nature comes in and puts a stop to it. This year it wasa flood. Last year the drought played the mischief with the crops. The year be- fore the grasshopper was a_ burden. Next year the Klondike or the Nome will settle things. Ever since Dewey threw open the golden gates of the morning, this class of men have been curious to know if there is any chance for a man to get on in the Philippines. Is trade good? Is there a chance for a man with a little money to forge ahead? Are the natives shrewd? What sort of business would be likely to pay best? Say a man had five hundred dollars; how could he double it soonest with the least effort? There are other questions; but, near or remote, they all circle around that cen- ter where with the smallest amount of energy the largest returns are to be found. It is still Klondike or Nome and the question will be settled by choosing the place where is the least to be done. The attempt to better one’s self is not a new one. Here individual history is ee ‘the world’s history ; and it is as true to- day as it always has been that success or failure depends on the man more than on anything else. Will he who never did a stroke of work in his life go to the gold fields and, when he finds that the gold there must be dug for, dig for it? Not he. It is the last thing he will do. He can dig at home; and on that *‘dig’’ the whole matter rests. The man who can go out into the wilderness and, grappling with nature as he finds her, wrest from her a fortune is the man to go to Klondike or Nome or stay at home. Wherever chance or circum- stance puts him, there he pitches his tent and goes to work. Fortune may frown and he laughs at her. Nature turns to him the cold shoulder and, un- dismayed, he studies her and by his push and pluck wins her favor. No cad is he. No lout is he-—-no thing of cir- cumstance. So the world wants him and greets him with extended hands. The Klondike and Nome urge him with beckoning finger to come to them. He goes or stays with the same result—-suc- cess. It is not the place, then, that fixes the fortune, but the man. There is some- thing in adventure ; a new country with new experiences may stir into wakeful- ness what has been asleep. Danger may call forth qualities yntil then unknown; but the manhood so brought out will not be found incompetent, the very charac- ter which the responsible places of the world do not want and will not have. Without doubt Manila has golden prizes for the right kind of men; but the man who is a failure at home is not the one to win them. The keen, the bright, the active, the smart, the ready brain and the willing hand—these are the elements of success and there is no need of taking them to Alaska to set them to work. This busy city of Grand Rapids has more than one instance to establish the fact, if it need establishing. Right here where, to the homeborn, there was no chance, the aspirant for making his way in the world took off his coat and went to work. Misfortune blocked his way. He thrust her from his path. Fire burned what little he had earned. He swept the hot ashes from the ground and, without wincing, laid there on the hot earth the foundations of a future fortune. How that man has fought in the very face of fate! How he ‘‘while his companions slept was toiling up- ward in the night.’’ How unkindness and indifference—-by far the worse— misused him; and how fearlessly and manfully—there’s the secret of it--he has kept bravely on until now, with the world ashamed of herself, he points to the work he has done and, with com- mendable pride, declares to her, *‘In spite of you!’ It is always so. It is not the field. It is the man. The mountain sides of Klondike and the water courses of Nome may gleam with gold and the incompe- tent will remain incompetent within touch; but he who goes to work, asking no odds and receiving none, will find his field in his dooryard and will make that dooryard an inspiration to others as it has been to him and will enable them to be as indifferent as he was to locality. Klondike or Nome or Grand Rapids! There is a time for all things. The man who marries at leisure may repent in haste. The cream of society has not been skimmed from the milk of human kind- ness. The days of small things are not to be despised. They are nursery days. A congregation will stick toa preacher who sticks to his text. Russia prepares for peace or war by building railroads, aaa yuvwvvvvuvwvvvuvuwvevvvvvvrvvuvvvvvvvvvvvrwvvwvvvrvvevn pwwvvewvvvrwvevrevee~vrwewvv~v’evuowvcowvvvowe5rwevrev™ PUVVUCCEOCOCOCOCSCTOCE CCC TSTSESTSTCSTCCCC UV FOG O DOGG GG FOGG ISIS OSS Here It Is! Just what you have been looking for. the best, the safest, the most durable and most sav- ing of carbide on the market. ments long sought tor by all generator manu- facturers. no smoke, no coals on burners. much gas escapes when charging as in former machines and you cannot blow it up. it’s simple. the carbide in and the machine does the rest. It is perfectly automatic. all times. charged. seen this. Board of Underwriters. cheerfully sent on application. lene gas agents wanted. Also dealers in Carbide, Fixtures, Fittings, Pipe. 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It works automatically and to my entire satis- faction and I would not exchange it after ten months’ use for electricity or any other artificial light. The machine shows no signs of wear, it is made from the best of material and will last for years. Yours respectfully, A. L. ADAMS, M. D. Write the Alexander Furnace & Mfg Co., Lansing, Mich., for full information.