The Men of the West 25 



may realise that it is better to have striven in vain 

 than not to have striven at all. 



The men of the West never take the word 

 "failure" home to their wives. It is locked up, 

 when they leave their office, in that symbol of pros- 

 perity, the safe, which often contains nothing more 

 valuable than the record of wasted endeavour. One 

 and all are stoutly self-assured that if the slippery 

 yesterdays have eluded them, if the silvery to-days 

 belong to others, the golden to-morrows are theirs 

 by the unalienable rights of faith and hope. The 

 door-mat kind of man who lies down grovelling, 

 and permits the foot-passengers to wipe their shoes 

 upon him, is not to be found west of the Eocky 

 Mountains. Eobustly conscious of his strength, 

 the Native Son confronts the beasts of the market- 

 place with the same courage and determination 

 that sustained his father in the wilderness. I have 

 stood in the wheat-pit of San Francisco when 

 wheat was jumping like a kangaroo. Around me 

 were men — some of them young — who had large 

 fortunes at stake. I saw one " bear " unmercifully 

 gored by the stampeding "bulls." But he picked 

 himself up with a grin, lit a cigar, ate a capital 

 luncheon, told a good story, and made it plain to 

 my wondering eyes that physically, mentally, and 

 morally, he was none the worse for his mis- 

 adventure. 



Curiously enough, despite this pluck and energy, 

 the men of business are ignorant of much that they 

 ought, in their own interest, to know thoroughly. 

 The average English gentleman, the magistrate and 

 landlord, lacks the intelligence, the cleverness and 



