Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 66, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 March 1911 — An Opportunity. [ARTICLE]

An Opportunity.

I once heard of a man who was Imprisoned in a barren cell in a peniand the whitewashed walls were sufficient to drive him almost insane. SoOn after he was imprisoned the cell was again whitewashed and the man with the temperament of an artist, as well as the cultivated talent of a miscreant, could no longer tolerate the eternal whiteness of his surroundings. After many weary months and years there appeared upon the walls a perfect frieze of flowers and butterflies. The rude outlines were made with lamp black, burnt matches and the like mixed with the kerosene of the lamp which he was permitted to have. The indigo was stolen pieces of pencil taken from a desk where he did bookkeeping and the red ink was made by soaking the red from off the back of a red book. Countless were the ways of obtaining cplors, and it took years to accomplish a small bit of work, but It kept his mind occupied. It was a barn door and a burnt stick that served Wilkie in lieu of canvas and pencils, and Beswick made his sketches on the cottage wall of his own home. One artist, whose name I have forgotten, made his paint brushes with hairs cut from the cat's tail, and someone relates that the first chemical performance of any consequence was worked out with kitchen implements of the rudest construction. We all remember the school book story of Ferguson, who laid himself down in the fields at night in his blanket and made a map of the heavenly bodies by means of thread and beads, measuring distances with his eye. So we can often find opportunity ever present, though it may be greatly disguised and not recognized until dire necessity comes by and gives us an introduction, to it “Go in for all you are worth,” is applicable to everyone but the young man trusting to the ticker tape. Ordinary mortals can" gain much by making the best of an opportunity or making the opportunity first