- ing him frankly about our affairs—what we
wanted to use the money for, etc., etc. I waited for the verdict with almost trembling eagerness.
"How much do you want?" he said.
"Two thousand dollars."
"All right, Mr. Rockefeller, you can have it," he replied. "Just give me your own warehouse receipts; they're good enough for me."
As I left that bank, my elation can hardly be imagined. I held up my head—think of it, a bank had trusted me for $2,000! I felt that I was now a man of importance in the community.
The confidence of the bank president
in him and his business ventures had
strengthened his own appreciation and
confidence. So each man reacts on the
other. (Text.)
(529)
CONFIDENCE, LACK OF
Admiral Dupont was once explaining to
Farragut the reason why he failed to enter
Charlestown harbor with his fleet of iron-*clads.
He gave this reason and that reason
and the other reason; and Farragut remained
silent until he had got through, and then
said, "Ah, Dupont, there was one more reason."
"What is that?" "You didn't believe
you could do it."
(530)
CONFLICT, SPIRITUAL
Upon the side of the great entrance-hall
of the Royal Museum in Berlin is painted a
colossal picture of Kaulbach's. It represents
the last battle between the Romans and the
Huns, which decided the fate of European
civilization. The spirits of the slain, fierce
and restless as before, rise from their bodies
and continue the battle in the air. In the
shadowy combat the forces are led by Attila,
"the scourge of God," borne aloft upon a
shield, and by Theodoric, the Roman chief,
with sword in hand and the cross behind.
The vivid portraiture is a symbol of
the battle waging, not so much between
brute forces as between the spirit of
two opposing civilizations for the mastery
of the world.
(531)
Conflict to Fellowship—See Eternal, The, at Hand. Conflicts of Nature—See Strong and Weak. CONFORMITY Paul's method of being all things to all men suggests that a wise and proper conformity to one's surroundings, where it involves no sacrifice of principle, may be as useful as the white hue of animals in arctic regions described in this extract: Wherever all the world around is remarkably uniform in color and appearance, all the animals, birds, and insects alike necessarily disguise themselves in its prevailing tint to escape observation. It does not matter in the least whether they are predatory or defenseless, the hunters or the hunted; if they are to escape destruction or starvation, as the case may be, they must assume the hue of all the rest of nature about them. In the arctic snows, for example, all animals, without exception, must needs be snow-white. The polar bear, if he were brown or black, would immediately be observed among the unvaried ice-fields by his expected prey, and could never get a chance of approaching his quarry unperceived at close quarters. On the other hand, the arctic hare must equally be drest in a snow-white coat, or the arctic fox would too readily discover him and pounce down upon him off-hand; while conversely, the fox himself, if red or brown, could never creep upon the unwary hare without previous detection, which would defeat his purpose. For this reason, the ptarmigan and the willow-grouse become as white in winter as the vast snow-fields under which they burrow; the ermine changes his dusky summer coat for the expensive wintry suit beloved of British Themis; the snow-*bunting acquires his milk-white plumage; and even the weasel assimilates himself more or less in hue to the unvarying garb of arctic nature. To be out of the fashion is there quite literally to be out of the world; no half measures will suit the stern decree of polar biology; strict compliance with the law of winter change is absolutely necessary to success in the struggle for existence. (Text.)—Cornhill Magazine
(532)
Congenital Neurasthenics—See Inebriety, Incurable.
Conjugal Rights—See Robbing Justified.
CONNECTION
You can get no water from your old pump.
When you try you get only a painful wheez-
