If he hadn't been, Stephen Mallory White would probably have
cut no greater figure in the world than any other man.
"Did you ever hear of a man who wasn't born in some country village,
'of poor but honest parents,' amounting to a row of pins? Not on your
life! It's the true and only essential of greatness. Yes, there are
lots of fellows fixed that way who don't make their mark, but that's
because they don't try.
"Everybody knows how Carnegie got his start; didn't Lincoln use to
chop wood for a living, and Garfield drive a canal boat team? Wasn't
Gould a messenger boy, and General Miles a private? It's a 'cinch,'
a 'kismet.' Fate has posted a great big placard over the door to Fame
and it says, 'None But Impecunious Young Countrymen Need Apply.'
"That is why I always thought reincarnation was a good scheme. The
Theosophists say that every soul must pass through a certain number of
experiences, before it can attain perfection. Now, here's a chance for
some unfortunate scion of wealth or nobility, who has lived a useless
and uneventful life, and wants to do something for his country.
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