Reputation -- CHAPTER XXVI

From The Young Man and Himself by James S. Kirtley

CHAPTER XXVI.

REPUTATION.

CHARACTER is what a man really is; reputation is what he is thought to be. As J .G. Holland says, "Character lives in man, reputation outside of him." The two may not coincide, in fact seldom do; Some one has said that in everyone there are four men -- [1] the man the people generally take him to be, [2] the man most intimate friends think he is, [3] the man he thinks he is, and [4] the man whom God knows him to be. As God alone knows a man perfectly, it is not often that his reputation exactly coincides with his character. "A man's reputation is like a shadow, which sometimes follows, sometimes precedes him, and which is occasionally shorter, occasionally longer than he is.

The reasons for it are on the surface. We have not the means of knowing people. When a wealthy man dies, it is usually found that his estate is smaller than was supposed, though sometimes larger. In a city of Italy, a generation ago, an old man used to go about the streets, the very picture of poverty. The boys made sport of him and called him "Old Hunks." When he died, it was supposed that he would have to be buried in a pauper's grave and at the expense of the city, but to the surprise of all, he had accumulated considerable wealth and had bequeathed it to the city to found a hospital for the poor. An old shoe maker used to have a miserable shanty in Wash Street in St. Louis, and, winter and summer, he worked away in seeming poverty, but when he died; the people learned, with surprise, that he was almost wealthy.

Many people are incapable of estimating character, and with them a man will never be what he is, but will always appear better or worse.

A great many people have not the power of fully showing themselves, because they lack the power of expression, or shrink in modesty from any exhibition of themselves, while others have the way of appearing more than they really are. They carry all their {p.200} goods in the show window. Many a young person, with great facility in speech, appears to have merits that some shrinking, modest one does not have; but the talker often talks himself out, while the more diffident comes, in course of time, to exhibit the rarest treasures of the soul. In the social circles many a young lady outshone the demure Miss Mary Johnston, but he author of "To Have and To Hold" and "Audrey" is now a center of a national appreciation. Many a man passes for learned, who merely looks wise and says nothing, when there may be very little in his head save shrewdness and conceit.

"There are a sort of men whose visages
Do cream and mantle make a standing pond,
And do a wilful stillness entertain,
With purpose to be dressed in an opinion
Of wisdom, gravity, profound conceit,
As who should say, ' I am Sir Oracle,
And when I ope my lips let no dog bark.'"

We usually regard the man who can confuse us with a few high-sounding technical words as very learned; but he may not know anything else -- may be a parrot, an echo; on the other hand, thousands of modest young men who have a natural deference and reverence for others are selling far below their real value.

While it is not always possible to have reputation and character exactly coincide, it is possible to have a good reputation. Character is the more important, to be sure, yet reputation is unspeakably important. As Shakespeare says :

" Good name, in man or woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls.
Who steals my purse, steals trash; 'tis something -- nothing ;
'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands ;
But he that filches from me my good name,
Robs me of that which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed. "

It is the capital with which he is furnished for his life's business: "A man is already of consequence in the world when it is known that he can be implicitly relied on."

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Blessed is the man who inherits a good reputation from a line of honest ancestors. Cowper says:

"My boast is, not that I deduce my birth'
From loins enthroned, the rulers of the earth ;
But higher far my proud pretensions rise--
The child of parents passed into the skies."

Such a reputation he may only potentially have, not personally deserve. But it will be a healthful spur to his aspirations and to his pride. It is wealth to him. The world is ready to put him on the same level with his ancestors, accord him the same kindness, show him the same confidence. When he flings it away by dissipation, impurity, unsteadiness, or unreliability, he is dishonoring his ancestors, wounding their friends, and throwing away a capital that can never wholly be regained. To rob a man of a good reputation is worse than murder. When he flings it away himself, it is worse than suicide. Without business reputation, the man is foredoomed to failure unless he can win it. Without the respect and confidence of people the young man is a most miserable wretch. The late Senator C. K. Davis of Minnesota, in an article recently printed, has this to say about reputation:

CHARACTER IS THE BEST FORTUNE.

An excellent character is a fortune. To be generally respected and beloved is better than to own the wealth of the world. Few men are indifferent to the esteem in which their fellow mortals hold them, and no other man recognizes this as much as the man who holds a public trust. Thomas Carlyle shrewdly remarked, 'Even the man who occupies the highest social position is, in some degree, dependent on the lowest.' You do not need that I should urge you to pursue wealth. I leave men alone for that. All are bent on making money. From the lucky stockbroker or merchant who, by means of a few successive leaps, finds himself in affluence, -- from the renowned consulting physician who rakes' in his golden fees until he finds himself independent, to the humblest clerk or artisan -- nearly everyone is making it his aim to be as rich as he {p.202.} can. If money comes to you honorably, and goes from you usefully, the more of it you have the better. It is a great privilege to be rich under such circumstances. But the first thing that I would impress upon you is this: a good name must be the fruit of one's own exertion. You cannot possess it by patrimony, you cannot purchase it with money, nor will it come to you by chance. Of all the elements of success in life, none is more vital than a determination to be the creator of your own reputation and advancement."

And Mr. F. M. Buck, of the Chicago Telephone Exchange, said, in an address in Chicago the other day:
" It has been said that we are the architects of our own fortunes, and this I think is in a measure true, hence how careful we sho0uld be that our aim in life is true and at something of value. I do not mean by the word value that it should be considered from a commercial standpoint only, as there are many things of more value than financial success. A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches. I would rather have a good name and a character above reproach than the applause of men or the wealth of a Rockefeller; hence, while our aim is high, our foundation should be strong and impregnable. And we should not only have our aim in life, but we should maintain our aim and strive to reach our goal."

A good reputation is a means of service to mankind. It strengthens their confidence in the perfectability [sic] of human nature. " To know one person that is absolutely to be trusted will do more for a man's moral nature -- yes, and even for his spiritual nature-- than will all the sermons he ever heard, or ever can hear," without having confidence in the speakers.

There is some hope for the young man who inherits an undesirable reputation. He may win all the more appreciation from having fought his way over such difficulties. Starting with a bad reputation, he can more easily gain a good one than the young man who throws away a good one can regain it. The former is possible; the latter scarcely possible at all. Bishop Sanderson quaintly says : "A good name is far easier kept than recovered. Men that have had losses in sundry kinds have in time had some reparation.
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Samson's locks were shorn off, but they grew again; Job's goods and cattle were driven off, but restored again; but the good name once lost, the loss is little better than desperate. The shipwreck of a good name, though in the most considerable respects it be incomparably less, yet in this one respect it is in some sort even greater than the loss of a good conscience. And the reason is this, that when we have made shipwreck of our consciences, we fall into the hands of God whose mercies are great, and whose compassions fail not; but when we make shipwreck of our good name, we fall into the hands of men, whose bowels are narrow, and whose tender mercies are cruel, and their charity too weak to raise up our credit again when it is once ruined.'

REPUTATION FROM ENVIRONMENT.

One may acquire a reputation not only from his ancestors, but from the business from which he enters. If it is bad, he will end it next to impossible to rise above it, and it will become his personal reputation. One also enters into possession of the reputation of the community in which "he lives and gets a public rating to correspond. The man from Boston has his measure taken before he reaches the West. A gentleman from Kentucky or Kansas or Texas or Arkansas or Chicago is rated abroad as his state or city is rated. Reputation is capital, and one must do business with that capital, whether it is what he likes or not. It may help to make or unmake him. While one's reputation is partly made for him, he is given a chance to make one for himself. If his ancestors and his state and his city and his calling have a good reputation, and he takes a corresponding one for himself, he is fortunate beyond expression. As Dr. Trumbull says :

"There is one measure of success that is open to every man, it matters not how lacking he may be in executive ability, or personal magnetism, or 'tact,' or individuality, or financiering skill, or any other of the traits usually supposed to assist in pushing him to the front. This is the ability to inspire other men with confidence in his personal integrity and sincerity of character. From the lowest, to the highest, men soon come to be estimated, by all with {p. 204} whom they come in contact, on this point. Can you' bank' on him, can you count on him every time, do you always know where to 'find' him? -- are questions of the sort actually or tacitly asked about every man at one time or another; and the answer to these questions about himself is in a man's own hands. Moreover, there come times in every man's life when the right answer to such questions is going to mean a great deal for even his temporal future and success. Let him see to this stepping-stone in the series, as he values his reputation and usefulness."

A good reputation is desirable, even if it is better than a man deserves, for it puts him on his mettle and spurs him up to his best exertions. When England expects every man to do his duty, every man is very sure to do it. When the people of Chicago expected young Harrison to follow in the steps of his father, Mayor Carter Harrison, the path was already open to him. It seemed easy and natural that John Quincy Adams and Benjamin Harrison should become presidents of the United States, because their fathers were. A Breckinridge or a Bayard does not usually find it difficult to secure public office. It was natural and proper that Prof. Hadley of Yale, son of the great teacher of Greek, should be made president of his Alma Mater; that Mr. George Gould should step into his father's shoes as president of the Missouri- Pacific railroad. That the Vanderbilts should become railroad magnates was inevitable, if they were at all true to the reputations of their ancestors; that Fred Grant and Fitzhugh Lee should become generals in the army; during the war with Spain, was a foregone conclusion.

By dishonesty, by indifference to obligations, by pretense to wealth or culture or learning which he does not possess, by discourtesy, one may throw away his reputation, never to win it again. One should desire a good reputation, not as an end in itself, but as a means to the higher ends for which he lives. It helps him to be what he aims to be; in fact, it helps him to "-- see what he ought to be; it secures the aid of others in his efforts; it gives him an opportunity to serve others by heartening them and guiding them. Be careful to have a good name, for, as Solomon wisely says, it is rather to be desired than great riches.