The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1865-02-24
. no sharpened the swords that have
drank our best blood


81 we submitted a few remarks Il
9 ther day touching the best school th
IL ooy can now be put ip-the Confed
a'e army. Next to Sidney Smiths in
erteo hogshead, there is no such plac
Tor keeping youth out of mischief
Long Tom Coffin used to say that he di
: not see the necessity of any land, excep
r now and then little to drop an ancbo
IN. 1t is equally difficult to see the ne
u cesslty, now, of anything that does no
appertaln to war. This is no time 70
much learning, and every one know,
Efhat a little is dangerous. Posterity vii
'sxcuse the young men of this genera
tion, if they are ignorant on all othe,
points, so they know how to save thei,
country. If they do not know that j,
matters little on what other points they
are enlightened or uncnlightened: for
people in that condition may as we'll be
ignorant as educated, and, as for the
voice of Posterity, there is not likelv to
be, in that event, any posterity worth
listening to.
/ Our object in these reflections is to
advise all parents whose sons will soon
arrive at the military age not to be 50
anxious about their education as to
smuggle them off to Europe, nor to en-.
tertain such contracted ideas of their
real welfare as to lay cunning plans of
any kind for keeping them out of the
ranks. We have no allusions to anv of
the falling>back generals when we say
that the safest place youth can nowbe
placed in is the army. Not the safest,
perhaps, for his arms and legs, but for
his manhood, his honor, his future esti-
nation among men, and perhaps his
morals and his soul.
1t is no longer question with parents
whether they can send their sons to col.
leges and universities. Colleges are
broken up, universities turned into hos
pitals or, if any are not, the few stu>
dents have only to step out of doors to
see history enacting, which of course
drives out of their heads the worm.eaten
leaves that record the history of worm
eaten ages, long ago dead and buried
You might as we'll ask them to pore over |
the wood cuts in natural bistorv~
when whole tribes of lions, elephants, |
grizzly bears, hippopotami, are roaring.
growing, trumpcting, slaughtcring and
devouring under their windows.
The best possible place for a young
mans education is now the army. The
choicest vintage of the nations grapes.
the purest wine of her life, is now in the
held. If the coming generation cannot
be sent to schools of intellectual train.
ng, let them at least be sent to schools
'f honor, generosity and patriotism.
Better have son grow up with noble
sentiments and lofty sense of duty to
principle and to country than to become
selfish, grovelins, mercenary, money
making machine, which is all that anv
outside the army is now likely
o accomplish. Any man who takes an | i
Intelligent view of the welfare and hap. r
'iness of child would sooner see him t
cad and in better world than to see r
i'm become fattened swine in selfish $
ess and cxtortion, and trained up only
0 accumulate Confederate notes and q
ose his soul. If we are to be subiu- y
ated, blessed, thrice blessed, arc the S
cad, who have pcrishcd, or may perish. g
endeavoring to prevent it, and who l
ill not see the dow MALL of the Repub- 3
C.
If Confederate parent now wishes to
Zach his son the way to live, and the t,
ay to die, let him send him. as soon as o.
breaches the military age, to the bronzed d d
nd battle-scarred veterans in the front ~ ~
| ~