The Columbia daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1865, 1865-05-18
Our School-Boy DAYS.

footed, bread and-butter days. People
may descant az eloquently as they
please upon the pleasures Of after life,
but all feel that they were bIithest and
most joyous Of spirits in their school
boy .da.s. Never since have they felt
that triumphant sense Of life, that ex.
ulting transport Of sui, in which they
'reeked and rioted' when they first
vaulted from their swaddling clothes
Few then were the ingredients neces-
'sary to ,heir,cu OF happiness--tley
could carve felicity from bit Of piue
wood, or fish for tit successfully in q
mill pond 1t is true, there was little
agreeahleness in hard lessons-less
still in being scolded r fogged BY
frownlng pedagogues for not getting
them. But. the playground aud the
hoiidays-what is there comparable 20
them afterwards
Reader, have all the games, sports
aud recreations @: your melancholy
manhood yielded you half the delight
you once derived from kite flying,
nafrbles, playing bali and leap frog2
Have the most gorgeous and encbsnt,
ing specta cles. you have beheld st
theatres or elsewhere filled your soul
So brim full Of ecstacy as the first
sight Of Jack. .o'-Lanterpf Can Won
ever forget the violent ,hrohbing .of
heart with which von welcomed the
metaphysical stranger?'-how you
'chuckled and crowed. and clapped
your hands with glee, as your dazzled
eyes followed him through all the
chan seful figures of his fautastical har-
Ieqninadc2 Has any meteor, the tpost
respiendent. since danced ant! gam
eofiicr uver your bend 1tsat- was al y y
thing 10 comparison2 Have tue most
bewitch.rg novels OF Sir Walter Scott
thrilled and fascinated you with such
strange, mysterious delight as the
stories Of Bluebeard- aud Jack the
Giant Killer? Can you forget the
curious wonderment with which you
gazed on the man in the moon-how
you queried whether he too was made
of green cheese-and with what abso-
lute precision you made out his face?
Would you not gladly go back to the
period when the rlse4ef the green cur
tain revealed to you a real world
when the. jokes of tire clown a. the
circus were not fiat, stale and unpro-
fitSble, and the tricks Of ,he juggler
and the ventriIoquist had not lost half
their interest by being learned TO be
deceptions! Is it any satisfaction to
you that you have read history till you
doubt everything-that you no longer
believe that Romulus was sucked by
a.wolf, and Richard the Thru mon-
| ster of iniqnity-and that you. know
Robinson CruSoe to be a fiction?
Ah, reader, we know full well your
enswer. Gladly would you command
the secret of feeling as you once did;
bat, alas! every day has taken from
you some happy error-some. charm
ing illusionsnever. to return. You
have been reasoned or ridiculed out of
all your jocund mistakes, till now, a
tall grown man, you see things as they
are, and are just wise enough to be
| miserable. Well might Lady Mary
Wortley Montague exclaim, lhere is
nothing that can pay one for that val
liable ignorance WHICH is the compan-
ion Of youth. these sanguine. ground.
less. hopes. and that lively vanity
which makes up all tie happiness Of
Life. To my extreme modification, I
find myself growing wiser AID wiser
every day
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