Elizabeth daily monitor. [volume] (Elizabeth, N.J.) 1868-1880, 1869-05-11
VOL. 2. NO. 1876.
sIisabsts oailp a 9
'PERILS OF THE YOUNG.
PUBLISHED AT 155 BROAD STREET, B
J. MADISON DRAKE.

Young people cannot be too careful
to avoid bad habits. If a young man
be idle, he will make others idle. II he
be dishonorable in business, or extrav-
agant or does not pay his debts, he saps
that credit. confidence and honor, which
is the life of business prosperity Where
these or other vicious principles pre-
vail among the youth of the nation, it
may sink into degradation, and eventu-
ally be destroyed.
On the other hand, where an indus
trious, orderly, just and honorable
character pertains to the youth of a
people, it insures the welfare and pro
gress of the nation at large. In youth
dooms the crisis of life. Those who
choose well, like the morning sun out
higher and higher, those who fail at
this crisis, sink among the perils that
surround them, often to rise no more.
At no time are passions and energy so
strong, and experience so weak, as that
point where parents and guardisns re
lnquish authority, and the young man
assumes the responsibility of directing
himself. 1t is then that the mind and
the body are strong, courage, hope and
enterprise ardent, and the appetites and
inchnations powerful. Passions, when
latent in the breast, need but a spark
of temptation to infame them. If they
were all pure, and properly harmonized
the young man would perhaps find in
them that which would give strength
to his virtue, and an instinct, which,
supplying the place of experience,
would guide him Alright. But it is not
SO. He may have inherited the moral
delinquencies of the parent as much as
his physical disorders. The currents
and fashions of prevailing wickedness
makes it difficult for young man to
keep clear of them What ayails the
skill of the mariner in the midst of the
whirlpool ? He may steer by his com
pass, and set his sails, and seem to be
moving Alright, while he is really drift
ing into the fatal current. The young
man led by his youthful associates into
the haunts of dissipation and vice is be-
ing insensibly drawn into the fatal cur
rent He may be amiable, and even
innocent at first, but after time his
face becomes flushed and his brow con-
tracted with anxiety, for he feels that
he is rushing into the whirlpool of guilt
that may end in his destruction.
Good habits firmly fixed are the best
thing to guide the young through the
journey OF life in wise and honorable
manner. Money cannot do 1T; nor
talents or education, nor powerful con-
nections and fashionable manners.
Neither can philosophy, or even inno-
cenco and amiability do it. All these
may fade before the sun. Earnest and
active devotion to duty, to virtuous
principles, and the practice of honor,
honesty, morality and justice, are ne
cessary to combat the dangers by which
the young are surrounded. Some habits
should be checked others should be sti-
mulated; some need pruning and others
wedding out, root and branch. If Ia
ken in time it will be pleasant duty
to keep the garden of the mind in
order, but if the weeds get the upper
hand, the task will be one of increas-
ing difficulties. Prince Talleyrand
took part in thirteen revolutions, and
was always the acknowledged leader.
His plan was to watch the tendency OF
public opinion, and always to take his
stand little way before the foremost,
so that they would seem to be coming
ND to him. He once said that the
secret of his success in life was to set
his watch ten minutes ahead of the rest
of mankind. Idleness is a common
weed, but is easily kept under, If In
dustrlouS naDltS are lolHleu III 'inio'
and he whose day begins ten minutes
sooner than that of those around him,
will find the benefit of Talleyrand's
maxim. So, if young man in his
business keeps a little in advance Of
what his employers could reasonably
expect of him, his reputation will be
assured.