The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1873-04-24
The Next Century.

NOT that which Bulwer Lytton de-
scribed with most sarcastic fascination and
exquisite irony. We are too busy to waste
breath upon impossible situations and
persons who are always coming but never
arrive. 1t is the American man and wo-
man of the next generation we are think
ing of. Rev. DIR. Osgood, of this city, re-
Gently gave thoughtful and scholarly
lecture entitled "Guesses at the Twentieth
Century," 1t will be the blossom of which
this century is the bud, if not the bulb.
1t will contain plenty of felicities and at
fractions, without doubt. But what sort
of men and women will it have? Its
schools, art, literature, music and social
life may be grand but we are more con-
cerned in its persons than in its mechani-
cal products or artistic triumphs. The
question that concerns us most is not how
people will travel and what they will eat
and where they will live, but what kind
of men and women will eat the dinners
and wear the clothes and build the homes
of the continent, and fill the century with
their acts and aspirations, their sorrows
and their songs.
The question is easier asked than an
swered. The progress of the race is no
longer a speculation. tits an unquestion-
able fact. But the progress is not steady
ascent on straight lines. 1t is made in
spite of temporary depressions and re-
gressions. 1t is impossible to predict that
the next plunge of the ship on the storm
tossed sea will not be into deep trough,
or across a current that shall sweep her
out of her course. 1t is the next genera
tion we are concerned in. And the next
generation will be made by this. 1t is
making to-day. In the streets, the schools,
the nurseries of to-day, we see the mate
rial out of which the men and women of
the future are being shaped. And, how
ever excellent the material may be, it is
impossible to conceal the fact that much
! of the shaping of it is faulty, if not bad.
| There is little ground for the growls of
| our British correspondent. The world
was not made for the exclusive use and
enjoyment of grown-up people. Chill
dren have rights, and are entitled TO con-
sideration. They may properly claim a
place and play-room in a world they are
in from no fault of their own. We have
no sympathy with these selfish, sensitive.
fussy, fretty people, who are always scold-
ing at Young America because it is in
their way, and sometimes distu,b bs their
slumbers, and breaks their meerschaums,
and plants its heels upon their corns, and
makes their follies appear ridiculous by
caricature. But it is a serious question
whether the physical care, the intellectual
and moral training, the habits and aims
we are giving the youth of to-day, arc
calculated to make generation of strong,
honorable and happy people. 1t is seri-
GUS question whether our forcing schools,
fast ways and unlimited indulgence are
calculated to create race we shall take
pride in or care to have write our epitaphs
Our manufacturers stamp their names up
on their wares but we are not sure that
! the parents who are petting and pamper
: ing all the vigor and virtue out of thei
> children to-day will care to have thei
names inscribed upon their handiwork il
: the men and women they are manufactur
: ing for the future. The character of th
, coming race is not question of mere idl'
, speculation. 1t is the mostintensely prac
: tical question we shall have to deal with
And whether that race shall be curse o
blessing to itself and the country depend
on what our people choose to make it,
". Y. Graphic.