The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1874-07-16
From the New York Tribune
The A. B.

These hrst days OF July drag US all per-
force into leisure; the city pastor
breaches twice-used sermons to empty
benches; the shopman yawns behind
his too orderly counters; the doctors s
patients have slipped away to the me-
diums of trout streams or beach, and
left him to read up his old numbers of
the Lancet; even the hod-carrier is forced
into the unwilling dolce far nients of an
all-day pipe and dram. But Tom and
Phil and Bob, crowding the cars after the
Commencement day with their satchels
and trunks full of old class books and
tin cases of specimens, would swear to
you that the conflict of all life was just
now at its heat; they have touched the
top apd crown of things within the last
week. Who ought to know so well as
they? Have they not stood apart for
years, looking philosophically on man
kind? These great warning forces in
sociology, in science, in politics, in re-
ligion-have. they not the history of
them all at their tongues end 1t is
perfectly plain to their eyes how these
are all now about to join issue; how the
world has reached its dark hour. its su-
preme throe, its ides of March, and
every lad of them with any thought or
spirit in him fancies himself the hero
who is to bring help, the well-belov
Brutus who shall give to the tyrant, ca.
him by what name you will, the death
dealing blow. The world of all time,
from old Homer and Sophocles, with
whom they have logged in company so
long, to the envious "Sophs" staring at
them from the depot doors, wait breath
less to see them take high rank in the
great field of battle, and promptly make
footsteps in the sands of time. They
feel-the ingenious fellows-the immi-
nence and sublimity of the passing days
so deeply that the showing, smoking
crowd, men grumbling about tickets and
bills of lading, women cackling over
their babies, is to them only contemptf
BILE and vulgar. They bear themselves
with lofty indifference to the trivial re-
mainder of mankind, fall at moments s
notice into deep reveries, with folded
arms and eyes sternly fixed out of the
window. What do these old fellows,
with their noses boring into the financial
column of the Tribune, or the conductor,
know of the true philosophy of history
or the correlation of forces, or the honey
of Hymettus? They themselves have its
ancient sweetness on their lips; they are
generous in discovering in each other
the honey and fire and ichor of the gods.
Not a carload of A. B. S leaves the poor
est Alma Mater that does not contain
the coming man, poet, statesman, logi-
clan, who is to herald a new dawn, and
to whom his mates dof their bonnets
Loyalty.
These beardless sages have manners
and customs of their own. They are
irreproachable as to shaving, shirt-cuffs,
or neck-tie; they carry both an umbrella
and a cane; there is fat album with the
class photographs in their coat pocket,
but in the waistcoat a carte and bit OF
black or yellow curl, which they brought
away last night from the President
party. They call loudly to each other
across the car; in secluded corners they
give many editions of the same joke
about certain bottles of champagne last
night; they lard their remarks with tags
of Horace, and glancing furtively around
the car, talk of the Hoi polloi. The
graver and more scholastic spirits sit
apart, meditating upon their future
they are either orthodox and devout
and destined to the ministry, or have
just finished a premiership of Carlyle
and are now disciples of Emerson, with
hazy effort at atheism which they think
| is German mysticism. A touch will fire
| them into argument which will last tc
the journeys end. Nothing else breaks
their calm selfpoise; the brakesmar
stopping in the smoking-car to wipe his
perspiring face and make remark or
the weather, or the sharp town lawyer
with his "Just out school, ehY' are hello
off by the same armor of grave dignity
But when the pretty girl with the pini
buds in her hat goes out, and her polo
naise fiutters airily past their knees
they half rise and blush and stammel
and sit down, quite sure that they hav,
never looked SO like idiots. In few
hours each one of them will be LANDED
at home, cane, downy mustache, Greek
science, and dignity. and prestol he i
not A. B., but Phil or Bob again. Wheth
er he has earned honors or not, he is
hero for few days, coedled and wor
SHIPPED, the snuggest corner given up t,
his cigar and books and instruments
But in fortnight he finds the worlC
about him alien. There is no room o
comprehension for his profound theories
his gigantic plans. His father puts tn
question sharply, lis it to be the law o
the counting-house, Bob?" His mother
his fat. stocking-darning, pie-bakin
mother-he thinks of his venerabl
Alma Mater crowned with the lore c
ages, and turns away from the old lad
with half distaste. Then there are hi
sisters, Polly and Sue, and the per
pretty little chits that they bring abou
the house. He adventures among then
g and Homer and Kant and HerbeI
Spencer vanish and leave him in tn
= IfIrch his brain iS n wynn cont snou O,