Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1875-07-08
ThOrOughness i'm EducatiOn-A Talk to
Young Men.

ueUs
WANT to tell you in just ten minutes
what understand a scholar to be in this
Ignorant old world of ours.
There never was greater chance for
first-rate men in all the professions than
just nOw-nOw in our own era And this
you who are studying that you may be
successful ought to know. Remember, [
say the great chance is for men who are
A No. l, not for those who are only 90,
but for thoroughbred, accurate scholars.
When young graduate once complained
to Daniel Webster that the professions
were all full and that there was no room
left for him, the great lawyer and states
man simply replied: There is always
room at the top, young man" Now the
difficulty i'll our America is that, while we
are all pretty well' educated, very few
of us are first-raters, and carry all the
guns we might. Look at Congress to-day!
Look anywhere! AT long intervals, Way
land, Webster, Bancroft, Everett, ChOate,
Prescott, Charming, LongfellOW, Sumner,
Motley, LOwell-and then whole par
terre of semi-intellectual peacocks, only
strutting about on exhibition with few
fine feathers sweeping along the dusty
highways of learning. Is it not amazing
that since 1866 there has hardly graduated
from any American college a man who
has yet made any great mark, either as a
lawyer, an Orat or, a statesman, a poet, a
preacher, an essayist or an historian?
Did it ever occur to you that you never
hear, out of your own country, these every
day phrases so common among us-"pret-
ty near . about right "near enough 90
All over England the word Right is al
ways sounding into your ears, and into
their scholarships as we'll as into their
railroads. You may depend upon it, we
never shall truly get ON in politics, in
morals, in government, until we also can
cry out Rightr' much Oftener than we
can now. Inaccuracy in everything is our
rock ahead, and is especially marked in
our scholarship. Why, there is not a
third-rate town in Protestant Germany to-
day that could not easily beat any of our
largest cities in the number of accurate,
thoroughly informed scholars. We are
contented with smatterers. They demand
thOroughness. When | hear it said of a
young man that he is q "pretty good
scholar" | can't help thinking of "pret-
ty good" egg. Unless an egg is absolute
ly perfect we send it away from the table.
Ignorance is hateful, and simply to veneer
ourselves with learning is a deadly mis-
take. 1 think it great piece of good for
tune for one to be born in America-the
greatest good LEX in the world but how
we dare to be ignorant of so many things
is to me unaccountable. Just see
how simple the whole matter of
acquiring information is. Given brains
land we always claim the privilege of
knocking man down if he disputes with
us the fact of this possession), and all we
can require and must acquire are these
three-attentiOn, perseverance and mem
DRY. These can all be had for the asking;
they can all be strengthened if they hap
pen to be weak in any special case. You
notice | do net reckon in morals; for l
cannot conceive of a real student-a young
man of brains or common sense, who
loves learning and means to bea first-rater
by and BY cannot conceive of his hav-
ing any time or inclination for those
idiotic immOralities which turn a man
into brute. Go in for fun and genuine
enjoyment. 1t is capital rule to pay
little every day of our lives. Heaven
knows our faces are long enough natural
ly in such climate as this; but we have
only just so many years for real study, and
youth won't stretch much beyond the
twenties in a country so full of wear and
tear as the one we are born into.
plead with you, then, for accuracy.
Be sure Of everything you know. a half
baked scholar is merely an underdone
goose He is simply quack in every
sense. Don't go about this world OF ours,
that sorely needs completeness in charac-
ter, like so many locks without keys or
KEYS with missing locks. = James T,
Fields, at Phillips Acodeny.