Smyrna times., 1877-01-03

philosopher would doubtless be amused
at him, and yet at the same time W oud find
in his actions food for thought. How many
of our budding youth do we find who nave
no ambition beyond gaily colored cravat
or "nobby' walking stick. Their ideas
are moulded according to the cut of their
clothes and the style of their hats, and their
tailor is their 'guide" philosopher and
friend. Sentiment is sneered at, honor
and morality are supposed to exist only in
novels, and the youth becomes frigid and
cynical just when he ought to be filled
with glow and freshness. And yet society
is much to blame for it. 1t breaches homi.
lies on Christian duty, and presents for the
example OF the young mythical goodness,
whose existence is Incompatible with the
fire and vivacity of youth. Boys who never
want to go fishing, who never steal away
from school to tend base ball match, and
who, after having saved sufficient to 20 to
the circus, suddenly remember the poor
heather children and put the money in the
missionary box, are seldom met with in
actual life, and if SO they are purely phe
nomenal; they have not the bloom and
freshness which we associate with the Young
and become shrivelled and dried up before
their time. Life and adventure have
strange charms for the young. Robinson
Crusoe' and THE Island Home" will live
in the heart of the boy when Paley's
Natural Theology is forgotten, and "John
Gllpin" will hold him more enchanted
than would Might Thoughts" or paradise
Lost. 30 as he grows apace and the desire
for companlonship and society fastens itself
more strongly upon him, he naturally seeks
these spots where he can End it without
feeling any irksom restraint. He nv be
industrious and determined to win his way
in.the world, but he cannot ALWAYS work.
The church is open to him o4ly OH SUNDAYS
and even then he Is unseen in the glitter of
fashion and wealth which fills its news.
His boarding house is dull and cherries. the
billiard and the ball rooms are we'll liehted
and warm, and in the click Of the balls and
the rythmic poetry of the dance he
torgots his troubles. Were our philanthro.
pists to take half the pains which men of
the world do to attract the young. they
would have their own reward. II Is not
necessary that all our music should be
sacred. that every lecturer should have
dreary moral platitudcs tackled on to il
and that the young should always have the
dangers of city life constantly placed before
them. Crime and evil arc not confined
alcne to crowded cities. The trail of the
serpent can be seen on the flowers in the
rural valley as well as on the pavements OF
our streets. And although the poets have
been wont to associate rustic life with in
noccnSe and purity, stern facts have shown
this TO be a dream and an illusion. Man
IS essentially gregarious in all OF his instincts.
and at no time more 50 than when crossing
the dividing line between youth and man.
hood. Anything which will tend to divert
this instinct into a proper channel, which
will give The young man his amusement
and yet strengthen his budding powers
and sympathies which will devise some
means by which the lessons of his childhood
may be strengthened and yet the spirit of
fun and laughter may not be curbcd is one
Of those problems which demands attention
in presence of the frivolity and taste for
.nsipid and treachcrous amuscments which
'haracterize the modern young man.-Bal,o.
american.