The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1877-09-22

It may not be necessary TO preface the
following narrative by stating that it is
q true fact. Nevertheless, We will do
SO, for there are not wanting people
who have, at various times, boldly and
wickedly asserted that there have ap-
peared articles in these columns which
have been, not only equivocal, but alb
solutely and positively untrue, false and
mendacious. Whereof we affirm that
all such rumors and afiirmations are
wicked and scandalous, and void OF
truth.
: The story we are about to relate is o
true statement of what actually happen
ed in one of the Iowa State colleges, 10
Gated between thirty and fifty thou
sand miles from Polk County. There
attended the college q student whose
character was faultless with one trifling
exception. His peculiar forte was iner-
tia. He would work under compulsion,
but he was not in the. habit of getting
up in the night to work. He had q
particular aversion to work, SO he never
interfered with any that happened to be
laying around loose: He studied, when
he had plenty of time, and partOok of
his provender with the hearty appetite
that betokened an approving conscience.
The placid manner of life which this
boy acted bore heavily upon his precep-
tors. One of his teachers, especially,
labored with him, and sought to induce
him to brace up and have some style
about him. But argument and persua-
sion were alike of no avail. Finally
the teacher thought of q happy scheme.
In giving members of the class SUBJ
jects for their essays the subject, elbow
can lazy boy make successful manP"
was given to this student whose strong
point was powerful fatigue. 1t was
shrewdly thought that when the lad took
up the subject, and read it up, and
thought about it, and pondered over it,
and made the applications OF historical
incidents and illustrations, he would see
the errors of his ways, and be nerved
up to industry and activity.
In about week the essay was ready.
And how do you suppose the lazy boy
had treated subject of such vital i'm
portance to himself and the present
generation of boys? Hehad ransacked
the pages of history and biography for
instances and illustrations wherewith to
support his view of the subject. He
cited the example of every famous man
who had ever lived and f1ourished, who
had been lazy and generally worthless
in his boyhood; he brought in Daniel
Webster, who was the LATEST boy in
New England; Patrick Henry, who was
even too lazy to fish, and slept away
hours and hours of the golden summer
afternoons, dangling an undated hook
in the limpid waters; Ulysses S. Grant,
who stood next to the head of his class,
beginning at the foot, when he gradu-
ated; he cited all the well known in
stances and scores of new ones, and
showed that the only way to become a
really great man, was to be success
fully lazy boy. He essayed to prove,
with comparative success, that in all
cases where great men had been indus
trious- in their boyhood, it was because
they were dreadfully poor, and had to
work or starve.
The subject wasn't treated Just the
way his teacher had anticipated, but it
was partial success after all, although
it was feared for time that it might
have the effect of stimulating the other
members of the class to ambitious eff
forts at making successful men of them
selves by the Websterian method
Burlington HaWkeye.