St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1880-08-06
A Word to Young Men.

During this summer holiday the boys
have come promptly to the surface.
Railways, boats, every place of summer
resort swarm with lads, or young men,
let us call them, for they like and We
all like to think of them as early as
possible as men among men. They
are just free from school or college, or
they have a fortnight's vacation at the
shop or office, so they are off, with their
brandnew rifles, hunting in the noun
tains; or with fine useless flies, trout
fishing or camping in tent on the
beach, noisy party, necessarily frying
horrible, delicious messes; or, most
likely of all, you shall find them red
and solemn, anxious as to necktie and
collar, dancing in hotel parlor with
some pretty woman ten years older
than themselves.
Some hearty, happy lads are ingen
ious enough to show how new the world
is to them and how intensely they en-
Joy it. Every man whom they dislike
is villain, every passibly nice girl the
most noble or the most beautiful Great
ure in the world. They tell you,
knowingly, aside, of tremendous ath-
lete in their college, who will sweep
the whole field at Mott Haven next
year. They find perpetually most re-
markable characters in every new ac-
quaintance or tramp they meet. 9th
ers affect indifferent, blase ways; they
are early spoiled for boys, and they are
sure to make petty and commonplace
men. But there are uncertainties of
character, rapid changes of disposition
in all these lads which puzzle parents,
and often the boys themselves. They
are in the age of cropping, tentative
essay they try first this, then that
manual or aim or character which they
have read of or thought out as suitable
to make their own in this unknown
life that is coming to them. We have
known young men of eighteen go
through a routine of study prescribed
by themselves, for months, then break
through and drink like sots, then pull
up again and lay down ascetic rules
for every hour, every action, every
thought, collected from Poor Richard
and Kempis.
1t wont do, boys. You cannot form
your character or your life by running
metal. You will grow, not be cast
there are forces within and without
you which will inevitably affect your
growth. What each of you has to do is
to meet and control these forces one
by one. You will meet, for instance,
mean people, tricky, selfish, brutal
people, who will shove you back and
down; worse than that, you yourself
may have inherited from some dead
grandfather selishness, brutality, a
sickly body, thirst for liquor or some
other vice. or weakness You cannot
overcome all these things at eighteen
by making Hp a code and subscribing
to it. What shall you do, then9 Two
hints the Tribune will give you, which
will be sure to conquer success:
First-Be honest. By which we do
not mean, simply, not to steal. That
goes without saying. The young man
who, before his beard is grown, thinks
it clever to cheat his tailor, or to sneak
out of his little debts at college, he has
already laid a sure foundation of i'll
fortune. Nothing is known so quickly
} or sticks to man so long as the repu-
J tation of dishonesty. 1t is the fleck OF
mildew which eats and grows blackel
and spreads from year to year. Boys
are fatuOusly blind to the lengthening
, shadow which these faults of sharp
dealing and lying in their earliest years
throw down their whole future. In q
, year or two they will be asking fol
| patronage from the public or chance
in the business world, and they will
find that in damaging their character
they have already squandered theil
only capital. No merchant would take
! boy even as porter into his employ
7 who was not known to be honest. We
take it for granted our boys are honest
: in the cOarser meaning of the term
r But there is finer honesty that enters
into mans nature and lifts him above
his fellows. He is no sneak nor sham
neither to his companions, his God
g nor even to himself. He does not shan
! virtue which he has not he does no
q initiate any other mans character bu
0 he tries to go to the bottom of his owl
:. to clear it and lift it up. AS the DO,
: begins, so the man will end. The la,
e who speaks with affectation, and min