Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1882-09-16
Advise to q Young Man.
Burdette In Burlington Hawkeye

Burdette in Burlington Hawkeye
My boy, if you want to be somebody
in this world, you must begin by being
somebody. You must save and assert
an individuality. if YOU have family
tree that reaches to the stars, draw your
pen through every name on the record
until YOU come 20 your own, and stand
squarely on that. A grand old ancestry
is splendid thing to have, and a grand.
father is something for any man to be
proud Of But your ancestors won't
make you my boy. Because they are
dead, and the world of to-day wants live
men. Nobody gropes in the graveyard
except the medical students. Queen
Victoria traces her blood back to Will
liam the Conqueror. Well, she can't
help it. She isn't to blame for it, nor
does she deserve any particular credit
for it. Such 4 woman as Victoria, my
boy. reflects honor upon her ancestors,
her pure womanhood would honor them
though she never were a monarch, but
| can't see that her ancestors do her any
greater honor Why, you, suppose you
can only trace your ancestry back to
your father, why, your father is a better
man, better Christian, he wears better
clothes, he lives in better house, he
has more luXuries and conveniences in
life than was or did or had William the
Conqueror, and so you are that much
ahead of the queen. Look me in the
eve. Telcmachus; would you feel proud
if You could prove that YOU were lineal
descendant Of the four Georges? Ger
tainly you would not If you should
have said yes, ! should have advised
you to stuff yourself aud sell yourself for
a cigar store sign If you assert your.
self, my boy, that is all the world asks
of You. If the world has work for you
10 DO, if it wants you and needs you, it
isn't going TO bark up your family tree.
Who asked about Lincoln's ancestors7
Who stopped in 1863 to ascertain if
Grants family came over in the May
flower? What "old family" did the
American people elect a president in
1880? What great-srand-fathe invent
cd the telephone? Who knows Brig
ham Young's mother-in-law God bless
your grandfather. my boy. Love his
memory, honor his name, revere his
teachings, but don't try to wear his shoes
today. You can't run and you can't
climb in them. tell you, your neigh
Dor will question more closely the pedi-
gree Of the blooded horse or the milch
COW you want to sell him than he will
your own.
When hear man talking too much
about his ancestors, ! begin to think he
needs them very much. And l always
fee, sorry for 4 man who died before he
was born, and lives only in the deeds
and words Of his great grandfather.
Don't die out two or three generations
before YOU begin, my boy. Live your
own life if it kills you. ] have known
some men who were very proud Of their
ancestors, whose ancestors would have
been most dismally ashamed Of them.
Pride Of ancestry. 1t is dust under
your feet compared with plide Of pos
terity. You never in all your life felt
that pride in your great-grandsire who
fought at Bunker Hill and shivered at
Valley Forge, that you will feel in your
first boy, even when he is days old
and has nothing to show for himself but
flannel and wrinkles When man, on
his way to the dug store for 10 cents
worth Of paregoric meets the younger
man going to the furniture store to buy
$50 cab for his first, he cannot repress
the smile of pleasant pity that curves
his older lips. But, bless you, it doesn't
hurt the young man particle. He can
stop right there in the street and give
his older neighbor points OR the treat
ment and culture of children. Don't
waste your pride on your ancestors, my
boy. Save it for your posterity. They
will be in better circumstance and live
in better times While your ancestors
came over in the Mayflower, leaky old
tub of a sailing vessel that landed the
pilgrims and then went straight away
for cargo Of slaves to land ia the West
Indies, your children will go across in
(unarder, first cabin, faring sumptuous.
ly, and only ten days out. 1t is enough
for you, my boy, to know that your an
cestors were good, brave, honest, hard.
working Christian men and women.
For the rest Of it, do you live your own
life, and live it SO that You will honor
them and add new lustcr to their good
names, but don't, my boy, beg of you,
don't try to "boost" yourself up in the
world on what they did long before you
were born. Do something yourself
The eleven collins in which the bodies
Of De Long and his comrades will be
brought 10 this country were shipped by