Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1884-01-04
1ourG MEN FIT FOR USE.

embarked, TO contribute to the new life
on which she has entered, and to carry out
the new ideas that she has conceived. She
needs them IN her manufactures. in com
merce. in politics, in literature. But 10
use them to the best advantage she must
have faith In item, aid in that respect
ne fear the old things have not yet passed
away. The secret OF the rapid change in
men In the new States, and one that We
quickly mark in homecoming young Viz
giuisns who have made their homes in the
West. is that greater faith in shown in
them. A young man there is taken for
just what he shows himself to be WORTH
Here, in the old States, we take the
young fellow and measure him and weigh
him, 20 back to his herd book and See
what hisfather was before him. criticise
him with scathlng severity, and before the
operation Is over dishearten him out OF
half his manhood. We chill out of him ali
his daring,and often end by making him
as duly conservative" as ourselves.
We like to asee our own boy go steadily
along in the path We have tredden, con
tent IL he has in the future the consel va
tive. progressive, harmless espectability
which We complacently compliment our
selves on having attained and MAIN
tanned. Should our neiahbor's boy show
signs OF business pluck. a go-ahead spiIit.
leaning towards new and faster methods
of business, we iooK at him with suspicion
and SOC ahead of him failure and disaster.
Is there man, Virginia born and bred.
that doesn't know tina: this is true, il he
has kept his eyes open. Haven't we in the
last seventeen years lost the very cream OF
With she black man lifted BY Providence
from our shoulders, what possibilities wer.
before US seventeen years ago, had We
made use of our young men. What did
we do with them, when we could contro'
them, but bring them, up in our old i'm,
ways. They repaid us by becoming lndee'
their fathers sons. But those that Jeff
US and went to other States look at them!
We never feel so infinitely behind the rest
of the world. 80 far in the rear of tht
marching regiment as when we talk to
some Of our young VirgiDians who have
gone out to the great West and CONF
home for holiday. They are new men-
full Of life, information. activity. ano
pYactieag views; 30 different from The
parent birds, swift of wing, keen of eye
electric in movement. DO they look upol
We old birds with a sort Of plying toiera
tionY Who can blame them There il
really nothing so deserving Of pity in this
life as men who learns nothing new. AID
those young fellows know it; it is only b.
courtesy that they do not show US som-
thing much palmer and much more un-
paiatable than pity.
The young men of Virginia are now he'
stock In trade. She has not much money
but she has broad fields, and under much
Of that land lies mineral wealth almost
beyond conception. Railroads are soon t"
cross her surface like network, and before
many years the smoke of her furnaces vii
be like that which hovers over her neigh
Dor, Pennsylvania. For intelligent labor
In this great field her number of young
men il not in proportion to her population
for 1t cannot be expected that In this nor
probably in several generations will the
young black man be ready to take othe'
than the laborer's part. 1t is then upon
her young white men that she is to rely
and mostly on homer ade young men fol
we cannot expect with our present mixed
population to get much immigration. The
question is then how to make the mos OF
our slender stock. We mean no top lofty
theory as to how to do it. but PRACTICAL,
how can 1t be done? 1t is a vital question
if we do not intend to sit quistly and SCI
the bone and muscle and brain. as well, OF
our population emigrate.
The best way is to commence using j.
nsp. Intelligent force differs from mer.
machine force in that it can be eBcou1
aged. And now how to encourage it.
Some Of the ways must suggest themselves
to you. they are so plain. The farmer, wh.
after all, Is the real freeman of county
has many ways in which he can do it. !,
ore way he can put the ground under The
dusts ious young laborer let him seek him
out, rent him little farm on such eas.
terms that he cannot have the discoura- e
ment Of failure; then, when he has gotten
o little start let him sell 1t to him on still
easier terms. The farmer will lose moth
ing. for the new settler will, if he is tie
right sort Of man, buy more land at bet
ter price, one farmer will bring many
and all the neighborhood will be benefited.
Then take the merchant; let him try his
clerks by giving them an interest in Il 2
business, even if it be silent one. Put br
young assistant Oh his mettIe; if he proves
brighter and more valuable to you thin
your own son don't be mortified at it, it is
all the better for you. The firm of Jones &
Smith may be far more successful and
more profitable one to you than Jones &
Son would have been. And besides, If
you don't, the new firm of young smith
& Co. may lay you in the shade. The
clerk has no capital, you say; why the
young fellow himself is capital. With the
mechanic it is the same, all trades D. d
professions must have faith in the young
if they expect to draw to them the best of
that class.
In public life we must also practice TIL
methods we use IN our business life. The
old men in public affairs must in the
course of nature pass away, and their
places be filed by younger men. But bow
we cling to public life, like the moss 10
the wall. How jealousy we look at even
their approach to the place in the
public eye we once filed. How we try to
make them suffer by comparison with the
experience Of age. and how meanly and
sel6shly We exaggerate their little lsckings.
How inaenslhlY tina cnnvicIinn grows