The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1885-09-26
fss'ps lIlflo'''. Scientific, b's'o,isnI.
An Original WING Feature.
THE YOUNG RECRUIT.

THE YOUNG RECRUIT.
Artists of the brush and pencil have
painted the portrait of the young mill
tary recruit, as he appears when just en-
tcring upon the services of his country,
in tender and beautiful colors, but the
world yet waits for the artist of lofty
| thought to paint in words the portrait OF
the youth Just entering upol the real,
practical, earnest service of life. Such
| Il master as Charles Dickens or Nathaniel
Hawthorne could alone capaby execute
the task. but it is subject containing
so much inspiration for the moralist that
few can resist the temptation to take up
the pen and write. The soldier of the
wars steps forth nobly to the front, anx-
ious to place himself in the first rank.
| and bear the storm and shock of the
| conflict bravely for the sake of the heroic
cause in which he risks his life, but his
path is comparatively plain and easily
trodden; he is but one among a we'll
| ordered regiment of comrades, directed
aud guided and counseled by the officers
under whom they enlist, their course
| lays before them it is to fight, to march,
| to halt, to win, to lose, to suffer sickness,
| pain and death; or to escape all these
and return to the waiting homestead
crowned with victory, covered with glory
and triumph; but with those who ad-
vance to the front in the struggle of life
the case is far different. No master
| hand points before them to the definite
goal whence their hopes may be realized;
no book Of special tactics is offered for
instruction in the movements they should
make; no certain days in which to per-
form certain acts are laid out before
them; no heroic crowns await their
brows; no music sounds in their ears to
make glad their hearts, to cheer their
spirits and urge them on freely and
lightly to the charge and combat; each,
| upon the inward councils of his mind
aud heart depends and goes forward
from the base of the steep hill to its lofty
summit unaided, except by the hallowed
instincts of manliness and earnest ambi-
ton that dwell within his breast. All.
these young recruits in the service of
life. What noble warriors they become
when one of kindly heart and sympa-
thetic feelings looks down upon them as
they step onward day by day upon the
perilous road! What loving sympathy
should be rendered those who fail. and
what noble honors paid those who sue
coed. The army of young recruits just
entering the ranks in America is in num-
bers large, indeed. Like the great flood
streams of the mighty ocean they sweep
on and Oh each day, gathering up as they
pass along blossoms of hope from the
wayside hedges and thorns of despair
from the barren wastes that lay in their
path. The regimental recruit makes
handsome picture, as he steps forth some
fine morning robed in his coat of blue,
with its glittering buttons, and offset by
:, the glistening steel of his rifle barrel as
it rests on his SHOULDER near cheer
flushed with pride, glowing with health
and the beauty innocence ever lends
to the faces of the young. The farewell
kiss of his saddencd parents fingers still
in his memory, the parting words OF the
sister ring still in his ears, but they have
lost their charm for him now, when be-
fore him lies the long, level road, with
the towering summit at it's end, to reach
which he must acquire honor and glory
and attain some ennobling position in
the hearts of the people by the heroic
desds he performs. 1t is beautiful pic
ture, we confess, but shallow and color
less when compared with the silent, SEN
sitive comrade whose hopes of honor and
distinction lie in direction so vastly
different. The pallid student, withsthe
love of all things beautiful in his heart
and the sacred sense of something pure
and holy in the soul, goes forth far diff
ferently from the home, from the play
grouad of his infancy to tho battle
ground of his future years; not in the
attractive garb of the jaunty militiaman,
not with the glowing checks and hutter-
ing heart of the titled officer; but in the
simple costume of the earnest scholar,
with the honest countenance of the seri-
Gus thinker, he calmly and practically
views the wide, majestic thoroughfare Of
life upon which he must become worthy
to walk, and among the inhabitants of
which he must strive for existence, for
the life of the body here and of the soul
hereafter. Let those with whom he
must mingle be not unkipd to the youth
full brother who comes among them. Let
them so order the courses of their lives
that his may find a passage unobstructed,
| free and glad to the far bourne all strug-
| gle to reach. There rests a nobility in
his character that few can estimate.
| When, even before his life has yet passed
that age wherein the tender care and
love of a mother is required to keep it
| pure and fit for Immortality, he wanders
forth alone to the deep, still places of
the woods to contemplate among the
majestic, inanimate, forms about him
| the scenes he must endure, to dream, to
| muse, to long for the ends that seem so
unattainable, yet bravely, unselfishly, to
stretch upward his arms toward the in
| visible monitor of the far skies ard tune
his voice to words of praise and supplica-
ton.
These are the young recruits. Recruits
in the service of tinseled glory and of
sober life. One pressing forward to the
brief and bitter victories of the world
one climbing upward to shine down eter-
nally as q star upon the unjust. the mis-
taken. All, who shall ever know of the
thoughts and feelings that rush upon one
of the latter on the eve of his stepping
forth to the strife, clad, not in the impen-
etrable armor of the soldier, unprotected
by the TANKS of mighty host marching