The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1885-04-09
The Great Unknown.

mony and love. '1
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The Great Unknown.
Charles Dudley Warner in Harpsr's Magazine
We would like to know, and like to
have communication from the young
man who has just attained his majority
who will, at q date We need not now
tx, be president of the United States.
The young man exists somewhere, and
we hope no is in training for his high
Office On the 9Th of January last
P rince Edward of Wales, who is pre-
destined, if all goes we'll with him, to
be king of England, came of age. He
is marked and set apart; he is under
certain bonds of behavior; his education
to be king must seriously begin, and
all England is interested in it; it will
watch every action and criticise every
tendency. He is no longer free man,
and he cannot be self-supporting; there
is no occupation he can enter on for
gaining livelihood consistent with his
coming dignity. The government
must vote him an annual supply Of
money, and he must have an establish
ment, and begin to play his role. II
he is lad of spirit, he must chafe
under this espionage, this restraint, and
the limitations of his dependent con-
dition. His subjects hold the purse
string; his subjects demand that he
shall be this and shall not be that; his
subjects have now the ballot, and can
cut him off with a shilling, or put him
one side altogether. Subjects? To
what. alas! has the king business come
in this 10th century?
Our American lad-who may be read
ing this paragraph about himself, fo1
we trust that he can read, and has not,
like Andrew Johnson, put off this ele-
giant accomplishment till after his ma.
jority-is under no such limitations as
his English brother, Edward Of Wales.
Bill of the United States-for we have
no t1ction by which he would be called
by some fictitious title, for instance, Bill
of Nicaragua-is probably unconscious
of his high destiny. By the time he
takes the chair at Washington, or wher.
ever the chair then stands, he will be
the ruler, more potent for four years
than the king of England, over 100, OOO,-
600 of people, and have to execute the
affairs of the most vigorous empire in
existence. If he now expects this
honor, it is safe to say he will be disap-
pointed, for the voters nowadays never
choose man who lays pipe for the place
in advance. It is safe to say that he is
ignorant of his destiny.
If 1t were otherwise, if we all knew
the young fellow just come of age who
is to be president by and by, what an
embarrassment it would be for us and
for him! What life he would lead with
the reporters of the newspapers! How
could he escape the snares laid for him
by the mothers who would like to be
the mothers-in-law of president?
If he is in college, how self-conscious
the tutor' would be when they marked
him, and how impossible it would be
for him to acquit himself we'll at foot
ball with the eyes of the nation on him
With what content could he humbly
follow mule on q canal tow path,
which he may at this moment be doing,
with credit to himself and with an eye
to the appearance of this achievement
in his biography. Is the young man q
deputy sheriff? Is he waiting for clients
with his heels on the table in some
country law office? Is he just beginning
to concern himself with ward politics
with the idea that the "gentleman in
politics" is to be the winning card in the
future? Is he teaching school with a
view OF discharging his college debts 2
or is he running up college debts with
out any view of teaching school to dis
charge them? Or has he gone into
farming in the West, IN order to come
forward as Cincinnatus at the right
moment, leaving his steam gang
pillow in the furrow?
Lightly as it may be treated, this is
really very serious matter. The young
man is living here, and is we'll known
to some of US. And as no decent young
man can be sure that he is not the man,
what follows? Why, that every young
man ought to conduct himself in such a
manner that his biography, when his
campaign life is written, will be pleas
ant reading, and so that he will be in
some measure fitted for the Office to
which he is to be elected. This is not
a piece of moralizing; it ia a matter OF
common sense. In order to carry on u
republic successfully, the general aver
age of conduct aud ability must be high.
If We were able to pick out our man
now and set him apart and train him,
we could get on as we'll as they do in
England, and it would not be much
matter what become of the other young
fellows But the risks of our position
are much greater. 1t is useless for US
to say that the ballot is our protection,
and that at the proper time we shall
elect the best man. The fact is that
the man we shall elect lat the same
time that it is unnecessary to name) is
already designated by decree certain,
and he is sure to come to his position,
whereas Prince Edward of Wales may
never be king of England. But if We
knew his name we would carefully con-
ceal it from him and from the public.
Whisky and Hard Times.
From tho New York Sun.
Talking to the head of one of the