The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1885-04-10
The Great Unknown.

Charles Dudley Warner in Harper'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 date we need not now
fix, be president of the United States.
The young man exists somewhere, and
We hope he 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 well 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 he self-supporting; there
is no occupation lie 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 he 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-whc may be read
ing this paragraph about himself, fol-
We trust that he can read, and has not,
like Andrew Johnson, put off this ele.
CANT 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 fiction 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 b.
the ruler, more potent for four years
than the king of England, over loo, 0O0,-
600 of people, and have to execute the
affairs of the most vigorous empire in
existence. If lie 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. 1t 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 q 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 o 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 canal tow.path,
which lie may at this moment be doing,
with credit to himself and with IN 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
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 IS it may be treated, this i.
really a 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 {
manner that his biography, when hi.
campaign life is written, will he pleas.
ant reading, and 80 that he will be il
some measure fitted for the office t.
which he is to be elected. This is MOI
q piece of moralizing; it il q matter o.
common sense. In order to carry on
republic successfully, the general aver
age of conduct and ability must be high
If we were able to pick out our mar
now and set him apart and train him
We could get on as we'll as they do il
England, and it would not he mucl
matter what become of the other younf
fellows. But the risks of our position
are much greater. 1t is useless for d,
to say that the ballot is our protection
and that at the proper time we shall
elect the best man. The fact is tina
the man we shall elect Cat the sam,
time that it is unnecessary to name) il
already designated by decree certain
and he is sure to come to his position
whereas Prince Edward of Wales ma,
never he king of England. But if W,
knew his name we would carefully con
ceal it from him and from the public.
Whisky and Har / Times.
From the New York Sun.
Talking to the head of ma NJ fb.