The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1885-04-24
The Great Unknown.

The Great Unknown.
Charles Dudley Warner in Harpcr's Magazine.
We would like to know, and like to
have a communication from the Young
man who has just attained his majority
who will, at a date we need not now
fix, be president of the United States.
The young man exists somewhere, and
we hope he is i'll training for his high
office. On the Sth of January last
Prince 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 a king must seriously begin, and
ali England is interested in it; it will
watch every action and crittcise every
tendency. He is no longer a free man,
and he cannot be sclf-supportipg there
is no occupation he can enter on for
gaining a 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. If
he is a 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 lnd-wbo 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-
CANT accomplishment TIL after his ma
iority-is under no such limitations as
his English brother, Edward of Wales.
Bill of the United States-for we have
no tlction 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 wlel-
ever the chair her stands. he will be
the ruler, more potent for our wears
than the king of England, over 100 ,O00,-
" VI PcolJlc, uuu litNC w cNGCule Vic
affairs of the most vigorous empire IN
existence. If he now expects tbs
honor, it is safe to say he will be disal-
pointed, for the voters nowadays never
choose a 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 coEe of age who
is to be president by and by, what an
embarrassment it would be for us and
for him! What a 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 tie
the mothers-in-law of q 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 ut foot
ball with the eyes of the nation on himl
With what content could he humbly
follow Il mule on q canal tow-path,
which he may at this moment be doing,
with credit to himself and with an eve
to the appearance Of this achievement
in his biography. Is the young man a
deputy sheriff? Is lie 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 C%incinnatus at the right
moment, leaving his steam gang
pillow in the furrow?
Lightly as it may be treated, this is
really q very serious matter. The young
man is living here, and is we'll known
to some of us. And as nodecent young
man can be sure that he is not the man,
what follows? Why, that every young
man ought to conduct himself in such u
name that his biography, when his
campaign life is written, will be plea s.
ant reading, and so that lie will be in
some measure fitted for the Office tc
which he is to be elected. This is not
a piece of moralizing; it is q 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 well 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 Cat the same
time that it is unnecessary to nance is
already designated by a decree certain,
and he is sure to come to his position,
whereas Prince Edward of Wales may
be king of England. But if we
knew his name we would carefully con-
ceal it from him and from the public.
Fp,,r rir1p ora op,o~~%Lo .o-.- IL