The Democrat. (Scotland Neck, Halifax Co., N.C.) 1884-1896, 1890-08-21

opened to me and the treasures of
philosophy were sought in quiet
devotion.
Be the best that you can be,
young men, then men and women
will risk money on you, if you want
them TO, in your effort to get an
education. For every dollar you
earn with diligence, integrity and
earnestness, you can borrow ten.
Every College will trust you to pay
your tuition. But be careful about
a dishonest memory; one that for
gets Obligations or even settles
down to the abomniable heTeSy that
after all the world owes you living
and that the institution can thank
fortune for having the chance to
educate you.
The financial needs for a poor
young man aspiring after an educa-
tion are the least difficult 20 obtain,
if the young man has character and
can prove that there is something
in him. Given character and grit,
and he Will wedge his way through
without asking odds. But he must
deny himself OF some things in or
der to make sure of other things.
If an education is what he really
seeks, let him if possible lay other
things aside except so fOar as they
contribute directly to his main pur-
pose. This is a hard lesson to
learn-the long continued cOncen-
tration of energies IN the line of a
well-settled purpose. The majority
of men do otherwise; as Emerson
says: "The key to all ages is Imbe-
cility." Most poor young men lack
encouragement from their surround
ings. Their friends seldom under.
stand them, and were it not for
theiI mothers the world would be
TAR poorer in greatness than 1t is.
1t takes pluck to break through the
shell of unlnsplring environments
such as develop the life of many a
country hero. Custom often turns
up its nose at the one who attempts
to rise above his fellows in his at
talnments. We fool ourselves in
thinking that we Americans are
entirely free to emerge from one
class to another. Our ignorant
democracy, in frowning down as
pirations after something above
the common level, is no less con-
temDtibIe than any aristocracy of
Europe. We rave at Russia; we
pity her in our ignorance of the
fact that peasant boy of talent
and real worth has an open way to
honor and glory even into the ranks
of social and political life; the
Universities are open to him, the
academies welcome him for his
worth. But who has not found the
notion extant that a mans social
standing may be estimated from
the price he pays tor board! Yet |
do not agree with Dickens that we
are nation of gluttOns.
The chances are, think, in favor
of poverty in the long run. What
by eating themselves to gout, and
by sOftening themselves with lux
ury, or working themselves to pieces
in business, the wealthy have not
many generations of success to their
credit. And yet they have and
may hold the field on the one inva,
riable condltiOn-sELF DENIAL
That virtue in the rich is what the
sacrifices of poverty are to the poor,
both serving as the needed spur to
higher aims. knowledge was
sweeter than sleep to him who reau
by the light of the pineknOt on the
hearth. But that was a necessity
to him and of that he made virtue.
To the rich young man, the invita-
ton to the feast or the reception
means much small talk from people
who have left their indiyIdualities
at home. The social pressure to so
is great enough to test his strength
of self-denial. All credit then to
wealthy young men who fight it off,
for higher things. Ihe wise yOung
man of wealth finds better company
in books in which individuals are
let loose. But the poor young man
need not assert himself against
such inducements; he saves that
much energy Of resistance at least
The solitude of poverty IS cOngenial
to him. Chances aud risks are
couuterparts, and poverty ever has
its opportunities and its dangers.
Education never ends. After the