San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-08-12
THE FUTURE GREAT.
w hat Playful TOds, Promising
Youths and Ignorant Lads
Often Prove TO Be.

Gazing over room of studlous
children you will notice q few
tn oughtiul, wise looking faces here,
a few there. In this corner, perhaps,
sits some youngster who will imme-
diately strike you as a frolicking
clownish fellow who can not even sit
perfectly still during the few minutes
that q stranger IS IN the room.
You at once put him down
as too full of mischief To
ever prove valuable to the communi-
ty. Mixed in between the frolicsome
and quiet you will notice some plain,
perhaps ugly, Overgrave chaps whose
excessive quietness often causes them
to escape the ready eye of the man
who is in search for our coming.
menu
But how poor are your judgments,
or prophecies in this matter.
The good looking boy whom you
have pointed out as one of the COM
ing mon, will often drift backwards
in his studies, or fall into the numer-
Gus traps of vice that beset his path,
and he whom you once imagined to
see a great engineer, prominent law
yer or an eminent authority on some
weighty subject will turn out proba-
by to be street sweeper, possibly
dog catcher, or some disfigured red
nosed policeman, at most.
The good-for-nothing clownish imp
whom you have judged so lightly,
will often, through circumstances and
sometimes influenced by no circum-
stances at all, turn out to be quiet,
thoughtful man of sterling worth.
The very grave, plain-looking youth
whom you have entirely ignored in
your prophecies, will often, very
often. beat the record of all others.
You probably thought that all the
time and money lavished on his
education, were spent in vain. On
the contrary every cent and every
minute invested in the developments
of this homely lad, has brought a
hundred fold return. You probably
never thought to see him rise above
the common day Iaborer. But 10! and
behold! the grave chap by his con-
slant digging and plodding rises and
but fallen young man cheers for him;
the once clownish, but now thoughtful
young man, sincerely admires him,
and the mistaken prophet who once
ignored him sinks out of the back
door, mum bling to himself, Who'd
thought it? who'd though it.n
That this is natural, that this is
true, you have but to call in testi-
mony this conversation which we all
have so often heard:
$50 you say that Ezekiah Green
is professor in the university. How
in the world did that happen? He
never was considered smart or even
passably bright boy at school"
Eyes, EZekiah has improved won
derfully. He is the most scholarly
person / have ever met.
well, who'd a thought it? What
of Charley Deal; is ne the same
light-hearted, .rollicking fellow he
used to be at school?n
'"What! Mr.. Deal? Why he's the
most earnest, thoughtful and consci-
entious man in the city,
"We]l, well, who'd thought it.
What of Banker Dunbell's son, Fred?
/ don't remember ever seeing a
smarter or more promising young
man than he." ....
"You are right. But alas! he's
utterly and entirely ruined. He's an
outcast among even the most de-
graded class of people. All the money
and time spent upon him was thrown
away, and all of the foundest hopes
of parents and friends were blasted"
"Well, well, well, who'd thought
it,"
And thus the worlds great play
goes on. Every day the tale repeats
itself, and with astonishing frequency
the frolicsome and light.hearted are,
through some influence or of their
own accord, metamorphosed into the
quite and the grave; the strong and
most promising through vice or death
blast at zone fell whOopn the fondest
hopes of parents and friends and he
whom we oft are won't think without
enough sense to walk straight, looms
like bright star in the mental world,
and leads all the rest.
True, such is not invariably the
case, but its exceeding frequency
brands at once the judging of the fu-
ture man by his childhood days, I'M
wise. uncertain and unjust.