The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1891-06-19
DEFERRED COUNTY ITEMS.
North Pownal.


Boys:-Generally boys are much better
than they were fifty years ago. They
change to men much sooner. Perhaps
this earlier growth is followed by a more
rapid deterioration, but the fact that the
average boy of the present, surpasses
any that have gone before him in many
material ways, must be apparent to men
who are not now too old to remember
when they were boys themselves. This
change may be nothing more than the
legitimate effect of the increase of
knowledge in the world itself. The child
is brought at once in contact with facts
that his father supposed impossible, and
at fifteen, the elements are all learned,
and his future knowledge must involve
all the wide-awake interest and activity
of continuous education, If he would
be anything more than thing floating
on the "currant of events within a
year after he has left the schools. The
great trouble at present, is the rapid ac-
cummulatiOn of DRIFT lCOOd, in the
streams of human life, which have ten
dency to fill the ''eddies," and to become
floating masses to clog and Obstruct all
of the proper channels. This evil shows
itself in the tendencies of trade unions"
and leagues" as they manifest them
selves in politics and in religion.
These institutions may have legitimate
sphere somewhere, but outside this
limit they are decidedly mischievous,
and will be followed inevitably by a
separation of masses, on account of too
great weight, and general drifting
back into their old places, of those, who
did nothing more than to increase the
foam and tumult of the troubled waters.
1t may be observed generally that the
only life worth living is one that is dlire.
This may seem to express only plati-
tude. But if so, its use is authorized,
for it moves life that dssimildtes.
True life in this world involves activities,
and the more general those activities
shall be, the more perfect will be our
life. Routine is only justifiable when
ever repetition is necessary. Its tendency
always is to deteriorate, and that virtue
which is only the result of routine, is
fast becoming, if not already a dead
principle, and needs a little rice to
become vital again. There is goodness
in the world, which, like the "manna''
in the wilderness, "stinketh' by being
kept too long. Now applying these
truisms to the subject of this article, it
follows that boys are in danger of
becoming men who are only local in
their influence and activities. They will
supply only places. This may answer
4 necessity in order to live, but outside
of that, they will express a meagre kind
of living, and whenever they shall act as
independent men, then they will cOnsti-
tute in society this flood wood
already described, and moving only
when acted upon by force outside them
selves, neither having in them thought
enough to detect fallacy nor forecast
enough to tell whittier they are tending.
An attempt was made Tuesday night
to rob the store and postoffice of S. L.
Smith. The handcar house was broken
into and bar taken out. An effort was
made to pry up the windows, but it is
thought the burglars were frightened
away by men working on the water
wheel at the mill.