The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1891-06-16


is the way the young collegian thinks
and plans. He has no idea that "his-
tory will repeat Itself Fin his Gaze.
AvtER SAsy YEARS.
But look into tho mirror into Nhieh
he will look and see himself when he
comes back here a gray headed man in
the years to come. Look at the gray
heads now here. Interrogate them
about their commencement dreams, for
they NIL had them. Ask that old minis
terial gentlemen who graduated away
back in the forties, and who delivered q
speech on long gone comm encement
day that was carefully written out and
decked with. blue ribbons. He sits un-
der the trees in the campus here and
listens to the class speeches. Listens,
did say? No, he doesn't listen TO
what is being said to-day. He is
only apparently listening. He is
listening 10 tho voices OF forty years
ago. He hears voices. and sees faces
that no one else hears or sees. They
are not thevoices and faces here pros
ent, bpt those OF the long ago. He in
yokes them all before him once again,
just us the women OF Endor
invoked the shades OF the prophet,
and they rise like a gray mist out OF
the ground, out Of their graves, and are
once more by his side as they were
forty years ago. He has "bread to eat"
that these here present "know not of
no more than she who stood by the well
OF Samaria. Forty odd years ago, on
sweltering 4th of July commencement
day, (for commandments then occurred
on the 4th) ,sdown there in the old col.
lege basement, he made his graduating
speech, all carefully written out, and, as
! said, decked with blue ribbons. II
am correctly informed, he was the vale
dictorian Of his class, and. while refer
ing in becoming and pathetic terms to
tho scenes OF college life to which the
class Of 1874 was bidding adieu, he had
much TO say OF the future-of the bright
and glorious future then dawning like
the rising sun on that stalwart class.
He told them, among other things, that
"the world belongs to him who takes
it," and that panoplied, as they then
were b. theis education, all that they
had to do was to go forth as strong
man equipped to run q race, conquer
ering and to conquer" To have m
earnest purpose and 4 high resolve was
all that was necessary alllthe rest
would be-Iadded, even fame and high
influence and every good and perfect
gift.
WHAT TINE HAS TOLD.
The speech of that young man was
considered success and prophetic of
man. as, indeed, his wholecoilege career
had been, who would make his mark in
the world. How has thecase beon with
him? He is now nice old gentleman,
but he has yet to hear his name blown
through "the trumpet OF fang" Hee
has been teacher and a preather, and
between the two vocations has about
made ends meet. Like Goldsmith's
country parson at "Sweet Auburn" he
has been passing rich on forty pounds
q year" He has found out that although
the world may belong to those "who
take it," yet he himself was not among
the number appointed to take any con-
siderable portion Of 1t. Good man that
he is, he has found out that it is one
thing to lead your class in college and
quite another to lead your fellow men
in the battle fife. He can tell you OF
a boy in that class who made no speech
and took no Shonors, and who never
dreamed ihthoS days,6t capturing the
world, but who, all the same, has made
his mark and done things on large
scale. The stuff that is in boy does
not always come out in college. 1t did
in the case OF Blaine, but it did not in
the case Of Webster. II did in the case
of Gladstone, but it did not in the case
OF Disraeli.
Don't you crensmber gutt excellent
fellow citizen,- John G. HerHey, once
Superintendent Schools in Wheeling,
who shared the hopors of his class with
Blaine at Washington, Pa, and was
considered the better scholar of the two?
He was a generous, au1iable man, and to
me there was something pathetic in
seeing him soliciting life insurance for
q living inahis latter days, when his
work in coilcge, full s6f hon 6fssand OF
wealth, wasi known throughout the
world. Ss' l
THEY LACK GuMPTIoN.
I was up at Hanover, New Hemp
shire, some years ago, the place where
Dartmouth College is located, and on
Sunday | took q WALL ogerthe bridge
across the G6dnsC ticut river ITO the
sleepy little village Of Norwich; and
was shown the office or store where the
man who distanced Daniel Webster at
the college lived and died in quiet OBJ.
scurity. Henever was otherwise known
in lifo except as the man who outshono
and outstripped Webster at college. He
was simply mani OF good habits who
never amounted to anything.
The best scholar Mt school ever knew
a boy who never failed, and who never,
so far as I can recall, got a demerit
mark, and who seemed to be absolutely
infallible, was a Justice Of the Peace for
many years, q writer OF deeds for the
country people around Midi etown
(seven miles from here) and is now n
bank official at Washington, Pa.
There arc two kinds OF intellect, tho
one has the ability to acquire learning,
the other, with less ability to acquire,
has far greater ability to utilize what it
does acquire. Occasionally there is
man like Gladstone, who can take a
double first" at Oxford and double
first" all along the pathway OF life there
after, but such men are the rare excep.
tons. As a rule, what General Gar.
field (who was called the American
Gladstone) -once said about education is
true, viz; that it is zone part learning
and two parts natural gumption." Both