The people's journal. (Pickens, S.C.) 1891-1903, 1895-10-31
Gp S'&,SS ASsa.

latlng lowlands Of bovhood rises
sharply up to the highlands of
manhood. 1t is climbed only by
big boys, and the big boy is an in
stitution in this world. He, is in
deed, " series of personalities in
one extraordinary combination.
The only certain thing about him
is his uncertainty. Like q spit
devil he is loaded, and will go off
with spark, but just which way
he will 60 is an unknown and un-
knowable thing. But the chances
are that he will 60 zigzag, and
which ever way he goes, you can
trace HIM by the sparks.
When you notice tho boy feeling
of his upper lip, and n suspicion
of something slightly darker than
the skin appears, you may begin
then to look sharp. The boy has
come to the foot of fool hill, and
he will begin very soon to climb.
The great problem is to got him
over the hill in good repair. That
done, you have blessed the world
with man.
Big boys are nearly certain to
have the big head. This is no bad
sign. 1t is an unawakened sense
of power, without the wisdom of
discipline. Our boy entering the
fool age is caution. His voice is
now fine and splitting, now coarse
and grating. He begins sentence
coarse and ends fine, or fine and
ends coarse. He is rank and sets
digging to the world. All his
Judgments are pronounced and
final. There is nothing he cannot
decide irstanter He knows in
stantly and by intuition who is the
best lawyer in the whole country,
if he is reading boy, or tho best
doctor. He can tell you who will
be the next governor or anything
else politicians are 80 anxious
to know. He is authority on prize
fights or cards or anything else he
knows nothing about. And when
he pronounces on anything he has
spoken. The governor is "Dick"
somebody, and the supreme Judge
is "Tom.' And, by the way, he
often differs with these and other
dignitaries. He sings in unearth-
, ly strains, with tendencies to the
pathetic and the savage all in a
, breath.
With tho big boy there is moth,
ing medium. He uses adjcctives
; freely and always in the superla
4 tive. He aces things in strong
s colors, for he is in the flood o
!. passion. Fight! Yes fight any
. thing and on the shortest notice
y He ought to fight to prove him
3 self, he fSels. About this time hi
= mind undergoos some radica
If changes. He wonders at the dull
II ness and contrariness of his par
y, onts. 1t is constant worry t
~ him that he can't manage his fathe
J. without a world Of trouble, and h
I'd wonders what is the matter wit
the "old man" any how. Churche
,d and Sunday schools are too du
~ ~ for him and tho preacher is jus
's nowhere. He can give him an
10 number of pointers on theolog
le and preaching.
ID Rushing on and into everythin
,d liko mad, no stops short and b'
" walls tho coldness of this unfrient
o. ly world. Now he has more "des
ne friends" than he can shake o site
Il. at. now he feels that no has not
al friend in the world. He wan
-, sympathy, while he tries tho p,
% tionco of everybody who has on,
III thing to do with him. Such
e. tho boy in tho fool age The gre,
or question is what to do with hi1,
He is climbing STOOL hill" now ar
the road is bad. Father, moth
~ and friends are all ANXIOUS nj
g. often vexed. Homes are depriv,
he of all their peace by this gre
I'd double action marplot. But Il
"a question will not down. VIII
" shall we do with him? If he
turned loose now, he will be like
ta wild engine on the track smashil
things. If he is not handled wis
- ly there will be catastroph
,; The ever recurring question il
p What shall bs done with the b
W boy climbing fool hill? The in
=. pulse often is to lot tho fool g
But that will not do. He is no
n like green apDle-sour, pucke
a ish and unwholesome; but like tt
or apple. if we can save hlm, he wi
rlpen into something good. "
must save him. Saints and ange
g. help us to save this human ship
!. the storm, freighted with father
q mothers, sisters, brothers. 10,
- and with tho infinite woalh of a
a immortal naturel We must ga,
Il him for himself, his loved one
a and his country.
The chancea for sayipp him WI