The record-union., 1895-08-15
OF YOUTH IN OFFICE, AGAIN.
The Fresno Republican has the follow

The Fresno Republican has the follow
ing:
The editorial writer's of the Sacramento
RECoRD-UNIoN and the Stockton Mail are
convinced that young men should not be
elected to Office. 1t may be mentioned incl
dentaly, and not as having any bearing on
the subject under discussion, that neither OF
the said editorial writers are cr1m1nalIy
young.
The coward always hedges precisely as
the Republican does in this instance
when it suggests the truism that the
question of age of the writer of truth
has nothing to do with the case"
Nevertheless that hedge shall not prevent
the RECORD UNION saying that there are
two kinds of fools in this world Of beauty,
hope and love-an old fool and young
fool-and that it is probable, judging by
the quoted paragraph that the Fresno Re
publican is the unhappy possessor of
one, or possibly both kinds.
Whatever application the sickly at
tempt at wit which we quote from the
Republican may have to the RECORD
UNION and the MGlL. may as we'll
attach to the sixty or seventy jour-
nails of Californis which have in COM
mon with the Mail quoted, and with
warm approval, the expression Of this
paper, namely that the swiftest and
surest route for youth down to the low
level Of mediocrity and loss of hope in
useful manhood. lies through the slums
of political life and the mire of Office
seeking.
The man who does not know this to be
true, whose observation has been as
limited that OF, say the Republican;
he who does not realize the impregna-
bility of the position taken by the
RECORD UNION as to young men in polit-
ical life, is either too stupid to learn or
too idiotic to comprehend.
It is possible that there is some strength
In sneer. but we are generally moved to
mirth by all such interjection into de-
bate that calls for brains and manliness,
since he who sneers by way of argument
is, as rule, devoid of both.
But speaking of youth and the age Of
writer's. we recall that some Of the oldest
men. but not the wisest we have known
were as yet in the vsaly stage, and that
some of the freshest, most youthful
manly men are souls which are not rusted
by age, spirits that are unquenched by
time, but whose bodies have the maturity
of years by more than two score.
The saddest sight this side the grave is
an old young man. and it is because this
is true, and because we rejoics in young
manhood and delight in its advancement
virtue, manliness, hope, high ambition
and buoyanoy, that we have called atten-
tion to the fact that. as a rule, the way to
wreck young man speedily is to plunge
him into political life; to set him afIoat
upon untried seas before his body aud
his mind have mstured, before his in
tellect has ripened, before his tastes are
settled and his purpose in life is fixed
upon; before, indeed, the substructural of
character building is completed in him.
But returning to the inconsequentisl
paragraph quoted in the outset-and the
distinguishing characteristic of which is
that it illustrates the intellectual strain to
which alleged wits sometimes subject
themselves-it remains to be said that if
the writer of the fabby lines ever attains
years of discretion. no matter what the
present aggregate of his summers and
winters; or if he rises TO the level of the
courteous and genteel, which may be
doubted, he will be able to comprehend
this truth, that inmaturity cannot offer
any guarantee of wisdom. Men and
truth are to be taken for what they
are wherever found. He may be
able to understand also that worldly
wisdom teaches men capable OF grasping
the idea, that the way to damn downy
boy is to pop him into political off,
cial liter and put upon his untried should
srs the burdens that men of some expert
enoe alone are capacitated to bear.