The Philipsburg mail. [volume] (Philipsburg, Mont.) 1887-current, 1896-08-06
statesmen. diDlOmatiStS,

whose names will live in history. Well
may the youngest of the great nations
be proud of its young men.
Let us glance at the history of the
race as we find it recorded of older
Le )pleS than our own. Out of the
mists and darkness that envelop the
nations of two thousand years ago
arises the figure of a youth who con-
quered the world with the might OF
his genius who wept for new worlds
o conquer and, finding them not, lay
down in WEAKNESS to die at the age of
thirty three.
Alexander III, King of Macedon, was
we'll called 'The Great" Read the
story of his gigantic achievements.
This son of Philip, the pupil of Aris-
totle, succeeded to the throne at the
age of twenty. He subjugated Thrice
and Illyria at twenty one, conquered
aud destroyed Thebes and subdued op-
position in Greece.
He was twenty-five when he started
on his, Eastern expedition. In that
year he gained the victory of Gram
ucus, and a year later won the battle
of Issus. At the age of twenty-four
Alexander captured Tyre and GAIA,
occupied Egypt and founded Alexan-
dria.
The following year he overthrow the
Persian Empire at Arbela. Before his
death, at the age of thirty three. the
Bow King of Macedon was ruler of the
world.
Pompev had seen much military SER
vice before he was thirty, and on
reaching his thirtieth year found him.
self in command Of the legions operat-
ing against the Marians in Spain. He
was Consul with Crassus when he was
thirtv-six.
Caius Marius was Tribune at the age
O. thirty-six. Years later be was
driven from Rome but returned and
proecribed the aristocrats.
! Tiberius Sempronius Gracious was a
grand young man. He was only thirty
at the time of his death. bat he had
won immortality. He was..born in 1853
B. G. He was elected Tribune Of the
PEOPLE in 1873.
The land of the Romans was being
absorbed by the rich and the peasantry
We're Icing driven into the cities to
swell the ranks Of the unemployed.
Gracious attempted to restore the land
to the farmers, aud died a martyr to
his cause
Marcus Tullius Cicero was thirty six
when he made his immortal speech
accusing Verres.
Rienzi," "the Tribune of the People, -
was a young man when he wOl his
claim to fame. He was born in Rome
in 1913. He was thirty-three years Of
age when he led the revolution in
Rome that overthrow the power of the
aristocracy and made him Tribune Of
the People. .......-.
( Gustavus Adolphus was only thirty
eight at the time of his death. He
was King of Sweden at the age of sew
Denmark in 1913, when he was nine
teen, and four years later, at Stolbowa,
compelled Russia to cede Kexholm,
Karelen and Ongermanland.
William the Silent was appointed
commander of the army in the Neither
lands when he was only twenty-five
years OF age.
Napoleon Bonapartes record is al
most as marvellous as that of AleXan-
der the Great.
Napoleon was born in 1869. At the
age of twenty years he was an adj
venturer, practically, in a city that he
could not claim as a mother. He was
twentysiX when he aided in suppress
ing the revolt of the sections in Paris.
A year later he was in command of the
army in Italy. He was First Consul
at the age Of thirty, and was made
Consul for life when he was thirty
three.
By the time he was as old as Will
lam j. Bryan is at this moment Napo-
| leon was the only man in Continental
EuOrpe He had proved himself a
giant among pigmies, a Titan who
claimed the earth as his empire by the
divine right of genius. He had again
proved to a forgetful world that the
great leaders of men defy youth as
often as they defy old age.
William Pitt, one Of the greatest of
Englishmen, was born in 1859 and died
in 1906. He was elected to Parliament
when he was twenty-one At the age
of twenty three he became Chancellor
Of the Exchequer and leader of the
House OF Commons. Pitt was Prime
Minister of Enlgand at twenty four.
The English statesmen who opposed
Pitt taunted him with being a boy.
He proved conclusively, however, that
he was not only "a man, but a great
man. He was able to stand the strain
Of elevation at an early age.
Richard Brinsley Sheridan was Eng
lands Secretary of the Treasury at
the age Of thirty-two. He had entered
Parliament three years before this.
Charles James Fox entered Parlia-
ment at the age Of nineteen.
1t will be seen from the above list of
young men who have placed indelible
marks upon the pages Of mans history
that the scroll of fame has shown no
regard for the theory that men of gen.
ius do not reach the full control of
their abilities before they are thirty
six Eliminate from the list of the
worlds great men those who have won
fame and power before they had
reached the age of thirty-s and you
will have rendered human progress in
explicable.
Carefully scan the above list-you
can readily lengthen it by a little re-
search-and you will find that not one
of the men mentioned was what flip
pant observers call "an accident. -
What these young men did to infu-
ence the course Of human events was
the outcome of intellectual power that
had raacba6 q f,711 1ovo1oppont V'bo