The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-06-05

saddest of it all must be, as the out
| come and fruitage of their efforts and
| sacrifices, the feminine part of the
| young mans hair and the broken fin
| gers and sprained shins of scholastic
| foot ball.
The fragments of a meal now would
| have educated a child then; and the
| cost of supporting a family then is al
| most the price of educating a child
| now.
Among the elderly people who took
| their schooling after they became
! grown, is your humble servant, and it
| is a confession for me to say that
| went to school so little that even to
/ this hour l am not absolutely certain
whether it is correct in swinetax eto-
/ mology or prosOdy, to say two tailors'
/ geese, two geese of a tailor, two tail
ors' goose. two gooses of a tailor or
| one tailOrs' goose and one ditto
A whole generation now passing
! from the scene of action now being
/ turned down in politics and showed in
/ ia a seat by the ingle have had hard
| scrapping to get any learning at all
know a man well up in Kansas mat
I tiers, suspected at home and abroad
who learned his letters from the brands
on the side of roaming steers, and Who
! with a touch of pathos in his voice,
| huskily said to me, that it was several
| seasons before he came across x, Y
and 4 on the burnt hips of a. Texas
I long horn and completed the alpha
! bet
The product of these primitive
SCnOOlS was a most OF mighty men, an
army of good citizens and a, nation of
blessed mothers Well nigh all the
men now famous in American history
were limited to but few advantages.
1t was hardly to be called an adVan-
! tage. It simply 'hungered their appe-
tite-" The light of the incandescent
lamp is not from the platinum point
through which the electricity flows as
if it were CREASED, but it is from the
charred fibre that attempts to impede
and stop the flow of the impaled light
ming.
There are some splendid memories
that assail the inner eye of the time
when the world was young, spring 10
months in the year and no frosts
There is flavor in my nostrils yet
of the May apple, found deep in the
woods; there is a fleck of the sunshine
on the way to school; there is a, hum
of the bee that lOitered in the depths
of the wild blossom; a flash light
of the old log cabin and the converging
paths at its door. There is an echo of
explosive laughter as school let out
and there comes across the Groom of
summer years the name of the little
pigeon tOed girl, written in the sand,
so long and long ago; there is a drOne
of children's voices as they heSitating-
Iy Travelled down the page lady, shady |
and tidy" It is as yesterday. I sang
my way all over the map of the United |
States, through the territories and In
lake in Maine to Deer Tail Cave on the |
Pacific. can recall the parSing of |
ThOmpson's Seasons and YOung's Night |
Thoughts by an innocent company of |
tow heads, who, since then, have gone |
out the harbor and set sail to the open |
sea, and for full so years have wait |
ed their signal to give them answering |
hail
Observation-Disclosures of the past were
of the fewest and crudest. Self helps |
were not obtainable. It We're a just |
honor to that people to say that they |
bitted difficulty and rode it to sue
cess.
Look about you for what they have
accomplished. They have given YOU |
a nation and written their page of his
tory full. Their glory is in the bunt-
ing over your school house door. Your
opportunity was their sacrifice. They |
struggled with neglect and turned it
into your advantage. They beggared
their own poverty to make you Opu-
lent.
The present expenditure of Kansas
for a year is as much as it costs a year
for the 13 colonies to fight the war of
the revolution. The nations best war
vessel is an educated and patriotic
man. The great thought of the state
is the education of its children.
The mighty energies of our people
are to this contamination. 1t depends |
on you how many apples are to be |
harvested from that tree. My young
ladies and gentlemen, education in |
Kansas is a great big river for you to
drink of and take in and down its cur
rents to turn the prov of your ship.
things. One generation of men irons
the creases out of its pantaloons and
another irons them in. Your diplomas
suggest that you know something; but
some one may ask you you go out
the door Stumper or two, and 1 ad-
wise you to reef your sails and expect
stormy weather. Where does the day
begin on the face of the earth? Could |
you repair the woodwork of a jews
harp? Is Lydia Pinkham dead or
alive? How does an elephant bend his
hind leg? What is the geographical cen
ter east and west of the United States?
What are spudS? Where is the biggest
printing office? What is the biggest
freshet in history? On which jaw are
the teeth of a sheep? What grain is
the corn of the Bible? Where do you |
find the book of Susannah? How many
tides are there a day? How far is it |
to the capital? Such unexpected things |
as these are liable at any time to hap |
pen. There are 1850, 600 600 of people |
On the face of the earth and not half | ,
dozen are doomed to any sort of i'm
and 50 each one of you has
about one chance in the Formulation of
numbers.
The world is your friend just now.
AS you leave this place you encounter
Sod speeds and gracious fadewells- But
want to tell you when you are well
1ut into the world the first man you 1
ire likely to meet viii be in a business ,
vav-a cannibal-he will want to eat
you up. Of course, after so much trOu-
Die to educate you, you ought TO De
more than Victuals to another man s
appetite. You may find in armed hos
.ility to you some one of your COM
AIDES who has been given diploma
onight You will find the world bat
Iefeld without a barricade to shelter
1ou or bastion behind which you
.ould crouch in safety. You Will lind
hat friendships will largely be on lines
If common interest. that foes will be
bed fellows, and that if you
expect to succeed, you must depend
lpon yourself, on your own back bone
instead of depending upon your father
r seeking your mother for consolation
n pity You will have call for much
more than you know what to do: you