The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1897-06-05
some Rambling Thoughts.


10 the DOls ABOUT Ddttless-
know just how you feel when you hear
the boom - boom - boom boom
boom of drum on the streets. Your
I lively feet, almost without your know
/ ing il, move backward and forward in
time with the sound and you are glad
indeed il you can run out of the
house to join with the marchers.
| know too how excited you feel
when a good brass band strikes up a
stirring tune. 1t makes a creepy feel
ing come over the top of your head,
then a sudden little shiyer goes down
your backbone clear to your toes, a
sort OF lump comes in your throat
so that for a moment you feel as
! though you could scarcely breathe;
and then off you go, feet hardly touch
| ing the ground, ready to march mile
after mile il you may but stay near
the music.
Another thing l know you like, and
that is to get some old soldier to tell
you war-stories. II his eyes grow
bright in telling about brave little
drummer boys, about bands playing
as the men march into battle, about
shrieking shells and ping-ing bullets,
fierce charges and bursting mines. you
are sorry when he stops. / know you:
il IS the battles you like best of all to
hear about in history; and when you
have heard them you sometimes get
of by yourself to dream, with your
eyes open, of what you would do with
a repeating rifle and trusty revolver
against twelve foes creeping towards
you to kill you.
reckon it is quite easy to under
stand why you feel this way; for wise
men do say that children show forth
ia their lives all the different stages
OF past human history. Let me tell
you in part what / mean:
When you were much smaller you
used to love fairy stories, telling of
the gentle deeds OF the funny little
creatures that was supposed to be in
side flowers and under toad-stools.
Just like you, ages ago, grown up
people believed in fairies too; SO that
it Is fair to say that the world has
had a fairy-tale age.
Now that your strong little body
holds very fierce little heart within
it that takes pleasure in the struggles
and revels in stories Of great generals,
you forget the harmless little fairies.
So it has been with men. Not many
ages ago great and good men spent all
their time thinking about battles and
training themselves to kill just as
many as possible Of their fellow
creatures.
But gentler times have come among
men. When large numbers came to
think 1t over they saw that war like
your new Jacket, has two sides; one
very nice to look at and the other full
of seams. The seamy side OF war was
for the mothers who could never see
their killed boys again, and whose
hearts felt robbed of the precious dear
one who lost his life because perhaps
of silly quarrel among big people
like kings and generals. These
thoughtful men gradually say that a
human life was a wonderful thing and
that to cut it short was very serious.
They saw too how seamy side life
always must bear to those who were
wounded and lived for years in pain
or MANNED. So, though great armies
still exist, YOU will find people grow
ing more and more anxious to avoid
war, because of the terrible side OF It,.
-
So II yon want to have the history
of the race completely sketched out in
your little life, you will have to press
back your fierce temper and your de-
sire to be in a big army in fight.
Yet l am going to tell you there were
fights in fairy times and there are
fights now. People fight now with
Their heads instead of their arms, and
you, If you expect to win the full
power of manliness, must prepare to
fight too. Wise men say that all the
struggles of the past have helped to
make men determined, and that If
some form of fighting were not contin-
ued on the earth, we should drop back
and become lazy, good-for- nothing
people.
What is the lighting l am talking
about? 1t can be easily told to you.
Look around your school. There are
twenty-five, fifty, perhaps hundred
boys there. They all will need to earn
a living in some way or another.
Your fight is to train your brain so
thai not one of them can get ahead OF
you, or cheat you, or laugh at you for
being foolish. Surely you do not want
to be without good head and "a good
store in it. There are such; they are
the sort that always have time to
watch the train come in but never
find time to work; the sort that rather
than pillow or chop wait around post
offices looking for letters when they
know no one ever thinks of writing to
| them.
Brains tell, dear boys; and the more
boys there are in the world, the sharp
er becomes the fighting for any posi-
tions that open. In the country the
fight is on just as it is in the city.
There the farmer with good brains
beats the slouchy one, whether the
weather be fine or not; there the store
keeper with brains makes an honest
profit and lives, while the foolish one
is sold out by the sheriff.
Times are now so peaceful that you
do not need to think Of how to save
your own life by taking some one elses
away. You have, therefore, much
more time than the boys of long ago
to prepare for the battles without
blood. The schools too for training
you for the struggle of brains are Sc