The record-union., 1897-05-30
some RAMBLING THOUGHTS.
Conyrighted by Memo.

most without your knowing it, move
backward and forward in time with the
sound. and you are very glad indeed II
Won can run out Of the house to join
with the marcherS.
know how excited you feel when a
good brass band strikes UP a stirring
time 1t makes a creepy feeling come
over the top of your head, then a sud
den little shiver goes down your back
bone clear to your toes, a sort or
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 touching the ground, ready
to march mile after mile if you may
but stay near the music.
Another thing I know you like, and
that is to get some old soldier to tell
you war stories. If 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;
it is the battles you like best of all to
hear about in history: and when you
have heard them you sometimes get
off by yourself to dream, with your
eyes open, of what you would do with
repeating rifle and a trusty revolver
against twenty foes creeping toward
you to xii you.
I reckon it is quite easy to under
stand why you should feel this way; for
wise men do say that children show
forth in their little lives all the differ
ent 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 We're supposed to be
inside flowers and under toadstools.
Just like you, ages ago, groWn-up peo-
pie 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 struggles and
revels in stories of great Generals, you
forget the harmless little fairire =
has it 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 fellQwcrea-
lures.
But gent1er times have come among
men. When large numbers came to
think it 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 their precious dear
one who lost his life because perhaps
of a silly quarrel among big people like
Kings and Generals. These thoughtful
men gradually saw that a human life
was a wonderful thing and that to cut
it short was very serious. They saw
too how seamy a side life always must
bear to those who We're wounded and
lived for years in pain or MANNED. So,
though great armies still exist you
will find people growing more and more
anxious TO avoid war, because of the
terrible side of it.
So if you 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 a fight.
fights in fairy times, and there are
fights now. s People fight now with their
heads insteads 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 de-
termined, and that if some form of
fighting were not continued on the
-t@o ho Oh
lazy, good-fo nothing people.
What is the fighting l am talking
about? 1t can be easily told to you.
Look around your school. There are
twenty-five, fifty, perhaps a hundred
boys there. They all win need to earn
a living in some way or another. Your
fight is to train your brain so that 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 a good head and a good store
In it. There are such; they are the
sort that always have a time to watch
the train come in, but never find time
TO work; the sort that rather than
pillow or chop wait around Postoffices
TO look for letters when they know no
one ever thinks of writing to them.
bIdiiiS lbll. lCefi bOs.Ss anu tiiC lilpl
BOYS there are in the world the sharper
becomes the fighting for any positions
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 storekeeper 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 else's
away. You have. therefore. much more
time than the boys of long ago to pre-
pare for the battles without blood. The
schools. too, for training you to the
struggle of brains are so much better
than they used to be that you have no
excuse for being anything but a good
Soldier.
I hope I have not used any words
too hard for you Difficult words may
sound well, but they sometimes fail TO
reach the BRAIN For two weeks more
/ shall write to you about battles.
and in such a way. | hope, that the
men in your family viii not lose any
thing by reading the articles. too.