Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1899-01-25
PRESENT-DAY THOUGHTS.
BY @. GRosvENoR DAVE.

For Young Mentor yonder pup the
world was first rounded out by the limits
of the kennel, where the good things Of
life reached him without effort and were
accepted without question. Then came
days of loose jointed roaming, and at last
a bark of his own and a burst of wild
freedom About that time his troubles
began; for having teeth he started to use
them and having the impulse to destroy
he yielded to it. His idea that the world
is only for his amusement and that rugs
and shoes are designed by providence for
whetting teeth will soon be dispelled.
The power to do by no means justifies
deed At this point all sorts Of puppies
go astray; and at this point also their suf
ferings begin. 1t is hard lesson, but a
necessary one; that powers seem princi-
pally given to US in order to be cur bed in
stead OF INDUCED. The philosophy of
modern progress is that puppies must be
tanned into useful dogs and wild boys
into thoughtful men. Were it not so the
boy would slip back to savagery and the
dog become an outcast. The more we in
sist on having our own way, as il the
whole world was made for US, the worse
time are we going to have.
There he goes now to hide bone which
he has picked, and that really has no
mortal use to which he can put it. 1t is
all very well to explain that this is due to
ancestral memory dating back to the time
when dogs were wild and food scarce
Yet, nevertheless, We call him silly; and
wisely, too, for there are more bones where
that came from and they will not be
clean picked either. Toevery day its bone,
and to every dog its day, so why should
he bury for future use that which has no
use?
The providence that rules over dogs is
not dissimiar to that which hovers over
men. 1t is well enough to guard against
rainy day, but it is foolish to bury worth
less things to meet it The best prepara-
ton is to use things as they come. and
from them get the strength, not to turn
back and gnaw over the past, but to go
forward to use the things that are yet to
be. Live right, live wisely, and another
day will bring another bone And, by the
way, some of place reliance on such
picked bones great descent dead
bones, ali Of it, Silly puppies,
Some pups delight in the uncleanly.
They revel in corruption and they have
their reward for they are driven forth
into the chill puritication of the outer air,
leaving behind them the simple. pleasant
comforts to which they were blind when
they might have seen No longer may
they proudly gambol along in good COM
pany, but stunning and detestation are
theirs Their nature, you say? OF course,
but nature is not in all Kings a safe
guide. Bless your soul, impulse is rather
thing to be questioned than to follow.
Too true in the direction of those impulses
strong, insistent, in bred and exacting
whose power we all know and whose eX-
cuse is that they are natural.
But, and the but" is tremendous in its
import, the way of such impulse is the
way to isolation from the things that are
sweetest and dearest and best.
Puppy's scent is keen for uncleanlness
and he can always find it if he seeks, until
the world-his worlds rounded out by
it. There is no need to draw the parallel
save in the sketchiest fashion; for he that
hath eyes to read can see. Evil is here in
the world and those who seek find; good
is likewise here and much of 1t, but they
who seek evil find no good, and the
further they go less chance have they to
return. Soap will cleanse and chain
contne the dog, but no soap ever yet
touched the unclean spirit, and its chain
is not one that holds it back from evil, but
that binds it down where good is hard to
reach. The way OF return to flower strewn
paths is set thick with thorns of the an
guish and of the loneliness that come from
knowing that the wrong way was chosen.