Daily new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1897-1906, 1899-12-14
TWO CENTS
READING ROOM WANTED !.
DR.. Leech Points out a Serious
Need of the City.

The Young Men should be Looked At
ter Hope Of Prosperity Lies Not IN
Industrial Advancement Bat In the
Salvation OF our Young Men Elo-
quent Plea for the Boys.
70 the Editor of the NEW DOMINION:
Your paper has ehampioned, with
intense earnestness, various plans for
the patriotic honor and commercial
prosperity of this rapidly enlarglng
little city, IL successfully appealed
TO the community to raise, by subscrip-
ton, large fund with which to Sc
cure costly sword for It's most hon.
ored ard prominent representative in
the late naval battle Off the southern
coast OF Cuba, 1t has pleaded with
the business men for generous dona-
tions for new glass plant y city
PARK, etc. This policy Is cornmenda-
able, and these projects have been
worthy of the muniticent endorsement
OF our people.
But are We acting fairly concerning
a matter of far more stupendous impor-
tance, than anyone Of these enter
prises. 1t is the moral welfare OF the
hundreds Of young men and boys who
are on the streets of the city, daily,
after dark Many centuries ago Socra-
ties said, "If | could get the highest
place in Athens would lift up my
voice and cry, What mean you fellow
citizens that you turn every stone,
and scrape together wealth, and take
SO little care of your children To whom
one day you must relinquish ALL
In Morgantown we have no safe
place, morally, where our male young
people can assemble nightly and
peruse daily papers read magazines
and popular illustrated journals, and
engage Ia such innocent games as
domlnoes, crokinole and checkers.
am deeply impressed with the convic-
tlon that the best Investment our
business men and other philanthropic
citizens can Immediately make is the
rental aud liberal equipment Of a first
class reading room, for men and boys,
in the very heart of the city. Surely
one hundred men and women can give,
annually, from three to twenty-five
dollars each, for It's economical sup
port. Numerous families will also
supply its tables with religious papers
representing number Of Christian
denominations.
History speaks of THE Worlds
Golden Age. Such a period as a
golden age comes To young men but
once. 1t is In life's beautiful morn
ing, when the intellectual and moral
endowments are all plastic and the
virgin pages Of ones personal career
are ready To receive an honorable or d
degrading inscription. Youth and
early manhood are perllous seasons In
human experience, when snares to
moral purity are numerous and pecu-
liarly dangerous. Horticulturists
never find summer fruit on trees that
bore no blossoms In May, and commu-
mites contain few virtuous elderly
men who were not moral In early life.
Goethe wrote nothing truer than his
solitary famous sentence. ssThe des-
tiny Of any nation, at any time, de-
ponds on the opinions OF its young
men under five and twenty" Insti-
buttons Of learning have sschairs'' con-
corning almost every branch OF know
ledge; but no university or academy
has 1.-THE chair of character. = Envir-
Onment has far more to do with civ
ing to character permanency of shape
than we generally suppose. The
chief hope of Morgantown for SPLEEN
did future lies far less In new business
plants, or park, or band or new rail-
wages than In the fair moral charac-
tiers OF its boys and young men. The
two most precious treasures In hui
man career are reputation and char
acter. Reputation, however valuable
is ephemeral and lies like shadow.
outside Of ourselves, In the realm OF
the opinions OF others. Character is
the imperishable substance resident
within us. Character is evolved from
the soil OF our surroundings. BOYS
and young men may inherit paternal
wealth or maternal mental endow-
ments, but moral character Is not won
by inheritance. With earnestness ~
entreaty and with intensest sincerity
of motive | implore our representa-
tive men and women to aid ia the for
nation OF the best possible characters
for our youth by furnishing as an an
propriate New Years offering, read
ing room for the boys and young men.
With Respect,
8. ". r..