The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1899-02-02
YOUNG MEN AGAIN.
Activity the safety-Valye for
Young Life.
RITTER DIE IN THE RIGHT
ALWAYS.
BY G. GRosvENOR DAVE.


pleasure to see the wild glee OF young
dog twisting himself sideways with
the vigor OF his delighted tail and so
hurried from time to express himself
that he cannot even bark straight. He
actually cheers up weary folk who look
at him TOR his Joy Is hal mless and the
onlooker we'll knows that the exercise
is strengthening him for the days OF
dull-dog-dom that are bound to stretch
ahead before him some day.
That is about the attitude OF sensible
people towards you young fellows az
you swing out into exercise that critic
ally viewed, looks almost ridiculous.
Look at yourself in your running
trunks and if you do not suddenly feel
that you are scarecrow, l am mis-
taken. But it is alright. Do your
running and your boxing and your
wrestling and your rough-and-tumble
games, for it is better to use your sur
plus strength that way than to waste it
in weakening vices. You are troubled,
if you are in health, with too much
vitality, to be anything beside restless
and it does good to the hearts OF those
who love you and envy your youth and
its hey.day path, to see you choose the
better part, which, for young man, il
certainly not inactivity. Nature has
you in hand and though you are un-
conscious OF it, she is busy impelling
you to do the things that tend to q
reserve of power. The gallopping TINES
are going to end one day, and then
many dull and weary mile in harness
for whose heavy pulling the years Of
wholesome fun and exercise have pre-
pared you.
Master doggy has a hard time learn
ing all he ought to know, and some OF
his knowledge comes along painful
ways. But if he takes the tat and the
lean of life In due proportion and with.
out too much bowling at the discords
you will see him grow into a sedate
well-trained beast who knows we'll
what be is here for, and whose honest
head will receive many an admiring
pat from gentle women who trust his
guardianship. And those pats do not
in any way upset the balance OF the
gopd, faithful fellow for at the hour Of
duty he goes quietly to his post again
This will not be very much unlike
you, if you gain love for duty-doing
,s you emerge from irresponsible pup
py-dom into clean manhood. 1t is the
emerging time that is hard, for you
have to learn new standards of conduct
and some pretty sharp knocks are need
ed at times to make you follow to heel
of duty. But let me tell you that the
clearer the vision you have of duty and
the cleaner the way you tread the more
you will be admired of women of the
nobler sort. It is worth much to you
to be with good women, and their
praise need not upset you for it will
not be of the gushing, gurgllng, bum
ble-bee buzzing, sentimental kind that
turns a man away from purpose-but
it will be an evidence of supreme trust
in a mans character that will make
you 20 out into the world afterwards
feeling more than ever man, because
the sanctity of implicit confidence rests
upon you as thing worth while being
worthy of.
When you come to think of it, there
is strangeness in the faithfulness of a
watchdog. 1t is weird idea, that
though the master may be absent, the
dog in charge of affairs instead of be-
coming less vigllant grows more so. II
is not to be explained on the eupposi.
ton that he is alert because he is paid
for it by scraps that fall from his mas
ter's table. It is deeper than stomach
love-though we do mockingly say
that the way to dogs heart is through
his stomach. It endures even when
the master Is neglectful and cruel. II
glows warm even when the chills Of
frost cover the faithful creature and he
lies out there under the night, instant
ly ready either to greet his master with
a CHEEKY wag, or to driye the trespassel
off to the public road where no man
trespasses, and whose rights even fierce
dogs seem to understand.
Equally strange and equally estima.
BILE is the influence that makes a man
faithful to his trust. though no mans
eye be upon him. 1t is an outrage up.
on human nature to explain every
worthy human action as having a self.
ish origin.
Something In the heart OF man
rests upan the deepest principles of the
world of morals and keeps him steadily
ploddlng at task. How grand that
there should be such an impulse with
in us! For it would make life seem
quite too petty to live, if we were for.
ever measuring out our deeds so that
they exactly balanced another mans
doles. Some poet expresses the thought
like this, though I cannot now confirm
the quotation
"High heaven disregards the store
OF nicely balanced less or more. .
Dogs and men, from an untraceable
source, get satisfaction in doing a thing
because it is right, even though no ap.
proving voice sounds out to praise the
right When it is done. Big-souled men
mark you, are not looking for approval
here, there and yon. They know what
they ought to do, and do 1t. That ends
it with them.
~
And some dogs cheerfully die for the
sake of duty. Only by stepping owe,
their faithful bodies can the outrage
be perpetrated. 1t seems to force home
the conviction that for such dear com.
panions of men there must be place