River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1900-06-14
School DAYS.

1.-The boy regards with growing wonder
The new born beauty of earth and sky
Nor dreams OF the storm and the WIND ana
thunder
To rage in wrath when the sun mounts high.
Lured by the charm of delightful leisure
Life seems a circle of tireless JOY
A winding pathway OF perfect pleasure
To the bright young boy,
The youth looks out where the wind is rising
And laughing marks where the mad raves
And grasping the firm strong oars despisng
Fear, he Bullets the curling waves.
For youth is the hero and thirsts for glory;
The champion OF honor, the knight OF truth;
He burns for the conflict, the same old story
Strong, brave youth.
The close of a boys school days
marks an epoch in his life, abrubt,
indeterminate, bewildering. Hither-
to he has been in 'leadjng strings"
againgst which he has often chafed.
He was under guidance, dependence,
surveillance, gentle restraint, against
which he has c1eften foolishly re-
belled. He was watched over with
parental care, instructed with loving
interest, provided for according TO his
needs and reasonable wishes. He
was surrounded with the best prlvi-
leges and opportunities that love
and money could furnish. His lot
was cast in pleasant places and love,
disinterested and constant, minister
ed to his necessities. Atfectionate
Compauionship, innocent and deli
cate, cordial and guileless, made his
associations a joy and his tasks pleas
ure. The friendships of schooldays
are cherished as sacred memory for
they are genuine, disinterested-the
frank and guileless expressions of I'M
sophisticated and generous hearts.
Graduating from school where his
whole life was environed by the solicit
tude and guiding care Of conscientious
teachers and dominated by the disin-
terested affection of home, the young
man finds himself alone, at sea upon
the great ocean OF life compelled to
''paddle his own canoe.n, Now he
will demonstrate the utility Of his re-
sources, as ian embryo artiticer, a
magazine of latent forces, bundle
of possibilities"
"The new day dawns In blaze of splendor;
Low clouds looped up for the sun to pass,
Fling down their pink and gold on the tender
Green of the hills and the meadow grass.
In the deep, dark west the flying forces
OF black Night catch upon shield and spear,
And the maIl-clad TANKS of the frightened
horses
The Suns red leer."
When he goes out into the whirl-
wind of the world to fight the battle
of life for himself he must rely upon
the strength of his own right arm
and the skill with which he can use
the weapons that have been forged in
the heat of preparation and fashion
ed to his hand. As Professor Scott
depicted the conditions of Success
in the goth Century" he knows that
his career is to be constant struggle;
to attain success compels to strenu-
Gus effort, perpetual fight,
with brute forces and intellectual gil
ants; unintermittent contest against
the world. He finds no longer the
inspiring cheer Of disinterested
friends and the frank congratulations
Of generous companions. In this COM
peting contest for success every man
is an Ishmaelite with ''his hand
against every man and every mans
hand against him" In his school
days he saw radiant faces that reflect
ed the sunshine OF interrupted
hearts. Now faces are rigid as craven
images with hearts as cold. This is
incident to the contest, where one
succeeds, -attains the summit OF his
am billion, and ten thousand fail, fall
by the wayside tired of the struggle,
sick unto death.
Often in his struggle for success.
when he has time for Renaissance,
he will think of his school days, and
the farther they recede the more re-
splendent is their glory, and will
come to realize that there and there
alone things are what they SEEM"
Good Pasturage.