News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1901-04-10

that they must walk the straight
road; they have not the means that
prosperity gives to fall back upon, in
case of delinquency. They are not
beckoned on by the temptations ofvice
and crime with the assurance that
their wealth will buy their freedom or
pay the price of immunity from pun
ishment. They practice the virtues
from habit, from necessity, from rea-
lizing sense that there is safety in no
other course and from an innate de-
sire to rise in the world by honest
and upright endeavor. Thence they
set their standard ofmorality accord
ingly. The rich mans son is often
drawn into designations which sap
his life and by the wiley suggestions
of the traits that money will come to
the rescue in case of crime, that
wealth will make amends for all in
discretions.
Hence wealth is often a disadvan-
tage. Nature is wonderfully kind /;
she says to the poor boy you cannot
afford to lose your good name. 1t is
your all, you have nothing to fall
back upon, you need all your energy
and strength. Do not indulge in an
unnecessary luxury that will do you
no good, but in time great harm.
Look around you and see what the
best people in the community require
What does the paying public demand?
What does the government demand?
Honesty and sobriety as well as
ability.
Disadvantage more often makes
great men than advantages. Robert
Southey when in Oxford college wrote
an article for a college paper, which,
it was said, was the first thing that
brought him into prominence. In
the article he ridiculed the idea of
there being such person as Satan.
"The powers did not like it. The
creed called for a personal Satan, and
they wanted one." They summoned
young Southeybefore them to account
for speaking disrespectfully of that
parsonage. The youth was found
guilty and expelled, but his expulsion
only spurred him on to greater
achievement. Fifty volumes in one
museum in England attest to his
fame and worth. Southey in express
ing himself so freely on the person
atty of Satan might have been hasty
and even reckless, if he wished to
ingratiate himself with the professors
and finish his course in college; but
we have found by experience that we
found by experience that we must
combat error if we would have the
millennium, and to combat we must
have the men who dare say what they
think.
James Russell Lowell, one of the
most distinguished men of American
literature, was suspended from Har-
ward college during his senior year,
his offense being "too much literary
reading combined with his persis,
tence in absenting himself from pray
ers." His classmates gave him their
sympathy, and showed their apprecia-
ton of his genius by appointing him
to write the class poem. Though be-
ing in disgrace at the time of his
graduation he was not permitted to
read it himself, and bis biography
tells US that it was only by stealth
that he was permitted to attend the
commencement festivities. This was
his first published poem. Later in
life he received the degree of L. l.. D.
from Cambridge, and was honored
by a request to deliver the Grafton on
the anniversary of the foundation of
Harvard college.
Unjust criticism and harsh treat
ment often spur man of strength to
greater effort, until he is enabled to
raise himself to a distinguished
height of eminence; than when he no
longer needs forbearance, kindness
and sympathy, he is applauded and
glorified.
Disraeli, when member of the House
of Commons, on the occasion of his
first speech, not only failed to please,
but excited the laughter of the House
of Commons. He stopped shortin his
speech and said, Gentleman | have
tried many things many times and
and succeeded at last. shall sit
down now, but the time will come
when you will hear me-" This ad-
verse circumstance spurred him on to
greater effort. He corrected his form
er mistakes and succeeded in becom-
ing one of the most eloquent speak
ers, and was afterward Premier of
England.
1t was said of Franklin that the
"obscurity of his origin served but
to make his elevation the more con-
spicious." But it is more probable
that it was his thinking, observing
mind that led him into the field of
discovery and into the study of cleo
tricity. Thomas A Edison began his
career at the age of twelve as train
boy" selling papers and fruit. But
he was a reader and thinker at that
early age and his mother, like many
other noble women, did a great deal
of thinking when engrossed in house
hold duties and transmitted the power
of thought as we'll as brains to her
son. 1t was his passion for study
and investigation that made of him
the greatest man of the age. AL
h.