The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1902-11-08
A CONTRAST IN BOYS.

A country boys lack of opportu-
nifty is his best equipment for the Sc
rious struggle of life. This sounds
parodoxical, but it is true. 1t is just
as true az the opposite proposition,
that the greatest hindrances city
boy has to contend with are the op-
portunities which beset him when
young and pursue him till he begins
the real business of life, business
which each individual must carry on
for himself. For the city boy every
thing is made as easy as possible.
Even pleasure becomes to him an old
story before he is out of his teens.
Brought up in the feverish rush of a
place where great things are happen
ing day by day, he sees the world
with cynic's eyes and despises the
small things which, like the bricks in
a house, go to the upbuilding of char
acters and careers. He believes in
using large markers in the game of
life; for pennies and small units of
value he has little taste and scant re-
gard.
The conditions surrounding the
country boy are as different as posi-
BILE. There is deal of regular work
that every country boy must do, and
this regularity of employment, most
ly out of doors, inculcates industrious
habits, while it contributes to a phys
ical development which in after years
is just as valuable as any athletic
training that can be had. He can
not run as fast perhaps as those train
ed by system. He may not be able
to jump SO high or so far or excel in
any of the sports upon which we be-
stow so much time and from which
we get so much of pleasure, but his
development enables him to buckle
down to the hard work in which
hours are consumed and from which
very little or no immediate pleasure
is extracted. His strength may be
something like that of the cart horse,
but the cart horse is to be preferred
where a long and steady pull is re-
quired. The thoroughbred race horse
has fine flight of speed and canters
with delightful lightness and grace
along the park bride paths, but the
heavy work is the work most in de-
mand, and for that we want the draft
animals every time.
Enthusiasm is the spur to endeav-
OF, and at the same time it is the SAVIOR
of life. The country boy whose am
bition has taken him to town becomes
filled with enthusiasms. Even the
little things are novelties to him, and
as he accomplishes this and that he
feels that he is doing something not
only interesting, but valuable. His
simple tastes have not been spoiled
by a multiplicity of qualifications, and
so he is glad of everything good that
comes his way. At thirty, if he leads
clean life, he has more of the boy
in him than his city cousin has left at
fifteen. He does what is before him
because it is his duty, while the other
is apt cynically to question the value
or DONG anything auu aSh, '>-:z-a---.
is the use ?"
Of the men who have achieved
great prominence and high influence
in our affairs of state the country boys
are at least twenty to one over the
city lads. Nowadays indeed our Gym
ical city lads look upon men who take
an active interest in public affairs as
rather low fellows and quite beneath
their association and notice. But the
country boys are at the top in other
lines of endeavor. In finance they
are pre-eminent, and the great bank
presidents today in the great cities
nearly all learned to read and to ci-
pher in country schools where birch
and ferule had not succumbed to the
civilizing influences of scientific peda-
gogy. Our great railways were in
the main built by them, and today
the administrators of these great COM
panies are in great measure from
farms and country villages, from
places where work began in early in
fancy and sense of duty developed
while still the lisp of childhood lin
gered.
Some city boys, however, are of
such sturdy stuff and endowed with
such natural gifts that they succeed by
reason of their inherent superiority.
Others succeed abundant1y because
they have used their opportunities
wisely and in real life have pursued
the same course which enables so
many country boys to win fame and
fortune. The more honor to them
for having survived their too great
opportunities. But the country boy
when he comes to town reaches out
for the high places. Though not all
find seats of the mighty, nearly all of
the exalted stations are filled in the
end by men of country birth and
country rearing, for they usually
start out with the sound theory that
what is worth having is worth striv-
ing for.-/ohn Chine, Speed.
A PUNCTUAL BIRD.