The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-05-24
Capt. J. G. Waters Eloquent
Address at Colby.
Paints Picture Of Future For
High School Students.
LIKE A MOVING TRAIN.
So Easy to Sidetrack aud De-
strOy Youth.
Cultivate Backbone Like a
Telegraph Pole"
LIKE A MOVING TRAIN.

Captain ]. G. Waters delivered the adj
dress to the graduating class of the
Colby high school yesterday. Captain
Waters impaired good advice in any
thing but a conventional vein. His ad-
dress in part was as follows.
THE few words OF mine spoken here.
viii come to the younger portion OF
those who hear them. with more apt
ness and force 50 years hence, than they
do now.
youth is a real dream that requires
all Of a life time TO disuel. it is TO
nance more veraciOus than history and
an unfolding tale that the riVeted atten-
tom scorns to disbelieve- 1t is period
that the world loves even in its ugllest
moods The great ocean has not yet
been reached. In a land locked harbor
the vessel chafes its chain; around is
the clear water, sparkling under the Sc
rene sky; and when the night comes all
its stars are aglow; it hears the music
float seaward and the early summer air
laden with the sweet briar. touches 1t
with hope, happiness and love. To the
scholars here present you have to this
hour been surrounded with the Darrl-
cade of friends and home; you have
never felt the rude, unteeling Jostle OF
the worlds selhshness. ambition and
greed; back of you are the sweet inhu-
ences of home; and back of these, is the
great foster parent which we designate
as the law, that cherishes you as the
apple Of its eye and hopes to have you
completely equipped and armed when
you shall at last go out into the world
to fight your battles with it,
THE schools are the great recruiting
stations for the battaliOns of right and
civilization; they are the great reser-
voirs Of a nations strength in a time of
need. In the 600 600 schools of the Uni
ted States, sit somewhere, upon the pat
ented school furniture, regardless Of
gender, its presidents. statesmen, sages,
one can point them out with the finger,
unless it is the mothers The rest of us
must wait until the scroll unwinds. 1t
may be that some one of these prOmiS-
ing vessels, with all sails hoist may
voyage with the prayers of a mother
filling the canvas like a constant trade
wind, and the strong impulse of a faith
eres aftet tton propelling them forward
Ike gulf stream current. and yet,
when the record is written. it may find
this particular VOyager at last, a barker
at sideshOW; one of the three clowns in
a saWdust ring the attendant and groom
Of the clay bank horses in a merry-go-
round, or what might be worse, a light
ming rod pedlar in a drOuthv territory.
youth is just like a moving train; it
is so easy to throw the switch and de-
rail it: or to turn it into side track
and destroy itself and the box cars
standing on the siding. The unlucky
choice Of a single companion may be the
throwing of a switch. The first glass of
liquor may be the fountain head of a
lifetime tragedy. The world may good
humoredly forgive the boy who comes
home some hot summer afternoon with
his shirt turned wr0ngsideOut, and who
asserts to an easily satisfied mother that
he must have got it turned in skinning
the eat on a gymnasium pole. 1t may
even excuse the turbulent spirit that
disarranges things on Halloween, but it
dispairs of one who is cruel to a dog,
unbrotherly to a sister or undlial to
boy and am pleased to have a boy just
as bad as he can be. with the limita-
ton however, that he at all times COM
mands the respect of his own honor,
that he never feels the coward or syco-
phant in his own bosom. and never
meets the gaze Of any one with an
averted eye
1T is not for me to suggest to you
anything concerning your schools. could
whole course iii the common schools, the
manual training school, a four years at
ale ana post graduate course at Heidle-
burg, consists of a winters term or two
or signing geography. is not in such a
ers or advice on the subject Of schools. 10
This day when / want to remember the
capital of Wisconsin [ have to sing my
way an through nasal New England and
states to get it. The less cumbersome
methods by which you NAV now reach the
same results show the schools have kent
pace with the sewing machine. the troTter
---AN
Fields
IT is after the graduation with which
been given the congratulations said after
the flowers have faded the lights turned
OIL and the door closes behind you and
YOU are out into the great world. 1t is
with these that have to do.
Ihen, my young friends, you will have
20 sur your stumps; you must keep up
with the procession or get bumped You
viii then be no longer d fragile vine that
can twist itself around the ancestral oak
ne IlISL InlDE 1t should n NH
ton to acquire is "A backbone. a cartilagfn-
GUS substitute viii no LONGER answer. YOU
VIII have need of it. The ONLY arfnor
young manhood wants is spine; the best
gun in young persons cruiser is a
road and is so easy to carry 1t is al
ways on hand when it is wanted. The
is always complaining and regretting that
he is not an old women. ouartered on the
CHARITIES OF some Ingleside, and he could
~ more MI niInSeiE 10 perpendicular
than a snake could upend itself in the
dlrt road to see the sunrise. The want OF
a baClADone mas been the destruction OF
more people than ever attended our
schools The farmer who cannot resist
the temptation of bucket shoD and b7Tvs
wheat options Instead of raising the crop
IS IN sheer want of that article. the
p0llLlelan VINO promises too many per
sons, the official who forgets his oath
20 reconcile voters the lawyer who prac-
ices on both sides Of the bar; the legis-
features in the worlds story of disaster
ana rum where, if there had been an
- ttSt4dtru JOINT or Two OF back bone in
the family it would not nave happened.
The nearer you get to having a back
bone like a telegraph sole the safer vou
viii be. Sometimes it is the only weapon
with which you can stand off an enemy
1t IS courage in all its forms. 1t viii be
Phlllips before a Boston mob, a Dewey
at Manila, a lone martyr for the right
cause, or it may divide the tear and bear
the burden Of some soul helpless and
distressed. You cannot buy it in the
market. it must be sprouted and raised
by yourself; and you viii find there are
more June bugs, cut worms and catapfl-
lars to straddle it and eat it up and kul
Il cut than there were Of grasshoppers in