Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-10-17
THE WAY OF YOUTH

There isn't anything much more hope
less said a double-chinned, shrewd-eyed
wholesome-lookfng man of fifty than this
job of trying to make a kid of twenty or
so look at life through midde-aged eyes
The kid of twenty or won't do it. He
can't do it. Is isn't in him. He don't
know how
It's part of the pathos of the game of
life. l take it. that we've all got to go up
against and through the game ourselves,
no matter what the consequences. The ex-
per-enCe of those who have been through
the hard old mill doesn't have any de-
terr1ng effect whatever upon the young
fellow who is just wedgng into the melee
himself. He's got to find out all about it
himself, and he's going to find out all
about it II he snaps a puckering string in
the attempt There's not the slightest use
il life in corraIIing him, either mildly or
forcefully, and telling him how, why and
where ne is getting in wrong The boy
IS going to look right at and through you,
and then he's going to spin out of the
corral and keep right on doing Just the
things that his elders. the wiseacr have
warned him against-Only worse, and more
Of EN-.
Il am moved to these more or less trite
reflections by the fact that I am myself
| the dad of boy. just come of age while
ago. who has got his molars down on the
bit and is making the circuit OF the track
at racing clip. before the fall of the flag.
He's not doing anything ba-ad, or evil or
vicious. He has simply connected with a
stride that leads in whole lot of different
diret tons. He may gallop the course until
he gets tired, and then slacken up and
cool out of his foam and get ready there
after to settle down to a steady, winning
clip at the flash of the bunting or he may
| butt into the fence or hop into the infield
and break something, or otherwise destroy
his future usefulness There's no telling.
Only the boy himself can steer his course.
He's the doctor Nothing that anybody
can say to him-most acutely and par
ticularly nothing that his dad can or could
say to hints going to cause him to pull
up He's got the breeze in his nostrils. and
he's going to sniff it at canter until
whatever natural sense he possesses comes
t" his aid. or until the inevitable hard slam
supervenes and fetches him up short. He's
got to go the distance. and he's got to take
his medicine, whatever it's going to be.
whenever am tempted to take that boy
of mine off into corner and try to argue
him out of his tomfoolery. 1 suddenly get
to thinking of the way such occasional
talks that my own dad nd bestow upon me
at the same age would impress me-and
then l renege. and renege hard.
or course, l used TO listen respectfully
enough to what my dad 'ud have to say.
but l can remember that 1 always had
powerful feeling that he didn't much know
what he was talking about.
" 1 am exceedingly fond of and attached
" tlHS clueTly gentleman, parent
be saying unto myself. even at the moment
when he was handing me sensible tips as to
the wiser way should adopt of conducting
myself, but 1t Is exceedingly Shutdown
right distressing. 1 call it-that he should
know so little; that he should be so in
formally old-fashioned and old-fogyish. His
youth was passed in another period-what
| does he know Of what's going on in the
world now? Why should I steer my craft
according tc the markings OF his conserva-
tive chart? And. just because he. as he
says, struck few snags when he was my
age, why the dickens Is that any reason
why l. too, should run into 'em-when 1 am
50 Infinitely more dead wise than he was
at the same age? l wish that he would
give me rest-I know what I'm about
guess I'm as crafty as the next One-and I
wish he'd forget these drooling old notions
of his, and try to remember that I'm more
than seven years of age-aint l wearing a
plug hat and frock coat and swinging a
cane, same as he is? l like my old dad
enormously-but I'm blamed If 1 don't wish
that he'd give me a restr
! There's no lodging or getting around it
that's the way the thinks used to filter
through my fool young head when nv old
dad was endeavOring to pass me the benefit
OF his sage experience. He didn't do it
often-only once In great while, when I'd
| make some break peculiarly raw-but even
when he did l couldn't see what he said
with thousand horse power microscope
Ihere were times, In fact, when 1 used
| to say to myself under such circumstances
| wen. poSe the Olu gentleman Is right :?
| 3 pose do slam into all Of these hard-luck
games that he's warning me against? How
| did he find out about en- If he didn't go
| up against them himself? And If he went
| up against EN-. why haven't I the right to
| do the same thing? Where does he come in
to block me from the fun that he himself
| almost on his own confession, had when he
was my age?
! And 50. what's the use? Remembering
| as DO with such perfect retentiveness. the
stubborn and antagonistic thoughts that
percoiated through my own twenty-year-
| od mind when my own father was gently
| trying to drill a little sense and caution
| into me- I'd simply feel like a rank ont
slder or a poll parrot if l attempted TO
Ioulo my own son up and convince him of
the robustness of his course I'd reason
aDiy take 1t for granted that the Same sort
| OF Things We're working In his mind under
sucn circumstances as worked in mine in
slmiiar circumstances: and so I'd simpIv
waste my breath, and, besides. lose ont In
J the Youngsters estimation-it'u be a good
zen or nfteen years yet before he'll begin to
give ms old dad credit for possessing enouob
Drain matter TO go in when 1t rains
| All or which gets me back to the initial
| postuiate: We've all got to find out for orr.
| serves at hrst hand. no matter how hard wa
| get walloped in picking up the exnertencs
| BUT, say. how some of those waIIons tho +
we prlng upon ourselves in earIy ufe do
hurt-um-uh!' AAA0 w