The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-08-28
Comments OnLiying Topics
(By Archibald JOhnSOn.)


room gents, who wenr swoIIow-tai
coats and shirt fronts as big as a
tray? We do not recall one but
many have hauled rails in the rain,
and driven spotted oxen to town after
a load of fertilizer.
There is not a boy at the Orphan
age who has not as good a chance to
become a useful and honOred citizen
as the sons of the most favored in all
the land. However it may be else
where, in this democratic country
men win the confidence of their fell
lows by merit rather than money or
other fOrtuitouS circumstances. Davis
is all the more highly honored be-
cause he was brakeman, and Fair
banks because he was his own cook
at college. We ought to be grateful
every day of our lives that we live in
a land uncursed with caste.
The Plow Boy.
1t has been said before, but it is
pleasant to say again, that the pillow
boy is the leading figure in this bless
ed government Wealth and luxury
are well nigh fatal to the youtha who
would aspire to high station in
American politics. To be born with
a silver spoon in the mouth is a calam-
ity rather than a blessing. Unlike
any other country in the world the
American people go to the fields, and
shops, and tanneries for their presi-
dents. England is ruled by it's royal
ty-the United States by their pillow
boys In England the aspiring youth
depends upon his descent in America
upon his ascent. There the family
| makes the man, here the man makes
the family. This great and refresh
ing truth is strlkingly illustrated in
the nominees of the two great parties
for president and Vice-president Mr..
Roosevelt is the one exception to the
usual rule of country boys being call
ed to the presidential chair; but Mr..
Roosevelt is a plain American with
out any frills about him. Judge
Parker was born on a farm near COrtA
land, New York, where he learned
| the necessity of honest labor. He was
too poor to go to college, his fathers
necessities compelling him to help the
family with his own earnings; so he
began busniss for himself with such
advantages as the village school and
| the Cortland Academy could furnish.
Senator Fairbanks, the Republican
nominee for Vice-president, was born
| in a log cabin on his fathers farm in
Union county, Ohio.% Here he spent
his boyhOod, learning the large lessons
| that have fitted him for the exalted
nothing of the social fooleries that be-
long to dudes, but he was an expert
| at pulling fodder and rolling logs. At
| college he cooked his own meals and
did odd jobs at carpentering to in
| crease his slender financial resources
He walked right past those who sheer
ed at him, and his country called him
into high service. Henry G.. Davis
| found himself in his early teens a
1 ~ n yNi6nWn1 haI
with five children. He hired himself
| TO neighboring farmer near Wood
| stock, Maryland where he was born,
and toiled from sun to sun. His only
| schooling was the meagre training of
| a country school. At nineteen years
| of age he obtained a position as
| brakeman on the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad: from brakeman he was pro-
noted to conductor and five years of
| his life were spent in railroad service
| His talent and energy brought him
rapid promotion. He soon went into
business for himself and amassed a
| colossal fortune. He is not a man of
large culture, but he has great COM
mon sense and tremendous executive
power. Thus, with the exception of
| Mr.. Roosevelt, all the candidate for
| the highest places within the gift of
| the American people, are men who in
| their youth went barefooted and
| fought for bread in a hand-to-hand
| struggle. 1t is an inspiration to
American youth that these are the
| boys who win the highest honors of
| the world. It is no credit to man
| to be born great, but it is a real honor
| to achieve greatness and compel the
| admiration and respect of mankind.
The sickly young gentlemen who learn
| how to bow in a ball room and per-
form all sorts of social antics are not
| in the same class at all with the fell
lows who are wrestling with oxen or
handling the maui and wedge.
We have observed the present-day
methods rather sharply because we
have the very best reasons for doing
| so, and we are fully convinced that
with all the modern equipment in al
most everything the old field school
| is not approached by the average
graded school of the present day
Now chap goes to school, spends
tour hours q day, comes home kicks
up his heels, goes to bed when he
pleases, and never puts his eye on q
book, though he Tugs twenty pounds
OF them in his wallet to and from
school. After awhile he finishes" his
course in spelling, and leaves the r.
out OF February every time. 1t was
not so in the old time. A pupil never
IliiSlleu SpeIllnS at all. Tor the good
old blue-back covers all the ground
from the cradle to the grave; and he
finished nothing else unless he knew it.
Now the object seems to be to make
time rather than to master books
and if a pupil can only rush through
the course he is all right. This may
be old fogyism but many parents are
saying amen to this for they are suf-
fering the same affection with the
writer. We need less systematic or
deriness about our schools and more
solid, honest work, more porting over
lessons at night, more anxiety for
good lessons q little more hickory oil
perhaps and a great deal more thor
oughness in the ground gone over.
The spirit of the twentieth century
is different from that of any of the
preceding centuries in that man who
accumulates money. boards it, and
dies without doing a thing to help a
suffering world, is in disgrace. There
was a time when a man like Russell
Sage would be honored, at least for
his foresight, but who cares a rap for
Russell Sage now?
Some men love to hate and are hap
by only when they are mad. gem
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