The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-12-04

W DUNG MEN. however well fur
 " nished in the matter of brains,
 N are apt to make errors of judg-
 ment. It is one of the penalties under which youth is made to labor; otherwise youth would possess even a larger proportion of the advantages of this world than it now unfairly enjoys.
 Such an error of judgment was made by young Peter Beauchamp when he called Sir Henry Budd "a pompous old ass.'' not exactly to his face. but in such a manner that the criticism reached the ears of its object as, indeed, it was in- tended 10.
 The error did not lie in the view taken of Sir Henrys characteristics. The opin- ion itself was no error at all. Univers- ally held opinions seldom are. The mis- take lay in the manner of its imparting. and Peter Beauchamp did not discover it until he saw Sir Henry's daughter. Then he became justly annoyed with him. self.
 Sir Henry Budd was what is called self-made man. That is to say, he was responsible for his own development from an obstinate, self-centered, poor man, who. for his own advantage, was obliged to curb his tyrannous instincts, into an opinionated old one. with a large num- Der of people dependent on his whims; and, however much he may have con- graduated himself on the change. the world at large was scarcely the happier for it.
 He had his good points, however; he seldom bullied his wife, and his only daughter never. CHe had tried to do so once after her childhood had passed, but that episode does not come into this story. Consequently, the more objec- tionable points of his character were hid den from those two ladies.
 Sir Henry Budd having lived for 6 years without setting foot in any country other than his own, had taken it into his head to pay a visit to America, where he had heard that certain faint interest was shown by a section of the populace in mat ters of commerce, and to see for himself something of the methods employed.
 So he had booked berths for himself. his wife and his daughter. and joined the boat at Queenstown, determined to show all and sundry whom he might meet on lis travels that Sir Henry Budd, knight. was as good man as any of them, and a good deal better than most
 By the same boat travelled young Peter Beauchamp, bent upon getting all the fun that was possible out of trip around the world.
 It was on the first evening out that the error of judgment referred to was made Peter Beauchamp was sitting. after din- ner, in a compartment of the smoking room with two or three other young men, when Sir Henry Budd joined the party, uninvited, sank heavily into a vacant seat. fetched an opulent looking cigar out of a plethoric case and placed an order for liquid refreshments in a manner calcu- lated to show a harassCd steward that among all his many masters, there was one. at least who was not to be trifled with.
 The young men were talking politics not perhaps with any great grasp either of principle or detail. but hardly with such complete lack of knowledge as to justify Sir Henry Budd, whose views did not coincide with theirs. in breaking rude ly into the conversation and giving them to understand that he had listened to a good deal of nonsense in his time. bu, had only then and there realized the ful- ness of folly that could issue out of the mouths of persons presumably sane. He then proceeded to a disquisition on the subject in question, which was received fer the most part in silence, an attempt on the part of one of the young men tc treat his conclusions as at least debatable being met with extreme impatience.
 And the lecture lasted until a rather heavy roll of the ship, which had been