The Frankfort roundabout. [volume] (Frankfort, Ky.) 1882-1908, 1907-03-02
Our Raw Material.

perusal:
Our Raw Material.
Mr. Toastmaster and Gentlemen OF
the Convention:
l congratulate myself this evening
that the toast to which l have been
requested to respond, requires no
labored definition or explanation.
have but to announce that Our Raw
Material" that is, the raw material of
the Y. NJ. c. A. is "The Small Boy"
and the subject is at once photo
graphed upon your minds eye, and the
picture hangs in bold relief on
"Memory's WALL" You know him;
you have met him, in fact, you have
been him, therefore, you are perfectly
familiar with his Majesty, the Small
Boy. He is a Cosmopolitan, found in
all countries, all ATTITUDES and longi-
tudes, and as far north as man has
ever penetrated, and if the north pole
is ever discovered, doubtless he will
be found there, trying his level best to
climb it, with his Sunday clothes on.
Whether you find him clothed in furs,
amid the eternal ice and snow of the
Arctic regions, or clad in fig leaves
and atmosphere, under the burning
rays of the Equator's sun, he is the
same paradox and phenomenon. How
or why his life is spared, and he is per-
mitted to reach manhood's estate, is
beyond the ken of the finite mind.
The Small Boy that l have known
was not the Ideal Small Boy you read
about in Sunday-school books, who
measures his conduct by the Golden
Rule, and has for his PLATFORM Of
principles the Ten Commandments,
upon which he stands pat, whose con-
versation is yea, yea and nay, nay"
who goes about doing good, visiting
the sick, feeding the hungry and cloth
ing the naked, until the grim rider of
the proverbial pale horse takes him
up for canter down the valley of the
shadow of death, and on to that
no traveller ever returneth. This
species of the homo genus had canter
ed away or been shelved in books be-
fore | came upon the scene.
Now there is George Washington,
whose birthday we celebrate to-day;
he is held up in his youth as one of
the ideal and model small boys, who
made speciality of truthfulness, but
never met George, he, like the others
of his ilk, had passed off the stage
of life before l came on, consequently
any information regarding him is al
together hearsay, which is not alto
gether reliable. have known small
trees and to be caught, but never
knew of one, when discovered in the
act, striking an attitude, like G. w. is
represented as doing with his left
hand on his breast and right hand
grasping the destructive Ratchet and
pointing to his handiwOrk exclaim,
with apparent pride, Father, | did it
with my little Ratchet, / can't tell
lie), and then to have his father fall
on his neck and weep tears of
paternal pride. That kind of confess
sion and reception may have been con-
ventional back in the eighteenth
century, in Georges day, but if one
of my companions had been detected
by his, paternal ancestor, in my day |
and generation, engaged in the similar
pleasing pastime of telling fruit trees
with his little Ratchet, the attitude
and condition would have been entire.
ly different and something like this
(hatchet dropped behind him in the
weeds, finger in his mouth and |
trembling, say, it blew down, or
didn't go to do it,, and in the sequel,
there would have been no homily pro-
nounced on truth, no shedding Of
tears chat is, of parternal pride) or
wasting of salutations, but limb of
that felled tree, in the hands Of the |
irate father, would have served ito
point a moral" and teach a lesson,
that would make him Jingle to think
about in after years, and after the
operation was over and his tempera-