Williams news., 1907-09-21
THE VILLAGE CLUB HOUSE
(By Fred Phillips.)

Did time and space permit much might be said in favor of the village | club house. It diverts the young and active mind from the monotony of daily duties and lessens the inclination to join the innumera ble caravan that is surging towards the great cities.
 No one is really worth the name of man or woman who is not energized by an ambition to become something more than a mere wage earning machine-to make living. It is this surplus ambition that keeps our great human world in notion. Noiselessly, it steals into the village homes and there plucks from our 6resides our most precious jewels, and hlesses and enriches i the great ia amily of earth as it goes. |
 Like the line of the babbling brook, it is faced on either side by fresh. green fields as far as the ey can see It is along it's verdant banks that our youths fight the great battle of life and succeed or fail. If their strong bodies and deter mined will are sufficient to overpower the temptations and discomforts that they meet on the way, then success attends them; they win high positions for them selves, elevate society, and perhaps leave the world better than they found 1t.
 But how many leave home with the impression that a great future awaits them-to be had just for the taking? A young man may be honest. industrious, and true to himself but he, meets the money shark who is cognizant of his own interests only, and makes no allow , ance for the imperfections of our country lad, and, our boy, disappointed and discouraged by what seems to him miserable
 failure, drifts from the high ideal that first inspired him to join the
 multitude of the metropolis, and
 sinks into despair. He has been : looking through a magnifyina glass and everything had been represented by extremes.
 He left his village home to seek fame and fortune in the turmoil of great city. Through misfortune 1 he. lost his caution and self-reliance.
 Plunged beyond the depths of
 his capabilities, his little bark houndered in the rolling waves of the business world and left him a hopeless wreck. Slowly and sadly
 he retraced his steps towards his
 village home, an humber and a , wiser man.
 t Oliver Goldsmith, one of the most charming of English writers, l belonged to this type of youth, and
 several years of the best part or his
 life were spent in idle wanderings and poverty. Let it not be SO with ours. If we have' any Gold
 smiths among us, let us develop
 their talents in the pure and holy
 atmosphere of home.
 l Labor is the true solution of T life's problem, and many times the 2 boy who goes abroad to study a
 profession misses the calling which l kind Providence created him to
 follow, and spells a good black
 smith by making poor lawyer.
 We must not forget that
 diploma on an office wall and a swinging sign over the door does
 not make a professional. It takes a man not only of ability but ada pta bility for the profession he
 is to follow.
 Let us find what our boys and girls can do, and if possible. keep :. them in the shadow of home until l they learn how to do it. We will F turn to the club house and reading e circle for innocent recreation and e instruction for our boys and girls
 until they are old enough and
 strong enough. mentally and