Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1908-09-30
YOUNG MEN IN EVERY AGE
ACHIEVE SIGNAL TRl-
uMPHS.
DISTINGUISHED EXAMPLES CHAT
TERToN, KEATS, BRYANT, BY
RON, AND SHELLEY.
INSTANCES IN OTHER
FIELDS JEFFERSON, LAFAY-
ETTE, AND NAPOLEON.

nomination OF Theodore Roosevelt at
Chicago has caused a renewal of the
talk a0out this as the age of young
men that springs UP whenever a c., :
zen still year or SO on the bright side
OF forty is made president of ia
tional bank or head Of great cor
poration, a senator of the United
States or the mayor of a great city.
We speak OF our Scbwahs and Beve-
ridges and M>-iellans, and ask if ever
before such opportunities fell to the
lot of those ungnzzled by advancing
Years.
over the youth of the republican
standard bearer, accidental president
of the United States at 4S, there were
and still are headshakings on the part
of grave and reverend seigniors. To
William of Germany at IS men will
scarcely yet accord his imperial title
without the detractive prefix young
or youthful" and when William OF
Nebraska, an unusually mature man
of SO, was first nominated for the presl.
dency vast numbers OF his fellow
countrymen persisted in regarding
him in the light of a boy orator.
But, after all, are these and several
celebrities of varying degree really
such prodigies of youthful achieve
ment that former generations cannot
equal or surpass them? A glance a.
history forbids an affirmative answer.
On the contrary, the instances where
men much younger, men really in the
first bloom of youth and almost en-
titled to be called boys, have achieved
fame for themselves and left deep
marks on the earths hoary surface
are thick as autumnal leaves in Val
lombrosa.
In the realms where Imagination
holds sway our age is hopelessly dis
tanced Where are our parallels
among poets to Chatterton, who died
at II, and Keats, whose years were
%; to Rosetti, who wrote his Blessed
Damozel' at IS, and Bryant, who pub
lished "Thanatopsis' when one year
older; to Schiller, whose Robbers
was composed before he was 90, and
Shelley, who "'lisped In numbers, for
the numbers came" and Byron, who
awoke and found himself famous az
"a; to the mighty young dramatists
Of Elizabethan days. or to Milton,
Burns, Coleridge, Tennyson, Hugo,
Lowell and a score of others whose
| title to fame was secure before they
entered on their sos? Can our youth
full musicians match the achievements
of the young Handel and the young
Mozart or our youthful painters mea.
sure brushes with the Raphaels OF the
past?
But, objection viii be made, imagin-
alive genius and administrative gen
ius are vastly different. The former
shows itself in early life or not at all,
and as regards il no one will claim
eminence for our intensely practical
and commercial age. Our young men
4 OF genius are administrators and ma
ton builders, and II is with such men
lof former generations that comparison
must he sought. Let It be so. A few
examples taken almost at random Of
young men who, whether actuated by
patriotism or ambition. have in mod.
ern times welded vast power for good
or i'll will serve to show un-foundei
is the notion that the present age is
! especially advantageous to the energy
of youth.
In America 12S years ago man OF
80, already eminent in his native Vir-
ginia, drew up the most famous declar-
alton OF political rights since Magma
Charta-a task and a triumph which
would certainly never have been his
had Jeferson's contemporaries thought
Of him as one who had not reached the
age of prudence. Fired by this docn-
ment, Lafayette. a youth Of 10, lett
France to throw IN his lot with the
revolutionists and achieve in a few
short years a fame that will endure
as long as American history Alex
ander Hamilton at 20 was Washing
ton S aid re camp, at 90 most inhu-
entail delegate to the constitutional
convention, SO secretary OF the
| treasury, and was only 47--or two
Years more than President Roosevelt
lis uow-when Purr's bullet laid him
How.
| Other instances in plenty could b.
picked from American history, but Ea-
rope offers stiH more fruitful field.
There was Charles XII. the iron
hearted Swede,' Rho at 1s defeated
the allied nations. Denmark, Russia
and Poland and with his troops passed
like wbirlwind into the latter
country 20 submerge it and set his
creature on its throne. Theneefoc'
ward his meteoric career dazzled and
terrified Europe. until at % Russia 3
inhospitable plains ami the military
genius CT another extraordinary young
monarch. Peter the Great. brought
about his overthrow at Puitowa and
Jeff a name at which the world
grew pale
e To point moral and adcrn ta,e.
He vas &c when cannon ball ended
I his life in Norway.
Z There was Antoine saintJuat, ebllt