The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1909-05-06
An observant vagrant.

Among strangers in a strange lanu,
as pennilesS as Lazarus at the rlch
mans gate, as lonesome as the lost
sheep of Israel, and with remorse,
repentance and regret, bound for
home like the prodigal son.
Wandering from home lis not the
romance it is sometimes painted 10
be. Mere it is like leaving the feast,
ha,f-fed and realizing too late what
you have had before you. goose and
the wild fowl have more sense than
to fly north lin the fall, yet the wild
boy often thinks that he can be more
successful away from the commands
and counsel of his parents.
Young man, do not leave that pro-
tecting parental roof and three good
meals day unless you know where
YOU are going, what way you are go
ing. and how you can get back.
Leave. if you must, with a deflnIte
understanding of your aim and pur-
pose in life, for possessing only a
faltering ambition and a. vague pes
sDective of the fortune you wish TO
win. even like Longfellow'S youth OF
Excelsior, you will die on the way.
The path to success is easier to
find than it is to travel, you will not
find it in wandering afmlessly about
The map of the road is conceived IN
the mind and you must follow 1T dill
Elgently and without deviation.
My advise is good, but whom am |
to give it? A wanderer upon the fac
eth ora
have a mind to know the right and
may have a heart to love. Even
such a one may not be absolutely
corrupted by the temptations OF the
wicked world to which I'M wilful way
wardness he may have subjected
himself, nor sunk so far into its ma
Nv abyss of alluring pleasures, and 81
and sorrows, as to have entirely
brcken the sacred bonds of a home
Influence that binds the better ma
ture and holds the heart until the
totteT:ng frame totters with faTerhlg
foot steps into the grave.
In the winter month OF his yaga-
bond life he may remember with graft
itude and renewed resolutions that
Though in the city's crowded streets,
or in the western wildS, treadlng the
trackless wood or the crowded thor
oughfare, where his joys and sorrows
is nobody's business, that there is
someone at home to care. se
Ingratitude to the ones who stead
lied and guided your first toddEng
foot steps, who first taught you to
lisp their names, and who stood al
your sick bed from the first chirp OF
the cricket till the mocking bird
sounded its early notes as in approDa.
tion of their patience and care, and
who have toiled and studied for your
welfare from your childhood's car
hest hour. May it not be for you tc
give to them me sting more sharper
than serpent's TOOTH" :
But leave these loved ones, We ad
venturous youth, for the experience
of others will not restrain you, but
treasure and keep fresh in your mem
cry those loving words of the mother
ard that good advice of the father
1t will save you from many OF the
smares and temptations of life and
youthful indescretiOns.
In the varying paths of life you viii
meet a. motley throng, your compan
ions along the way will be according
to your own worth and choosing. Be
slow to choose and slow to trust
those who are precipitate to be ia
miliar and intimately friendly with {
stranger are often not to be desired
and the rebuffs you receive, do moi
let them push you down, but use
them as rounds in the ladder OF ex
perience upon which to climb VI
higher.
Now, in view of the prevailing retro
spective and patronizing advice o.
those who have reached the goal OF
success, is it inappropriate for one
who has not yet struggled i'm the
game, and only watched it i'm wander
ing upon the field to report the point
upon. which he has seemed to see the
others win? May the advice meri
consideration and the poetry of truth
and the arguement of principle ant
precept overcome the sordid and pro
sadie surroundings and the practice
of the preceptor and like seed I'M the
sordd soil, may this bear a harvest
of wholesome fruit though 1T taste Oh
the bread and bacon or the greasy
paper ON which it is writ, smells OF
the musty car and bears the finger
marks of those grim hands.-Uricn
Advocate.