The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1911-10-20
The Minister'S Son

They say that the minister's boy is
wild and wicked ana bad, that he is
shiftless, lazy and thriftless. short on
ambition, long On straw rides, pool
aud poker, shy On useful work. chur-
fish, boorish, a ninny and a nance.
Compared with other boys. we are
told by those who pretend to know, he
is everything that they are not and
rothing that they are. The one builds
and enriches the world by his industry
they say and the other. contributing
nothing In helpful effort to the civiliz-
tion of which he is a part, lives by
the Drawn and brain of his brother.
One wins the big prizes of life and the
other, inert, inapt, musclon-bound and
indifferent, though alike In origin and
destiny to the other boy, is straggler
in the procession, just so much fiotsom
on the sea of progress. 1t 1T were true
but it isn't this would be a severe
indictment of that vast army of hard
working, honest, sincere, whole souled
and whule hearted men, who for a
comparatively small pittance. work
night and day to keep US on the
straight pass and out of Jail, and to
whom we have recourse as a faithful
friend, when we want the place that
little gold circlet on the finger Of the
girl we love, or need sumo one to
christen the baby, bring cheer and
comfort to the sick and send the dead
properly accredited to Peter at the
pearly gate.
When the FELLOW with a grievance
against the minister's boy HES along
with his bile, remind him that Samuel
Finley Breese Morse, the inventor of
the telegraph, which broke down the
feudal walls of the old werlG and made
the universe akin by bringing the most
isoalted and remote corner of the
habitable globe into instant touch
with the centers of civilization, was g
minister's son and the grandson of
Jonathan Edwards, one of the greatest
preachers that ever lived. Tell him
that Grover Cleveland and Chester
Alan Arthur, two of the twenty-seven
presidents of the United States, were
minister's sons and regarded as An
asset and a help rather than handi-
cap.
And that General Nathaniel Greene,
the trusted friend and ally of Washing
ton at the battles of Trenton, Prince
ton, Germantown and Brandywine,
was the God fearing son of a patriotic
Quaker dominee and was none the less
useful as a citizen because he was
valorous as a soldier. Also Joseph
Addison, the English author and master
word painter; William Cowper, the
poet: Charlotte Bronte and John
Fletcher, disciples of Parnassus, whose
muse and writings set the world a
thinking were the children of clergy
men. So were the late E. H. Harri-
man, the genius who standardized the
American railroads and Bob IngersilI,
who soured by the hardships endured
by his mother, through the fickleness
of country congregations in shifting
his father from pillar to post IN search
Of mearge living, became with Vol
taire and Paine. one of the world
pal apostle of the new 'show me"
philosophy. K. M, Turner, the bril-
liant contemporary of Thomas A. Edi-
son and Alexander Graham, in electri-
cal research. inventor of the acousti-
con. the autograph, the interior tele-
phone and other useful devices that
make for present day efficiency, lays
it to his father. Parson Jim" Turner,
a quiet, thoughtful Baptist preacher
of Indiana, that he is what he is. An
other conspicuous son of a Baptist
clergyman who credits the helpful in
tiuence of his father with being a
potential factor in his climb to fame is
Charles Evan Hughes. former Cover
nor of New York and now Associate
Justice of the United States Supreme
Court.
So when the fellow with the crouch
on the ministers hoy comes around,
and begins to hammer, just remember
these Things. Pass 'em out to him and
it'll wake MIN up. If he's made of the
right stuff he'll feel like a boob for
talking the way he does and maybe
he'll wish that he too was a minister
boy.