The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1913-03-23

JN1AN beings never learn BY
EXPERIENCE.
They never even learn that
they CANNOT learn by expert
ence.


you may be sure that the cave men warned their
little boys against a certain path through which
the mammoth travelled. And you may be sure
hat as soon as the cave man was gone the little
boys hurried down TO the path to find out for
themselves whether it was true, and to see the
mammoth if possible.
And the cave woman warned her little girls
against snakes in certain holes in the rocks. And
when her back was turned the little girls hur-
ried over with stick, and poked in the holes
to see if the snakes were really there
So it has been from the days of the cave men
to the days OF men that live in sky-scraping
bulldings-that talk across copper wires one
thousand miles long, and talk across the ocean
without wires, and travel underground, and fjv
through the air.
Each of us at birth is white page of mental
writing paper, and upon that page the exner;-
ence of the individual must do the writing
Nobody else can write upon it for us. NJ.
body can convince us that we should he ou;dad
by what has happened to others. 'e"
You may tell child thousand times tb.+ So
VIII Durn; but II Will not keep away from the
fire UNTIL 1T HAS ACTUALLY REEN
BURNED. HIIS
1ou may warn young men that whiskey will,
destroy them, yet, ninety mine times omf ~iil
hundred, II temptation and opportunity axa
there, the young man must find out at Ieas 49,
Tor himself that what his father told him ahant
whiskey is true. '' aoeut
You may warn little boys as much q. w.,
choose against cigarettes-you NAV descs yGa
wildly with your hand on the nit of your CO.."
ach how dreadfully sick tobacco will nsaI1.
them VIII make
But sooner or later Won will find ~ :. az.
boy with his hand on the nit Of HIs sta il.te
bitterly regretting, too late, that he womid ~
oelieve what his father told him-looL;na ~,
win ms little blue face and his fearful eyes ~
say that he won't do it again. Co. -
Mothers warn their daughters against h.s.
marriage and against other mistakes md San
gers-hut the daughters have to find out fnx
themselves ou' iof
And SO it goes throughout all life. The youno
statesman learns only through humiliation and
The soldier learns through danger ,nd
wounds soi ana
Inc experience of others cannot teach us
And, as the old Greek philosophers Of donht
said I'VE assert nothing, not even that we 90.
sert nothing SO the wise man of to-day realizes
EXPERIENCE DOES NOT TEACH. 80 :
For, with all the ages of experience III ~ h.
passed the old men still talk to the young and
think that they WILL be warned by the older
mans knowledge.
And fathers and mothers still scold and
e L:Iay punish their children because those
children have simply refused, as the fathers and
mothers had refused before them to be guided
by experience.
You see In this picture an old man pointiny
out to young boy the dangers ahead. Yon
yourself, perhaps, will take this picture and
point to the scenes of foolish evil living to
which the old man points and warn some how
You will say to him, perhaps, 'My bow. look
at this old man and this little boy. The old man
is telling the boy the truth. If the bow would
believe hm-if he had intelligence enough to
trust the old mamie could keep out of danger
away, from disappointment and failure: and he
could be useful, successful, good man at tho
beginning of his career. But this little how will
scarcely listen to the old man. Take warn;ng
by him, and be guided by what tell you"
The bitterest anguish in this world has hee,
that OF the fathers and mothers comnelled ~
the last to realize that their own lessons If I;fe
cannot be made useful for their children
And to those who examine conditions sunor
hclally 1t seems great curse tc the hmmon
race that the gift of speech, the most imnortant
g1ft bestowed upon man next to his power Of
thought, should be worthless in the warn;na o of
children against the mistakes of their fathers
and mothers. Aa'"erS
Through the ages-for thousands If vs.~.
and thousands of centuries-each human he;n1