The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1916-05-23
It Is Hard To Tell How
Numb A Young Skull Is

In the June American Magazine
sid" says:
What has become of Blanchard
Ripley James? Long ago he was a
high school classmate of mine out in
Ohio, and now he is lost. The other
day l found that they were advertis-
ing for his postoffice address in the
village paper back home. 1t seems
that for years and years he clerked
in store in Grand Rapids. after
which he tightened up his belt strap
and made a dive into the Great West
what success nobody knows.
We'll, sir, l could no believe it,
Blanchard Ripley James lost? New
er! Why, he was the boy we voted
as the one among us with the bright
est future. The greatest things were
predicted for him. He looked like
Daniel Webster, kept his hair brush
ed, beat us all at our studies, took
more interest in school than any
body-and, above all, how he could
wag his jaw. He was the best speak
er of pieces that ever walked up the
steps to the rostrum of the Second
Church. On gradua-
tion night he was our prize exhibit.
The rest of us looked foolish beside
him, and felt foolish. Our only
pride lay in the fact that for the mo-
ment our names were printed on the
program with his and we were going
to receive just as good an imitation
sheepskin diploma as he. But of
course we expected that on the morn
ing after graduation the gulf be-
tween him and us would begin to
widen, and would increase until he
would be talking on the floor of the
United States Senate, and we, with
our wives and children, would be sit
ting in the visitors gallery happy in
our membership in the 1-knew-him-
when Club
But the whole thing has shifted.
You can page the United States Sen
sentatives, and you won't find him.
did not come through with the wal
lop.
What is the answer? The answer
is that youth is always a mystery.
You simply cannot pick winners that
early. You cannot distinguish be-
tween the able and the stupid, the
slippery and the honest, the playful
and the vicious, the initiative and
the original, the weak and the
strong, the aggressive and the SER
vile, the ambitious and the compla-
cent. Youth is a period of uncer-
tainty and hope. This is one reason
why fathers and mothers are so hap
py over their children. Nobody
knows what great surprise is in
store. The slowest-appearing child
in the family may, (may, mind you)
turn out to be bowling genius. At
any rate, the neighbors had best not
point the finger of scorn-not yet,
not yet! For if they do they ma
have to take it back.
And SO, clear up to commence
ment night, and for sometime after,
fathers and mothers can claim great
things for every child in the family
and nobody will dare dispute them.
OF course, the world will finally call
for a showdown, but when it does
those who might be interested in the
result are themselves lost, or scat
tered so far that it would take an
explorer to find them and carry them
the news.
Some boys die in youth-thus
preserving forever the mystery as &c
their hidden talents. Usually it is
said of such that they were bright
and remarkable, with a great future
4 before them. We all worship sue.
cess-even going so far as to wor-
ship it where it does not exist.
so get your white vest ironeC
and be ready for the graduating eX
ercises this month. You cannot tel
who will be there. 1t may be The
coming Thomas A. Edison, or it may
Je the coming conductor on the Eas
College Street car line"