The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1917-07-12
When a Boy Knows More
Than his Father

lhan MS rather
Sometimes a boy does know more than
his father. Ours would have been very
different history if Abe Lincoln, age sixteen
or so, had been guided by the wisdom Of
Thomas Lincoln, age thrity-six years or so.
CHOW, Abe" we can imagine him say
ing, "don't waste time readin them books.
Readin' never done me any good, and what
was good enough for mes good enough fol-
you.
Lincoln knew more than his father. l,
was divine disobedience that led him to
close his ears to the man who had brought
him into the world, and open his heart to
the vision that was to help him conquer
the world.
Robert Louis Stevenson knew more than
his father.
That father would have shackled him to
the dry problems of engineering. He could
not understand the obstinacy of the boy
who refused to apply himself. That OBJ
stinacy saved great author from misery as
mediocre engineer. That obstinacy en-
riched the ages.
Jesus Christ knew more than Joseph, his
father.
"Thy father and l have thought Thee
sorrowing," said His mother to Him.
And neither His mother nor His father
could hear the Voice that was calling Him
away from them, the Voice that was to find
fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters
for Him among all those who should do
His will.
"Let no man despse thy YOUTH wrote
Paul to Timothy
The boy who has not some firm convic-
tions and a willingness to defend them,
even against the arguments of those older
than himself, is not likely to amount to
much, either as boy or as man.
But they must be convictions, not mere
prejudices, not selfish impulses or passions.
l know two men who knew more than
their fathers.
One boy is Office manager of large
manufacturing concern, and his salary is
$40 week.
Better GO to school, said his father to
him when he was seventeen years old.
"Better 60 to college,: better get all the edu-
cation you can while you have the chance.
You II need it afterwards
But the boy quit school and went to work.
He was promoted from Office boy to book
keeper, from bookkeeper to head bookeeper,
from head bookkeeper to Office manager.
His path looked golden and long. And
then suddenly he stopped.
"You see that man?" said the president
of his concern to me the other day. "There
is man who might have become general
manager of this concern if he had had a
college education.
His salary might have been $40, 900 a
year; instead it's $4,000. He's reached his
limit. What shame that he hasn't edu-
cation enough to 60 on
He knew more than his father. And his
boyish obstinacy is costing him $500 a
year.
l know another man who ''knew more
than his father.
"Keep yourself clean, my son." said the
father to him. ''You'll never regret it
And some day you'll thank heaven that you
did,
But the boy knew more than his father
He knew that every young man who i.
worth his salt must sow his wild oats.
So he sowed right merrily.
l saw him the other day. He came to
me the other day about getting job.
He was pale, and anaemic, and his hand:
twitched and he was forever rolling cigaret.
ties. He could not concentrate his mind or
one subject for couple of minutes.
couldn't give him job; no man could
God knows what will become of him. He
would starve if it were not for the few dol,
lars he gets from his father.
The father who, he thought, didn't know
as much as he.
Youth is the handspring of the world.
Its insurgency, its inquistiveness, it:
eagerness to try the untried and to do the
impossible, drives the world forward in spite
of the conservatism of age.
Fortunate are those of us who recognize
the divine Importance of youth S cock
ness and conceit, and yet know how, gently
and approximately to temper it with the
ripper judgment of added years.
bruce Barton.
Education