Norwich bulletin., 1921-09-24
THE MAN WHO TALKS


 my eyes and looked into some day be- fore yesterday and saw that boat win ming a race. 1t was decked with flowers. and I heard the shout of loud huzzars. Yesterday it saved somebody's life. But today it is old, unpainted, dilapidated, rotten, I turned with eyes still closed toward another day before yesterday, and I saw bright college student borne on the shoulders of his mates because of saw him yesterday carried off the field on a stretcher with broken back. I see him today a cripple forgotten, neglected. left prematurely to rot on the beach of life! Fellow man, if you are today in the hosanra period of your life make the most of it before the night cometh with it's. burden. You may claw your hair and shout: Rank pessimisrn, D but it's the eternal truth.
 Recently attention was called in these columns to the frequent ambiguity of language. found this so particularly on the sign posts along the great highways of New Hampshire. The following was especially noticeable: Dangerous Sound your horn-Ten miles away" These signs were uniformly oval in shape, having the above bit of mysticism in three lines. Now what in the world utd Il rnean?4 What was dangerous? Tine spot marked by the sign, the middle of the road over which the auto was passing, or on the side opposite the sign? Did it mean that some sharp curve or steep pitch was ahead? If so, why didn't it say so? But the first part of the sign was easy compared with the last, Sound your horn--10 miles away" It must be admitted that some automobiles have rather loud horns, but to sound horn that can be distinctly 10 miles is something of a poser. In my early days I once heard a revivalist at camp meeting who came mighty near filling the bill. If one could sound his horn 10 miles what would be the object?
 Very much is said and written about freedom in the public expression of hon. est opinion. Very much more than is needed. simply because the thing doesn't t exist; it is a mere fgment of the imag- nation" More qualifedly, if one express es free and independent judgment on any conceivable subject he bounced up- on as though guilty of murder in the first degree. Of course in a free coun- l try, so-calIed, he has a legal right to l publicly express his opinion, but he will l be taken to task for doing so. Many l people act as though they believed that no 1 opinions must be expressed contrary to i their own. If 8 person is foolish enough 1 to discuss nlooted question in print l some greater fool will bounce on him with hammer and tongs, showing that he writes in anger and resentment. As there is literally no such thing as free speech the sublimest illustration of pure l idiocy is furnished by the individual who thinks that what he says and writse will l command universal assent.
 We believe that the citizens military l schools which have just completed theiI summer courses at nine different camps have done remarkable work fol ] twelve thousand young men. The main purpose of this project has not been tC manmfskture professional soldiers, but to innpart something of military method in the lives of young men. All young men need just what these camps give Each of the twelve hundred young mer at Camp Devens was found to be i'm perfect, was told of his defect and how i l could be corrected The fellow witt round shoulders was taught how t, l stand erect. The bad hammered wer,
 taught politeness. The gait of thu
 lazy was Guickened.'' Those who wer,
 unsystematic were shown the importanc
 of order; the slovenly were Instructed il 1 the grace of fleatneSs; while promptnes
 was set up as an ideal before the tardy
 The whole line of instruction seems t
 fit in to what the rising generation
 needs if all that qualities of young man
 hood are to function properly.
 One often bumps up against this diff
 ficult problem: Why is nature so prodi
 gal in her apparent wastefulness? I
 may be that the word apparent" reduc
 es the difficulty of the problem. So ia
 as discovery has yet found out nature , | wasteful to the extent of refuting tn law of conservation of energy, and tha
 is regarded as fundamental. To illus
 trate: One stalk of rag weed has enoug reproductive power to cover an acre i a single season. Why then should " , have acres of rag weed that calls for s 7 much effort in the work of destruction One can hardly fail to see the prodigal
 ity of reproductive power, but also tha
 nine-tenths of it must perish becaus unnecessary. Why do our apple tree furnish more than twice as many bios sons as can fructify; and the blossom ) that do set shed as many apples as al
 brought to maturity, Is nature a spend thrift, or does she sacrifice utility [ 7 beauty? What is the solution?
 Americans, people, have attache great importance to the doctrine of uti
 ity. So muck so in fact that it has b, come an obsession with us. All value are translated to us in the terms of do Q lars and cents We have carried tn ' tendency so far as to ignore all otht s standards of valuations. For instanc
 we are not an esthetic people comparab
 to some other people, nor has music o ] cupied so prominent a place in our edl
 cation as with some nations. We wal ] 1 along the seasfore and realize the inca - 1 culable energy of the breakers as the
 dash along the beach and We say: ''Wf
 hasn't somebody invented means of tran
 muting this energy into channels ; utility?' Do we stop to consider th y some things are created for beauty rath
 than utility When God made the TO
 He thought more of it's beauty than l. usefulness. Utility has already begun .. rob Niagara of it's majesty. and it ma
 be so with other bits of our natur
 scenery. We may 5e obliged to say
 utility: Thus far shalt thou go and l l. farther"
 l- To revel in the beauties of natur D. scenery. it is not imperative to visit t
 Rocky Mountains of our own country al
 Canada or even the Alps. For sublir water views, why go to Lakes Co l0 stance and Geneva in Switzerland. -s Lake Como in Italy, when about us a ie incpmparable scenic beauty? Take
 moonlight night at any of our Connectic
 shore resorts. You sit on a bluff owe .e looking a fine expanse of calm water - the moon rises. At your feet is lo @ concavity of yellowish white beach LII regularly dotted with patches of bla
 seaweed. Behind you the rising mo
 brings to view the purple haze of imper IS mountain majesties In the distar ix ahead we see the alternate flashing