The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-07-01
Destiny and q Boy.

Shall we start our stirring story to-
day-the biography of boy-from
a carved marble pillar that 1 treasure
in my home. because it is dug from
the ruins of the old, old city which
was the birthplace of the boy. Saul of
Tarsus? This fragment of ancient
stone is precious because the touch of
a great life is upon it. For SO per-.
sonality enriches and enlightens every
thing.
Somebody asks, as he turns over the
days newspaper, What do you know
about the new fighting between the
Turks and the French; and the Turks
and the Christians in this place called
Cilicia?" His neighbor shakes his
head negatively, as he deyotes himself
to the more familiar theme of the big
prize fight. But if the remark had
been, II see that there is more trouble
in the Apostle Paurs home town of
Tarsus." it would have been received
with interest. you don't mean to say
the map? And that it is one of the
central sore spots of the Near East?
Well. well! What do you know about
that? Why, 1 studied about Tarsus
and Paul when was a kid in Sunday
The biggest fact about any COM
nlunity is that a certain man was born
there. Chambers of Commerce may
boost town, but only boys and girls
grown great can really put 1t on the
worlds map. A surprising number of
our soldiers in France visited the little
town of Domrefny. simply because it
was the birthplace of Joan of Arc.
The centuries make pilgrimage to the
early homes of the great. The log
cabin in which Abraham Lincoln was
born is now enshrined within beauti-
full marble building on the spot where
he nIaVed =, a The
Old World is holy ground because
dotted with the memorials of the great
ones of history. Bethlehem. Naza-
reth and Jerusalem are the centers of
perpetual pilgrimage because Jesus
once dwelt there. We wonder how
being taught this present Lesson on
Saul of Tarsus will themselves be the
means of making their home towns
famous?
The Boy Who Counts.
My neighbor is gentle ornitholo-
gist, but his 5-year-old son despoils
birds nests! Also, he climbs the diff
ficult trees of the neighborhood: I
heard him up in the cherry tree by
my window a few days ago, and we
had talk about the trees he climbs.
He disdains the easy ones, and is
needless of dirty hands and torn
clothes. THAT Benny is little ras-
CAL" declared an authority on boys,
recounting some of his mischievous
pranks and his power over his play
| mates: but, as she spoke, her eyes
sparkled with admiration. She would
not have him otherwise, for his traits
all spell personality. I am counting
on Benny to be a climber in life. He
will do the unconventional, and often
shock Mrs. Grundy-unless the wrong
sort of teachers. iron him out in. the
meantine-but he will emerge a real
man, a doer in life. Perhaps 1 may
live to boast that II knew him when
he was boy"
AS I walked thru an old Roman
arch in the city of Tarsus, the first
very same arch when he was boy"
Doubtless he was proud of it. as one
of the beautiful sights of his city:
for Paul knew how to boast-fie upon
him.-and ten thousand speakers
and writer's have cribbed his phrase,
Tarsus slogan, thanks to him, is bet
ter known than that of Chicago, or
any other modern municipality.
We do not know much about PauPs
boyhood in this Roman university
city; but we do know that. like my
| little neighbor Benny, he must have
been a personality. He was an origi-
nator and an initiator, a leader of his
boyhood gang" We do not any
| longer have to whisper the great
/
sional educators,-that 1t is not the
prim and proper and ever-c6nforming
| boy who amounts TO most, but the
| one with personality ana daring and
originality, Foolish parents and
| teachers seek to compress children
| into a common mold: the wise en-
| courage the development of indfvidu-
atty and self-relianee-
4 After all these centuries, let US offer
this little tribute to the memory of
- h.
Saul of Tarsus: they also were great,
I for he mirrors their greatness. Be-
hind every achieving life is some un-
known person or persons who helped
make it possible.
| A Country Doctor. Hero.
On the platform at Princeton juno
ton, last night, fell into talk with
a man wearing a smile that went deep
err than his many facial wrinkles We
| talked all the way to Philadelphia
had seen him saying goodbye to q
| husky student at the Princeton sta
ton, and I surmised the story before
| heard 1t.
| OF course, he was happy with that
matchless happiness which is like no
/ other joy that life ever brings.-the
| happiness of a father whose son Is dos
| ing well. in character and in achieve
ment. I heard all about it: the boy is
a modest Christian, of noble character
that, first of all. was the fathers
pride Later came recital OF athletic
proves and of boyhood successes and
traits. How the face OF the father
giowed, as we sat slouched back in the
seat of q night train. and the CONVEX
sation ran oni More than one mill
| lionaire would give his last dollar to
possess such q son as the boy who had
hidden his dad goodnight at the train.
| Still, am bound to say that my ad-
nairation went out to the father. rather
than to the boy. Happily, know many
such students; they are q pride and a
| delight and a hope of our time, with
| its perplexities. The father was I'M
conscious of his own qualities. He is
a small-tewn physician. with only the
income that such receive, He has five
children, and he seemed TO take 1t for
granted that all OF them must be edu-
/ eatad That man is manning to have