Imperial Valley press., 1944-12-13
NUBBlNS
BY
BURRIS JENKINS

doubt the father of the moderr
newspaper column, met the query
of a young newspaper man who ask
ed him for advice in the following
words. MIR. Brisbane, what single
niece of advice would You give me
and make it most emphatic, in en-
tering unOn newspaper career.
MIR. Brisbane answered at once,
without hesitation, Young man,
preserve your superficiality."
Taken for all i'm all, the advice is
/ lust about as good as could be
/ handed out To any young man en-
tering upon such career. A crack
/ ing good man to have round the
newspaper office is not necessarily
one who knows any subject very
profoundly, enc who is a scholar I'm
any particular line. The more use
full man is one who knows little
bit about everything, rather than
4 great deal about any one thing.
Men who are profoundly learned
have their place and at times are
indispensable. Fer example, one who
is a real expert on China would
come in handy just now. Another
on Greece. and still another on the
long history of British diplomacy.
But we don't find such men hang
ing around newspaper offices, or
for that matter. around colleges
and universities.
IL gives us a shock and a chill Of
something like horror To read in the
headlines today that American boys
of eighteen are now being thrown
into the combat in the European
war. Somehow, we'd grown perhaps
a little more used to il in the South
Pacific, from which we have most
of us seen young chaps of that age
returned bearing their wounds. We
have not yet got used to thinking
OF school boys going up against
those toughened old soldiers of
Germany and her satellites.
Yet. if we come to know some
thing about soldiers, we begln 10
realize that the best ones are usual
" these eighteen-y -year-old boys, just
barely past their adolescence, pro-
yided they have had plenty of hard
ening. training, and tOugheninS.
Certainly, it's that older men, even
though veterans, cannot stand up
against these young boys. Soldiers,
like prizefighters, get to be old men
very rapidly when they pass the
line of twenty. How old was Ivan
hoe? And how old Richard l of
England? Alexander the Great was
still in his early twenties when ne
died.
Some of us have seen that very
clearly in this war. Many a veter-
an of world war one has been SO
eager to get over and get into this
one that nothing could stop him.
and finally, by hook or crook, they
have got into it, then have come
home and submitted to operations
for ruptures. Fact. Some of us have
known of numerous instances. One
such veteran of World war one,
this present writer remembers eau
tioning with gerat deal of care,
easily to be understood if one knew
that the old timer was talking to
his own son, Remember, now. kid,
you're in the fOrties, you're getting
to be an old man. Don't try to-
keep uu with those kids in the
armed forces. You just can't do it,
"Oh. never mind, Dad, I'll make it
alright" He reported and illustrated
the Italian campaign and the Nor
mandy campaign, marching with
the men, keeping up with their fir
ing lines, sleeping and eating with
them in all weather, and under all
fatigue Result, he came home, the
hernia developed. he had the Oper-
alton and spent the necessary four
or five weeks i'm the hospital. The
real soldiers are The eighteen-ye year
old kids, who can endure anything.
can take care Of themselves ade
euately in all emergencies, and are
not much afraif! of anything.
We needn't waste our sympathy
foo much on the eighteen year old