Year: 1879

We would not view the Youth of ON
country with anything less ,han the gravest
reverence. or listen TO his mature judgements
and pronounced opinions with anything short
Of the profoundest awe. We not only warmly
welcome him into the wide field Of National
politics. but we stand aside before his i'm
preesive entrance and his stately steppings
and bend listening, eager ears to catch
his earliest utteranccs and learn from
the purposes be declares the things
Fate has in store for mankind. In
his Freshman and Sophomore years IN college
the Youth of America deyotes his energies
chiefly to the scheme Of education, in which
he finds serious defects which demand iame-
dIafe reform. Could he linger II few years
longer at this stage. and remain OF tie same
mind. he would undoubtedly rcvOutlOnZc the
systems DOW in vogue, and he would certainly
bounce the instructors. But hc does not taTTy


long enough. Passing to his Junior and
Senior years, he grasps tie literature OF
all ages and all lands, and passes it under thc
review of his keen critical Judgment II may
haze merits, but with these he does not con-
Germ himself. The Youth Of America is moth
ing if not critical. His function is not to
cater 10 the vanity Of authors 10y praise, but
20 djscipline and school them by caustic crii-
cism. and by holding them vigorously to the re-
anirements of the highest standards in art and
letters. The nine hundred and ninety-nine meri-
torious things in literature he leaves unnamed,
hut the one defect, the solecism, plagiarism,
multitude or commonplace, he pounces on and
lifts aloft. 1t nay b. sand that the Youth Of
America lacks experience, and the pbilosophic
mind that age only brings, but he more than
makes it up by his bounce and his broad and
beaming self content.


II is in the field of politics, howeYer-into
which the Youth of America comes little
later. as to a dlstastefGl task which he would
f,ip avoid. but which he feels that his own
Intellectual prominence and the expectations
of his fellow-men compel him to take up
that he is especially delightful. He knows
that the world is very badly governed how
badly few persons besides himself are
thoroughly aware. lie agrees with The Weekly
Loilipop that it is the duty Of educated per-
sons TO protest against the ordinary and COM
monpace way in which the governing is done,
and the commonncss and vulgarty of the people
who are doing 1t. Seeing that there is a
choice between the two parties, and that one,
with occasional errors and blunders and mis-
steps and stumbling, is made up for tho most
part of sincere and honest pen who are try
ing To do the best they can with tie ma
terials they have, and are reaching out after
the attainable good instead of beating the air
yainly Tor some impossible ideal. while the
other Is low in its aims mean III its motives
dishonest in its professions, mischievous in
i,s purposes, and bad in all It's record, he
says-wi.h The Daily Brcech-hicker and The
Weekly LoLp0p-" The duty of educated
"persOns at this uncturc Is to admin
lister a rebuke that will be remembered
"to the party that occasionally does wrong by
contributing to the success of the party that
"never does anything else" This is the first
view which the Youth of America takes OF the
politics of his native land. He is alarmed at
the stream of tendency which he cannot turn,
and is too polite to dam. and shocked ut the ex-
cessive vulgar1ty OF the politicians. whom he in