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————mmry "RE is an interesting letter from a_
father of seven children:
May 31, 1915.
To the Editor of The
N Sunday American:
> Dear Sir—Wishing you
will excuse my liberty in ad- '
e dressing you, and hoping you
will give this lgtter proper consideration 1
thank you in advance.
Before coming to the point, it is necessary to
prefix some preliminaries. 1 landed in this
country abeui fourteen years ago with an ele
mentary education in Italian, but no knowledge
at all of English. A little after a year I sent
for my wife and three children, whom I had
left with my parents; four moregchildren have
been born in this couniry. Of these seven
shildren, the first two boys (twins) will gradu
tte from High School (Academic Course); the
third boy has finished one year of his com
mercial coursc; the fourth boy is in the
grammar school, %B; two little girls in 4B and
3B and the young®st boy in 18. I am working
and, whiie muking good, I had to struggle very
2ard to bring the family to this point.
Now the reason why I am addressing you is
because. | owe so much of my knowledge of
English to your paper, especially your
editorials, which encouraged me so much that
{ to-day I dare io ask you: What can I do with
my boys? Ido not want any philarihropic aid.
1 simply wish that you will consider the question
and answer me in one of your Sunday editorials.
It will benefit me and perhaps many more
parents who desire that their children go on to
higher studies, but cannot offord it.
Again I thank you and I remain your faith
ful reader. A. AFRICANQ.
- ® . .8
The letter that you read here is sent by the sort
of citizen this country needs. It is also the kind of
citizen that foolish legislation would shut out from this
country on the theory that a land not one quarter
_populated has too many people in it.
. This man comes to the United States, brings up
his children, sends them to the high school, works hard
year after year in order to add good citizens to the
population of the United States. His only thought now
is HOW HE CAN DO MORE FOR THEM, how he can
give them a better equipment to serve the country as
good citizens. \
What grea.er service could a man render to the
nation than this?
We select the story of David and Goliath, the story
of the Jewish youth that slew the Philistine giant, and
make of that story the text for an answer to the ques
tion our reader asks.
_ Saul, the ruler, sent young David out to fight, as
many rich fathers send their sons, UNWISELY
equipped. In the first book of Samuel, XVII. Chapter,
you read:
“And Saul ermed David with his armour,
and he put an helmet of brass upon his head;
also he armed him with a coat of mail.
“And David girded his sword upon his
armour, and he assayed to go; for he had not
proved it. And David said unte Saul, I cannot
g 0 with these; for I have not proved them. And
David put them off him.” .
Observe the wisdom of the young man. He did
not want to undertake his fight against the ?flnt with
weapons that he couldn't use well. Read the thirty
ninth verse of that seventeenth chapter.
The armor that Saul offered to young David and
that the young man wisely refused, knowing that he
couldn’t use it to advantage, suggests the so-called
“‘college education,’’ which is very often an education
in foolishness that so many rich men give to their sons,
thinking that they have equipped them for life’s strug
gle, when really they have loaded them down with dis
" advantages, : b
Young David, the champion fighter of the Bible,
knew what he wanted. The story ‘goes:
“And he took his staff in his hand, and chose
him five smooth stones out of the brook, and
put them in a shepherd’s bag which he had,
even in a scrip; and his sling was in his hand;
and he drew neor to the Philistine.”
Dayid did not start out to meet the giant with a
great military equipment of armor, helmet and sword.
He took the five smooth stones from the brook and a
sling, such as the poorest boy might have as he had
them, and then with ONE of the stones he attended to
the business in hand. :
Verse 49 tells what happened:
“And David put his hand in his bag, and
took thence a stone, and slang it and smote the
Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk
into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to
the earth.””
8o much for the story of yoang Ds.vitf who won an
<mmortal reputation and the first place among old and
young fighters in the simplest possible way.
The picture that the artist, Mr, McCay, puts before
you here shows that the thing can be done in the same
manner ? the youth of to-day starting out to meet the
giant Failure.
Mr. McCay has labelled his five smooth stones in
this picture ‘‘Honesty, Courage, Perseverance, Sin.
cerity, Ambition."’
All of these a young man may have without going
to college; without having specially learned people to
tutor him; without having a rich father to allow him
several years of idleness, accumulating information that
may or may not be of use later,
This is a good selection of qualities; smooth, round,
useful teewes that may be found, kept and used by any
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This Picture and Editorial Are Prepared to Answer a
Father’s Question, “What Shall I Do with My Boys?”
" What Young David Did to the Giant Goliath, Each
Youth Must Do to the Giant FAILURE, the Giant That Faces
Us All and Threatens Us All as We Start Out in Life.
When David Went up to Meet Goliath, He Took in His
ATLANTA, GA., SUNDAY, JUNE 15, 1919.
Bag Only Five Small Stones, Not a Whole Quarry. He
Picked Out Those Stones Carefully, Smooth and Round.
Then, with ONE Stone He Made a Hole in the Giant’s Fore
head, Stretched Him Out, and Cut Off His Head.
What David Did to Goliath Young Men Can Do to the
Giant Failure, if They Select Carefully the Weapons, That Is,
THE MENTAL QUALITIES, with Which to Work.
_youns man. Some time, as in the case of the youthful
'David, one single stone will do the work. More often
it-takes several.
It was one pebble that killed Goliath. But it took
‘more than one quality to send young David out against
him,
~ He had ambition; that sets everything going. The
friend who writes will do more for his sons if he plants
ambition in their minds than he would do if he sent
them first to a fashionable boys’ school, then to an
American university, then to Gxford or Cambridge.
Ambition is to a young man what the engine is to
an automobile. Without the engine the automobile
amounts to little, no matter how nicely you paint it or
how soft you make the cushions. .
- The artist has suggested here, undoubtedly, the
qualities most important to success. These combined
in the right sort of mind produce a sixth quality, SELF
CONFIDENCE, the deep-rooted belief that you CAN
NOT fail.
Young David possessed self-confidence. And, inci
dentally, many of the half-way prejudiced failures of
this day will observe that it is possessed to a wonderful
extent by David's relations, the modern Jews, espe
cially those that come from Russia.
As he went along with the five smooth pebbles, and
the sling that was to end the giant’s career, you could
tell by David's conversation that he knew he was going
to win. ’
Read another few lines from that Seventeenth Chap
ter of Samuel: .
“This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine
hand; and | will smite thee, and take thine head
from thee; and | will give the carcases of the host
of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the
air, and to the wild beasts of the earth.”
Sure enough, just a few minutes later, the giant
wag down with a pebble in his forehead; David who
had come out without a sword, was pulling the giant’'s
own sword from the scabbard, cutting the giant's head
oflwithnsndukingitbacktoshov'ntoflsnltho
ruler, . 9
David, who became a great King, succeeded, as most
of the world’'s great men have done, with a limited
equipment. If he had gone out to meet Goliath loaded
down with the armor that Saul wanted to put on him,
the giant would have crushed him with a blow; David
could not have moved about under the heavy weight
put upon him.
Many a {oung man whose parents think they have
done everything for him have really loaded him down
with care, money, praise, winding up with a college
education. Then they send him out into the world, and
if the lupplg of money does not last he ends as worker
for somebody that started out with nothing.
This is not to say that education wisely directed,
not overdone, combined with sufficient ambition snd
stimulation, is not & good thing. ’
But just as it is easier to succeed in spite of poverty
than to succeed in spite of wealth, so it is easier to syec
ceed in spite of a limited education than it is in spite
of a complex education, with flattery, self-indulgence
and many years of easy life going with the complex
education. . & . 9
The main thing is to bave a simple equipment and
to know how to use it.
Young David had trained his eye and his right arm.
He knew how to nse that sling; how to hurl the stones
that he picked from the brook. That was all the knowl
edge he needed for the work he had to do.
The young man who starts out in this picture meets
the Giant Failure at every turn of the mountainous
road of life. A half dosen good qualities, kept in good
working order, with freedom from vice, self-indulgence,
and dissipation, will take him through.
The man whose letter we print asks advice as to
what to do with his sons. First teach them to work
hard and to like work. Teach them that idleness is dis
grace, and to be ashamed of any kind of work is a
worse disgrace,
Keep carefully out of their minds the notion that
what was good enough for their father is not good
enough for them.
Make them realize that so far they have been m
sites, living on others, living on their father's
work.
Make them know if you can that it is their-duty to
begin the hard work now and to add to what men have
done and to what they know.
Tell them that the world does NOT owe every man
a living, just as the lake does not OWE ovelz man a
fish. "lg:e lake is there and the fish are there. GO AND
CATCH THEM.
Buccess is the easiest, simplest thing imaginable, in
the case of a normal human being with normal health.
You may make success difficult by givin%tho child
an exaggerated idea of its own importance. No parents
do this more frequently than foreign-born parents an
xious to make their children ‘‘better’’ than they wera.
You cannot make a son better than a hard-working
father, for there is not Anything better.
You may give him advantages of eduoation, but if
you give him knowledge without ambition, training
and the constant pressure of necessity, you will do him
no favor, but run the risk of making him worthless.
As regards college education, remember that col
leges do not EDUCATE. They give a young man leis
ure in which he may absorb education or not, as he
chooses. Merely reading books, history, chemistry,
languages and other branches of knowledge wmochani
cally does not make an educated man.
~ Every child of the man whose letter we print will
‘have before he leaves high school more education than
‘Thomas A. Edison had when he began to make himself
useful to the world; more than Honr{ Ford had when
Ih° started out to build his fortune of millions and his
big payrolls; more than Columbus had whex he came
to America; infinitely more than young David had when
his courage made him sey: ‘I can kill the giant and
|1 will,”” and also made mm king. :