ADVICE
TO
YOUNG MEN AND BOYS
[Illustration: _Stephen Girard._]
ADVICE
TO
YOUNG MEN AND BOYS
_A SERIES OF ADDRESSES_
DELIVERED BY B. B. COMEGYS
MEMBER OF THE BOARD OF CITY TRUSTS OF PHILADELPHIA
TO THE PUPILS OF THE GIRARD COLLEGE
ILLUSTRATED WITH
Six Photogravure Portraits on Steel
PHILADELPHIA
GEBBIE & CO., Publishers
1890
Copyright by
GEBBIE & CO.,
1889.
PREFACE.
In January, 1882, I was appointed by the Judges of the Courts of Common
Pleas of Philadelphia to the Board of Directors of City Trusts, which
has charge of Girard College, having for some years previously, by the
kind partiality of President Allen, been on the staff of speakers in
the Chapel on Sundays. My interest in the Pupils was of course at once
increased, and ever since I have given much time and thought to the
moral instruction of the boys.
From the many Addresses made to them I have selected the following
as fair specimens of the instruction I have sought to impart. Some
repetitions of thought and language may be accounted for by the lapse
of time between the giving of the Addresses, not forgetting the
well-known Hebrew proverb, “Line upon line――precept upon precept――here
a little――there a little.”
The word “Orphans” as used in the will of Mr. Girard has been defined
by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania to mean boys who are fatherless.
The book is published in the hope that it may be the means of helping
some boys and young men other than those to whom the Addresses were
made.
4205 WALNUT ST.,
_November, 1889._
CONTENTS.
STEPHEN GIRARD AND HIS COLLEGE. (Introductory) PAGE 9
HOW TO WIN SUCCESS “ 25
LIFE――ITS OPPORTUNITIES AND TEMPTATIONS “ 39
ON THE DEATH OF WILLIAM WELSH “ 51
BAD ASSOCIATES “ 59
ON THE DEATH OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD “ 69
THE CASE OF THE UNEDUCATED EMPLOYED “ 79
WILLIAM PENN “ 99
OUR CONSTITUTION “ 113
JAMES LAWRENCE CLAGHORN “ 129
THE LEAF TURNED OVER “ 143
THANKSGIVING DAY. (November 29, 1888) “ 155
ON THE DEATH OF PRESIDENT ALLEN “ 169
A YOUNG MAN’S MESSAGE TO BOYS “ 179
A TRUTHFUL CHARACTER “ 188
LIST OF PHOTOGRAVURE ILLUSTRATIONS.
STEPHEN GIRARD _Frontispiece._
B. B. COMEGYS PAGE 25
WILLIAM WELSH “ 51
JAMES A. GARFIELD “ 69
JAMES LAWRENCE CLAGHORN “ 129
PROFESSOR W. H. ALLEN “ 169
STEPHEN GIRARD AND HIS COLLEGE.[A]
INTRODUCTORY.
[A] This introduction is taken by permission from “The Life and
Character of Stephen Girard, by Henry Atlee Ingram, LL. B.”
Stephen Girard, who calls himself in his will “mariner and merchant,”
was born near the city of Bordeaux, France, on May 20, 1750. At the age
of twenty-six he settled in Philadelphia, having his counting-house
on Water street, above Market. He was a man of great industry and
frugality, and lived comfortably, as the merchants of that day lived,
in the dwelling of which his counting-house formed a part. He was
married and had one child, but the death of his wife was followed
soon by the death of his child, and he never married again. He lived
to the age of eighty-one and accumulated what was considered at the
time of his death a vast estate, more than seven millions of dollars.
One hundred and forty thousand dollars of this was bequeathed to
members of his family, sixty-five thousand as a principal sum for
the payment of annuities to certain friends and former employés, one
hundred and sixteen thousand to various Philadelphia charities, five
hundred thousand to the city of Philadelphia for the improvement of
its water front on the Delaware, three hundred thousand to the State
of Pennsylvania for the prosecution of internal improvements, and an
indefinite sum in various legacies to his apprentices, to sea-captains
who should bring his vessels in their charge safely to port, and to his
house servants. The remainder of his estate he devised in trust to the
city of Philadelphia for the following purposes: (1) To erect, improve
and maintain a college for poor white orphan boys; (2) to establish a
better police system, and (3) to improve the city of Philadelphia and
diminish taxation.
The sum of two millions of dollars was set apart by his will for
the construction of the college, and as soon as was practicable the
executors appropriated certain securities for the purpose, the actual
outlay for erection and finishing of the edifice being one million nine
hundred and thirty-three thousand eight hundred and twenty-one dollars
and seventy-eight cents ($1,933,821.78). Excavation was commenced May
6, 1833, the corner-stone being laid with ceremonies on the Fourth
of July following, and the completed buildings were transferred to
the Board of Directors on the 13th of November, 1847. There was thus
occupied in construction a period of fourteen years and six months, the
work being somewhat delayed by reason of suits brought by the heirs of
Girard against the city of Philadelphia to recover the estate. The
design adopted was substantially that furnished by Thomas U. Walters,
an architect elected by the Board of Directors. Some modifications were
rendered advisable by the change of site directed in the second codicil
of Girard’s will, the original purpose having been to occupy the square
bounded by Eleventh, Chestnut, Twelfth and Market streets, in the heart
of the city of Philadelphia. But Girard having, subsequently to the
first draft of his will, purchased for thirty-five thousand dollars the
William Parker farm of forty-five acres, on the Ridge Road, known as
the “Peel Hall Estate,” he directed that the site of his college should
be transferred to that place, and commenced the erection of stores and
dwellings upon the former plot of ground, which dwellings and stores
form part of his residuary estate.
The college proper closely resembles in design a Greek temple. It is
built of marble, which was chiefly obtained from quarries in Montgomery
and Chester counties, Pennsylvania, and at Egremont, Massachusetts.
The building is three stories in height, the first and second being
twenty-five feet from floor to floor, and the third thirty feet in the
clear to the eye of the dome, the doors of entrance being in the north
and south fronts and measuring sixteen feet in width and thirty-two
in height. The walls of the cella are four feet in thickness, and are
pierced on each flank by twenty windows. At each end of the building
is a vestibule, extending across the whole width of the cella, the
ceilings of which are supported on each floor by eight columns, whose
shafts are composed of a single stone. Those on the first floor are
Ionic, after the temple on the Ilissus, at Athens; on the second, a
modified Corinthian, after the Tower of Andronicus Cyrrhestes, also at
Athens; and on the third, a similar modification of the Corinthian,
somewhat lighter and more ornate.
The auxiliary buildings include a chapel of white marble, dormitories,
offices and laundries. A new refectory, containing improved ranges
and steam cooking apparatus, has recently been added, the dining-hall
of which will seat with ease more than one thousand persons. Two
bathing-pools are in the western portion of the grounds, and others
in basements of buildings. The houses are heated by steam and lighted
by gas obtained from the city works. Thirty-five electric lights from
seven towers one hundred and twenty-five feet high illuminate the
grounds and the neighboring streets. A wall sixteen inches in thickness
and ten feet in height, strengthened by spur piers on the inside and
capped with marble coping, surrounds the whole estate, its length
being six thousand eight hundred and forty-three feet, or somewhat
more than one and one-quarter miles. It is pierced on the southern
side, immediately facing the south front of the main building, for the
chief entrance, this last being flanked by two octagonal white marble
lodges, between which stretches an ornamental wrought-iron grille, with
wrought-iron gates, the whole forming an approach in keeping with the
large simplicity of the college itself.
The site upon which the college is erected corresponds well with
its splendor and importance. It is elevated considerably above the
general level of the surrounding buildings and forms a conspicuous
object, not only from the higher windows and roofs in every part of
Philadelphia, but from the Delaware river many miles below the city and
from eminences far out in the country. From the lofty marble roof the
view is also exceedingly beautiful, embracing the city and its environs
for many miles around and the course, to their confluence, eight miles
below, of the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers.
The history of the institution commences shortly after the decease of
Girard, when the Councils of Philadelphia, acting as his trustees,
elected a Board of Directors, which organized on the 18th of February,
1833, with Nicholas Biddle as chairman. A Building Committee was also
appointed by the City Councils on the 21st of the following March, in
whom was vested the immediate supervision of the construction of the
college, an office in which they continued without intermission until
the final completion of the structure.
On the 19th of July, 1836, the former body, having previously been
authorized by the Councils so to do, proceeded to elect Alexander
Dallas Bache president of the college, and instructed him to visit
various similar institutions in Europe, and purchase the necessary
books and apparatus for the school, both of which he did, making an
exhaustive report upon his return in 1838. It was then attempted to
establish schools without awaiting the completion of the main building,
but competent legal advice being unfavorable to the organization
of the institution prior to that time, the idea was abandoned, and
difficulties having meanwhile arisen between the Councils and the Board
of Directors, the ordinances creating the board and authorizing the
election of the president were repealed.
In June, 1847, a new board was appointed, to whom the building was
transferred, and on December 15, 1847, the officers of the institution
were elected, the Hon. Joel Jones, President Judge of the District
Court for the City and County of Philadelphia, being chosen as
president. On January 1, 1848, the college was opened with a class of
one hundred orphans, previously admitted, the occasion being signalized
by appropriate ceremonies. On October 1 of the same year one hundred
more were admitted, and on April 1, 1849, an additional one hundred,
since when others have been admitted as vacancies have occurred or to
swell the number as facilities have increased. The college now (1889)
contains thirteen hundred and seventy-five pupils.
On June 1, 1849, Judge Jones resigned the office of president of the
college, and on the 23d of the following November William H. Allen, LL.
D., Professor of Mental Philosophy and English Literature in Dickinson
College, was elected to fill the vacancy. He was installed January 1,
1850, but resigned December 1, 1862, and Major Richard Somers Smith, of
the United States army, was chosen to fill his place. Major Smith was
inaugurated June 24, 1863, and resigned in September, 1867, Dr. Allen
being immediately re-elected and continuing in office until his death,
on the 29th of August, 1882.
The present incumbent, Adam H. Fetterolf, Ph.D., LL. D., was elected
December 27, 1882, by the Board of City Trusts. This Board is composed
of fifteen members, three of whom――the Mayor and the Presidents of
Councils――are _ex officio_, and twelve are appointed by the Judges
of the Court of Common Pleas. Its meetings are held on the second
Wednesday of each month.
It has been determined by the courts of Pennsylvania that any child
having lost its father is properly denominated an orphan, irrespective
of whether the mother be living or not. This construction has been
adopted by the college, the requirements for admission to the
institution being prescribed by Mr. Girard’s will as follows: (1) The
orphan must be a poor white boy, between six and ten years of age, no
application for admission being received before the former age, nor
can he be admitted into the college after passing his tenth birthday,
even though the application has been made previously; (2) the mother
or next friend is required to produce the marriage certificate of the
child’s parents (or, in its absence, some other satisfactory evidence
of such marriage), and also the certificate of the physician setting
forth the time and place of birth; (3) a form of application looking to
the establishment of the child’s identity, physical condition, morals,
previous education and means of support, must be filled in, signed
and vouched for by respectable citizens. Applications are made at the
office, No. 19 South Twelfth street, Philadelphia.
A preference is given under Girard’s will to (_a_) orphans born in
the city of Philadelphia; (_b_) those born in any other part of
Pennsylvania; (_c_) those born in the city of New York; (_d_) those
born in the city of New Orleans. The preference to the orphans born
in the city of Philadelphia is defined to be strictly limited to the
old city proper, the districts subsequently consolidated into the city
having no rights in this respect over any other portion of the State.
Orphans are admitted, in the above order, strictly according to
priority of application, the mother or next friend executing an
indenture binding the orphan to the city of Philadelphia, as trustee
under Girard’s will, as an orphan to be educated and provided for by
the college. The seventh item of the will reads as follows:
“The orphans admitted into the college shall be there fed with
plain but wholesome food, clothed with plain but decent apparel (no
distinctive dress ever to be worn), and lodged in a plain but safe
manner. Due regard shall be paid to their health, and to this end their
persons and clothes shall be kept clean, and they shall have suitable
and rational exercise and recreation. They shall be instructed in the
various branches of a sound education, comprehending reading, writing,
grammar, arithmetic, geography, navigation, surveying, practical
mathematics, astronomy, natural, chemical, and experimental philosophy,
the French and Spanish languages (I do not forbid, but I do not
recommend the Greek and Latin languages), and such other learning and
science as the capacities of the several scholars may merit or warrant.
I would have them taught facts and things, rather than words or signs.
And especially, I desire, that by every proper means a pure attachment
to our republican institutions, and to the sacred rights of conscience,
as guaranteed by our happy constitutions, shall be formed and fostered
in the minds of the scholars.”
Although the orphans reside permanently in the college, they are, at
stated times, allowed to visit their friends at their houses and
to receive visits from their friends at the college. The household
is under the care of a matron, an assistant matron, prefects and
governesses, who superintend the moral and social training of the
orphans and administer the discipline of the institution when the
scholars are not in the school-rooms. The pupils are divided into
sections, for the purposes of discipline, having distinct officers,
buildings and playgrounds.
The schools are taught chiefly in the main college building, five
professors and forty eight teachers being employed in the duties of
instruction; and the course comprises a thorough English commercial
education, to which has been latterly added special schools of
technical instruction in the mechanical arts. As a large proportion of
the orphans admitted into the college have had little or no preparatory
education, the instruction commences with the alphabet.
The order of daily exercises is as follows: the pupils rise at six
o’clock; take breakfast at half-past six. Recreation until half-past
seven; then assemble in the section rooms at that hour and proceed to
the chapel for morning worship at eight. The chapel exercises consist
of singing a hymn, reading a chapter from the Old or New Testament, and
prayer, after the conclusion of which the pupils proceed to the various
school-rooms, where they remain, with a recess of fifteen minutes,
until twelve. From twelve until the dinner-hour, which is half-past
twelve, they are on the play-ground, returning there after finishing
that meal until two o’clock, the afternoon school-hour, when they
resume the school exercises, remaining without intermission until four
o’clock. At four the afternoon service in the chapel is held, after
which they are on the play-ground until six, at which hour supper is
served. The evening study hour lasts from seven to eight, or half-past
eight, varying with the age of the pupils, the same difference being
observed in their bedtimes, which are from half-past seven for the
youngest until a quarter before nine for the older boys.
On Sunday the pupils assemble in their section rooms at nine o’clock
in the morning and at two in the afternoon for reading and religious
instruction, and at half-past ten o’clock in the morning and at three
in the afternoon they attend divine worship in the chapel. Here the
exercises are similar to those held on week days, with the important
addition of an appropriate discourse adapted to the comprehension
of the pupils. The services in the chapel, whether on Sundays or on
week days, are invariably conducted by the president or other layman,
the will of the founder forbidding the entrance of clergymen of any
denomination whatsoever within the boundaries of the institution.
The discipline of the college is administered through admonition,
deprivation of recreation, and seclusion; but in extreme cases corporal
punishment may be inflicted by order of the president and in his
presence. If by reason of misconduct a pupil becomes an unfit companion
for the rest, the Will says he shall not be permitted to remain in the
college.
The annual cost per capita of maintaining, clothing and educating each
pupil, including current repairs to buildings and furniture and the
maintenance of the grounds, is about three hundred dollars. Between the
age of fourteen and eighteen years the scholars may be indentured by
the institution, on behalf of “the city of Philadelphia,” to learn some
“art, trade, or mystery,” until their twenty-first year, consulting,
as far as is judicious, the inclination and preference of the scholar.
The master to whom an apprentice is bound agrees to furnish him with
sufficient meat, drink, apparel, washing and lodging at his own
place of residence (unless otherwise agreed to by the parties to the
indenture and so indorsed upon it); to use his best endeavors to teach
and instruct the apprentice in his “art, trade, or mystery,” and at
the expiration of the apprenticeship to furnish him with at least two
complete suits of clothes, one of which shall be new. Should, however,
a scholar not be apprenticed by the institution, he must leave the
college upon attaining the age of eighteen years. In case of death
his friends have the privilege of removing his body for interment,
otherwise his remains are placed in the college burial lot at Laurel
Hill Cemetery, near Philadelphia.
Citizens and strangers provided with a permit are allowed to visit the
college on the afternoon of every week day. Permits can be obtained
from the Mayor of Philadelphia, at his office; from a Director; at
the office of the Board of City Trusts, No. 19 South Twelfth street,
Philadelphia, or at the office of the _Public Ledger_ newspaper.
Especial courtesy is shown all foreign visitors, and particularly those
interested in educational matters.
* * * * *
In December, 1831, Mr. Girard was attacked by influenza, which was then
epidemic in the city. The violence of the disease greatly prostrated
him, and, pneumonia supervening, it became at once apparent that he
could not live. He had no fear of death. About a month before this
attack he had said: “When Death comes for me he will find me busy,
unless I am asleep in bed. If I thought I was going to die to-morrow I
should plant a tree, nevertheless, to-day.”
He died in the back room of his Water street mansion on December 26th,
aged eighty-one years (or nearly), and four days after he was buried in
the churchyard at the northwest corner of Sixth and Spruce streets.
For twenty years the remains reposed undisturbed where they had been
laid in the churchyard of the Holy Trinity Church; when, the Girard
College having been completed, it was resolved that the remains of the
donor should be transferred to the marble sarcophagus provided in its
vestibule. This was done with appropriate ceremonies on September 30,
1851.
Girard’s great ambition was, first, success; and this attained, the
longing of mankind to leave a shining memory merged his purpose in the
establishment of what was to him that fairest of Utopias――the simple
tradition of a citizen. A citizen whose public duties ended not with
the State, and whose benefactions were not limited to the rescue or
advancement of its interests alone, but whose charities broadened
beyond the limits of duty or the boundaries of an individual life, to
stretch over long reaches of the future, enriching thousands of poor
children in his beloved city yet unborn. His life shows clearly why he
worked, as his death showed clearly the fixed object of his labor in
acquisition. While he was forward with an apparent disregard of self,
to expose his life in behalf of others in the midst of pestilence,
to aid the internal improvements of the country, and to promote its
commercial prosperity by all the means within his power, he yet had
more ambitious designs. He wished to hand himself down to immortality
by the only mode that was practicable for a man in his position, and
he accomplished precisely that which was the grand aim of his life. He
wrote his epitaph in those extensive and magnificent blocks and squares
which adorn the streets of his adopted city, in the public works and
eleemosynary establishments of his adopted State, and erected his own
monument and embodied his own principles in a marble-roofed palace.
Yet, splendid as is the structure which stands above his remains, the
most perfect model of architecture in the New World, it yields in
beauty to the moral monument. The benefactor sleeps among the orphan
poor whom his bounty is constantly educating.
“Thus, forever present, unseen but felt, he daily stretches forth
his invisible hands to lead some friendless child from ignorance to
usefulness. And when, in the fullness of time, many homes have been
made happy, many orphans have been fed, clothed and educated, and many
men made useful to their country and themselves, each happy home or
rescued child or useful citizen will be a living monument to perpetuate
the name and embalm the memory of the ‘Mariner and Merchant.’”
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
OF
CITY TRUSTS,
1889.
W. HEYWARD DRAYTON, _President,
Ex-Officio Member of all Standing Committees_.
LOUIS WAGNER, _Vice-President_.
ALEXANDER BIDDLE,
JAMES CAMPBELL,
JOSEPH L. CAVEN,
BENJAMIN B. COMEGYS,
JOHN H. CONVERSE,
WILLIAM L. ELKINS,
WILLIAM B. MANN,
JOHN H. MICHENER,
GEORGE H. STUART,
RICHARD VAUX.
MEMBERS OF THE BOARD “EX OFFICIO:”
EDWIN H. FITLER, _Mayor_.
JAMES R. GATES, _President Select Council_.
WILLIAM M. SMITH, _President Common Council_.
* * * * *
F. CARROLL BREWSTER, _Solicitor_.
FRANK M. HIGHLEY, _Secretary_.
JOHN S. BOYD, M.D., _Supt. Admission and Indentures_.
[Illustration: _B. B. Comegys._]
HOW TO WIN SUCCESS.
May 27, 1888.
I wish to speak to you to-day about some of the plainest duties of
life――of what you must be, of what you must do, if you would be good
men and succeed.
It would be strange if one who has lived as long as I have should not
have learned something worth knowing and worth telling to those who are
younger and less experienced. I have had much to do with young people
here and elsewhere, and I have seen many failures, much disappointment,
many wrecks of character, and have learned many things; and I speak to
you to-day in the hope that I may say such things as will help some
boy, at least one, to determine, while he is here this morning, to do
the best he can, each for himself, as well as for others. My remarks
are particularly appropriate to those just about to leave the college.
It is convenient for me to consider the whole subject――
1. As to health.
2. As to improvement of the mind.
3. As to business or work of any kind.
4. As to your duties to other people.
5. As to your duty to God.
As to health. You cannot be happy without good health, and
you cannot expect to have good health unless you observe certain
conditions. You must keep your person cleanly by bathing, when that is
within reach, or by other simple methods (such as a common brush) which
are always within your reach. Be as much in the open air as possible.
This is, of course, to those whose work is within doors and sedentary,
such as that of a clerk in any shop or office. Pure, fresh air is
Nature’s own provision for the well-being of all her creatures, and is
the best of all tonics.
Be careful of your diet; for it is not good to eat food that is too
highly seasoned or too rich. Don’t be afraid of fruit in season and
when it is ripe. But don’t eat much late at night. Late hot suppers are
apt to do great harm. The plain, wholesome food provided here, accounts
for the extraordinarily good health which almost all of you enjoy.
Have nothing whatever to do with intoxicating drinks. And the only
way to be absolutely safe is not to drink even a little, or once in a
while. Don’t drink at all.
Be sure you get plenty of sleep. Be in bed not later than eleven
o’clock, and, better still, at ten. A young fellow who goes to work
at seven o’clock in the morning can’t afford to keep late hours.
Young people need more sleep than older ones, and you cannot safely
disregard this hint. Late hours are always more or less injurious,
especially when you are away from home or in the streets. Beware of the
temptations of the streets and at the theatres.
As to public entertainments or recreations in the evening, go to no
place of seeing or hearing where you would not be willing to take your
mother or sister. If you keep to this rule you are not likely to be
hurt. If you play games, avoid billiard saloons, and gambling houses,
or parties. You cannot be too careful about your recreations; let them
be simple and healthful as to mind and body, and cheap.
Have no personal habits, such as smoking, or chewing, or spitting, or
swearing, or others that are injurious to yourselves or disagreeable
to other people. All these are either injurious or disagreeable. Have
clean hands and clean clothes, not while you are at work――this is not
always possible――but when going and coming to and from work.
Always give place to women in the streets, in street-cars, or in
other places. Do not rush into street-cars first to get seats. A true
gentleman will wait until women get in before he goes. Do not sit in
street-cars, while women are standing, unless you are very, very tired.
Here is a temptation before you every day almost in our city. Hardly
anything is more trying than to see sturdy boys sitting in cars while
women are standing and holding on to straps. And yet I see this every
day. What is a boy good for, that will not stand for a few minutes, if
he can give a woman or an old man a seat?
If you are so favored as to have a few days or two weeks holiday in
summer, go to the country or to the sea-shore, if your means will
allow. The country air or sea air is better for you than almost any
other change.
Do not be extravagant in dress; but be well dressed――not, however, at
your tailor’s expense. It is the duty of all to be well dressed, but
don’t spend all your money on dress, and especially don’t buy clothing
on credit. It is particularly trying to pay for clothing when it is
nearly or quite worn out. By all means keep out of debt, for your
personal or family expenses, unless you are sure beyond any doubt that
you can very soon repay your dealer the money you owe. The difference
between ease and comfort, and distress, in money matters, is whether
you spend a little more than you make, or a little less than you make.
Don’t forget the “rainy day” that is pretty sure to come, and you must
lay up something for that day.
Very much of the crime that is committed every day (and you cannot open
a paper without seeing an account of some one who has gone wrong) is
because people will live beyond their means; will spend more than they
earn. They hope for an increase of pay, or that they will make money in
some way or other, and then when that good time does not come, and as
they can’t afford to wait for it, they take something, only borrowing
it as they say, but they take it and spend it, or pay some pressing
debt with it, and then, and then――they are caught, and sent to court,
and tried and sent to――well, you know without my telling you.
As to the mind.
You have fine opportunities for education here, but they will soon be
over, and if you leave this college without having a good knowledge
of the practical branches of study pursued here, and which Mr.
Girard especially enjoined should be taught, you will be at a great
disadvantage with other boys who are well educated. I had a letter in
my pocket a few days ago written by a Girard boy, and dated in the
Moyamensing Prison, full of bad spelling and bad grammar; and next to
the horror of knowing he was in prison, I felt ashamed, that a boy so
ignorant of the very commonest branches of English education should
have ever been within the walls of this college.
I think I have told you before of a man who employs a large number of
men, whose business amounts to perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars
in a year, who is entirely ignorant of accounts, and who a few years
ago was robbed and almost ruined by his book-keeper, and who would now
give half of what he is worth, and that is a good deal, if he could
understand book-keeping; for he is entirely dependent upon other people
to keep his accounts.
As to books, be careful what you read. How it grieves me to see errand
boys in street-cars, and sometimes as they walk in the streets, reading
such stuff as is found in the dime novels. Not merely a waste of time,
though that is bad enough, but a positive injury to the mind, filling
it with the most improbable stories, and often, also, with that which
is positively vicious. Read something better than this. Do not confine
yourselves to newspapers, and do not read police reports. Attractive
as this class of reading is, it is for the most part hurtful to the
young mind. There is an abundance of cheap and good reading, magazines
and periodicals; and books and books, good, bad, indifferent; and you
will hardly know which to choose unless you ask others who are older
than you, and who know books. Most boys read little but novels; and
there are many thoroughly good novels, humorous, and pathetic, and
historical. Don’t buy books unless you have plenty of money; for you
can get everything you want out of the public libraries; and this was
not so, or at least to this extent, when I was a boy.
As to work or business.
Set out with the determination that you will be faithful in everything.
Only last week a Girard boy called on me to help him get employment.
I asked him some questions, and he told me that he had been out of
the college five or six years, and had five or six situations. Do you
think he had been faithful in anything? If he had been, he would not
have lost place after place. When you get a place, and I hope every
one of you will have a place provided for you before you leave here,
be among the first to arrive in the morning, and be among the last to
leave at the end of the day’s work. Do not let any fascination of base
ball or anything else lead you to forget that your first duty is to
your employer. Be quick to answer every call. Don’t say to yourself,
“It is not my place to answer that call, it is the other boy’s place,”
but go yourself, if the other fellow is slow, and let it be seen that
you are ready for any work. And be very prompt to answer. Do whatever
you are told. Say “yes, sir,” “no, sir” with hearty good-will, and say
“good-morning” as if you meant it. In short, do not be slovenly in
anything you have to do; be alive, and remember all the time that no
labor is degrading.
Be sure to treat your employers with unfailing respect, and your
fellow-clerks or workers, whether superiors, inferiors or equals, with
hearty good-will.
Do not tell lies directly or indirectly, for even if your employer do
so, he will despise you for doing so. No matter if he is untruthful,
he will respect you if you tell the truth always. Do not indulge in
or listen to impure talk. No real gentleman does this, and you can
be a real gentleman even if you are poor, for you will be educated.
Make yourself indispensable to your employer; this, too, is quite
possible, and it will almost certainly insure success. Be ambitious in
the highest sense. Remember, that if not now, you will hereafter have
others dependent upon you for support or help. It is a splendid thing
for a boy to go out from this college with the determination to support
his mother; and some that I know and you know are doing this, and many
others will do it.
I pause here to say that, so far, my words have been spoken as to your
duties to the world, to yourselves. I have supposed that you boys would
rather be bosses than journeymen, that you would rather own teams than
drive them for other people, that you would rather be a contractor than
carry the pick and shovel, that you would rather be a bricklayer than
carry the hod, that you would rather be a house-builder than a shoveler
of coal into the house-builder’s cellar. Is it not so?
Now, I say that if you should do everything I tell you, and avoid
everything I have warned you against, you cannot succeed in the best
sense, you cannot become true men, such men as the city has a right to
expect you to be, unless you seek the blessing of God; for he holds all
things in his hands. “The silver and the gold are mine, and the cattle
upon a thousand hills.” If God be for us, who can be against us?
In these closing words, then, I would speak to you as to your duty to
God.
What shall I say about this? I can hardly tell you anything that you do
not already know, so often have you been talked to about this subject.
But nothing is so important for you to be reminded of, though I fear
that to some of you hardly anything is so uninteresting. Naturally the
heart is disinclined to think of God and our duty to him. But we cannot
do without him, though many people think they can, or they act as if
they thought so. Such people are not wise; they are very foolish.
He made us, he preserves us, he cares for us with infinite love and
care, he has appointed the time for our departure from this life, and
he has prepared a better life than this for those who love him here. We
cannot afford to disregard such a being as this, for all things are in
his hands. If you will think of it, some of the best men and women you
know are believers in God, and are trying to serve him. Do you think
you can do without him?
Cultivate, then, the companionship, the friendship of those who love
and fear God, both men and women. You are safe with such; you are not
quite so sure of safety in the society of those who openly say they
can do without God. When I speak of those who fear God, I do not mean
merely professors of religion, not merely members of meeting or members
of church, but I mean people who live such lives as people ought to
live, who fear God and keep his commandments. You know there are such,
you have met with them, you will meet many more of them, and you will
meet also those who call themselves Christians, but whose lives show
that they have no true knowledge of God, who are mere formalists, mere
professors.
Become acquainted with your Bible. I mean, read it, a little of it at
least, every day. You need not read much, it is well sometimes that you
read but a little; but read it with a purpose――that is, to understand
it. The literature of the Bible as you grow older will abundantly repay
your careful and constant reading even before you reach its spiritual
treasuries. In reading a few days ago the argument of Horace Binney,
Esq., in the Girard will case, I was surprised to see how familiar Mr.
Binney was with the Bible, and he was one of the ablest lawyers that
has ever lived in our own or any other country. Yet Mr. Binney thought
it quite worth his while to read and study the Bible. Don’t you think
it is worth your while also?
Be a regular attendant at some church. I do not say what church it
shall be. That must be left to yourselves to determine, and many
circumstances will arise to aid you in your choice. But let it be
some church, and, when you become more interested in the subject than
you are now, join that church, whatever it may be, and so connect
yourselves with people who believe in and love God. If there be a
Bible class there, connect yourselves with it, and so learn to study
the Scriptures systematically.
Do not be ashamed to kneel at your bedside every night and every
morning and pray to God. You are not so likely to be ashamed if you
have a room to yourself; but you must not be ashamed to do this even if
there are others in the room with you, as will be the case with many of
you. This is a severe test, I know, but he who bears it faithfully will
already have gained a victory.
Commit to memory the fifteenth verse of the twelfth chapter of the
Gospel according to St. Luke: “Take heed and beware of covetousness,
for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things he
possesseth.”
On last Monday, Founder’s Day, there were gathered here many men,
a great company, who were trained in this college, and who, after
graduation, went out into the world to seek their fortune. It is always
a most interesting time, not only for them but for the teachers and
officers who have had charge of them.
Some of them are successful men in the highest and best sense, and have
made themselves a name and a place in the world. Bright young lawyers,
clerks, mechanics, railroad men――men representing almost all kinds of
business and occupations――came here in great numbers to celebrate the
anniversary of the birth of the Founder of this great school. It was
a grand sight. Hardly anything impresses me more. I do not know their
names; for many of them had left before I began to come here; but
from certain expressions that fell from the lips of some of them I am
persuaded that they, at least, are walking in the truth.
It would be very interesting if we could know their thoughts, and see
with what feelings they look back on their school-life. I wonder if
any of them regret that they did not make a better use of their time
while here. I wonder if any feel that they would like to become boys
again and go to school over again, being sure that, with their present
experience of life, they would set a higher value on the education of
the schools. I wonder if any feel that they would have reached higher
positions and secured a larger influence if they had been more diligent
at school. I wonder if there are any who can trace evil habits of
thought to the companions they had here. I wonder if any are aware of
evil impressions which they made on their classmates and so cast a
stain and a dark shadow on other young lives, stains never obliterated,
shadows never wholly lifted. I wonder if there are any among them who
regret that the opportunity of seeking God and finding God in their
school-days was neglected, and who have never had so favorable an
opportunity since. “If some who come back here on these commemoration
days were to tell you all their thoughts on such subjects, they would
be eloquent with a peculiar eloquence.”
I wish I could persuade you, especially you larger boys, to give most
earnest attention to the duties which lie before you every day. You
will not misunderstand me, nor be so unjust to me as to suppose that
I would interfere in the least degree with the pleasures which belong
to your time of life. I would not lessen them in the least; on the
contrary, I would encourage you, and help you in all proper recreation,
in all sports and plays. The boy who does not enjoy play is not a happy
boy, and is not very likely to make a happy man, or a useful man. But
it is quite possible, as some of you know, to enjoy in the highest
degree all healthful sports, and at the same time to be industrious
and conscientious in your studies. I am deeply concerned that the boys
in this college shall be boys of the best, the highest type; that they
“shall walk in the truth.” There are, alas, many boys who have gone
through this college, and fully equipped (as well as their teachers
could equip them), have been launched out into life and come to naught.
I do not know their names nor do you, probably, though you do not doubt
the fact.
Whatever others say, who speak to you here, I want to discharge my duty
to you as faithfully as I can. I know some of the difficulties of life,
for they have been in my path. I know some of the fierce temptations
to which boys and young men are exposed, for I have felt these assaults
in my own person. I know what it is to sin against God, for I am a
sinner; so, with my sympathies quick towards you, I come with these
plain, earnest words, and I urge you to look up to God, and ask him to
help you. He can help you, and he will, if you ask him.
LIFE――ITS OPPORTUNITIES AND TEMPTATIONS.
March 12, 1885.
I propose to speak to you now of some plain and practical duties which
await you in life; and, as there are many boys here who are anxiously
looking for the time when they will leave the college to make their way
in the world, some of whom will probably have left the college before
I come again, I speak more especially to them. And my first words are
words of congratulation, and for these reasons:
1. _Because you are young._ And this means very much. You have an
enormous advantage over people that are your seniors. Other things
being equal, you will live longer, and I assume that “life is worth
living.” Then you have the advantage of profiting by the mistakes
committed by those who precede you, and if you are not blind, you can
avail yourselves of the successes they have achieved.
You have the freshness, the zest of youth. You are full of courage and
endurance. You can grapple with difficult subjects and with a strong
hand. And if you blunder, you have time to recover yourselves and
start anew. In short, life is before you, and you look forward with the
inspiration of hope, and it may be, also, of determination.
2. I congratulate you also _because you are poor_. You have your own
way to make in the world. You know already that if you achieve success,
it must be because you exert yourselves to the very utmost. Indeed, you
must depend upon yourselves, and this means that you must do everything
in your power that is right to do, to help yourselves.
You must understand that there is no royal road to _success_, any more
than there is to _learning_, and that there is no time to trifle.
If you were rich men’s sons, these remarks would have no special
pertinence, or importance.
My congratulations are quite in order also because very many, if not
_most_ of the high places in our country, are held by those who once
were poor lads.
Should you turn upon me and say, “Why, then, if one is to be
congratulated on his poverty, do fathers toil early and late, denying
themselves needed recreation, not ceasing when they have accumulated
a good estate, almost selling their souls to become millionaires――why
do they so much dread to leave their sons to struggle for a living?”
More than one answer might be given to these questions. Some fathers
have so little faith in God’s providence that they forget his goodness,
which _now_ takes care of their families through the instrumentality
of parents; and who can continue that care through other means, just
as well, when the parents are gone; but high authority says that “they
who will be rich, fall into temptations and snares,” one of which is
that the race for riches unfits the racer for all other pursuits and
amusements, and he can’t stop his course, he can’t change his habits,
he has no other mental resources――he must work or perish.
Do not, then, let the fact that you are _poor_ discourage you in the
least――it is rather an advantage.
3. But again I congratulate you, because _your lot is cast in America_.
Do not smile at this. I am not on the point of flying the American
eagle, nor of raising the stars and stripes. It _is_, however, a good
thing to have been born in this country. For in all important respects
it is the most favored of all lands. It is the fashion with certain
people to disparage our government and its institutions; and one must
admit that in some particulars there might be improvement, and will
be some day; but, notwithstanding these defects, it is unquestionably
true that it is the best government on earth. Is there any country
where a poor young man has opportunities as good as he has here, to
get on in life? Is there any obstacle or hindrance whatever, outside
of himself, in the way of his success? If a young man has good health
of mind and body, and a fair English education and good manners, and
will be honest and industrious, is he not much more certain to attain
success, in one way or another, in this country than anywhere else?
You know he is. Why? Because of our equal rights under the law. There
is no caste here, that curse of monarchies. There is no aristocracy in
sentiment or in power, no House of Lords, no established church, no law
of primogeniture. One man is as good as another under the law as long
as he behaves himself.
If you want further evidence, only look for a moment at the condition
of the seething, surging masses of Europe, and the continual
apprehensions of a general war. Before this year 1885 has run its
course the United States may be almost the only country among the great
powers that is not involved in war.
And if still further illustration were needed, let me point to that
most extraordinary scene enacted in Washington some weeks ago.
A great political party, which has held control of this government
nearly a quarter of a century, and which has exercised almost unlimited
power, yields most quietly and gracefully all high places, all dignity,
all honor and patronage, to the will of the people who have chosen a
new administration. And everybody regards it as a matter of course.
Was such a thing ever known before? And could such a thing occur
anywhere else among the nations?
Once more, I congratulate you _because you live in Philadelphia_. Ah,
now we come to a most interesting point. Most of you were born here,
and you come to this by inheritance. This is the best of all large
cities. More to be desired as a place to live in than Washington, the
seat of government, the most beautiful of all American cities, or New
York, with its vast commerce and enormous wealth, or Boston, with its
boasted intellectual society.
They may call us the “_Quaker City_,” or the “_worst paved city_,” or
the “_slow city_,” or the “city of rows of houses exactly alike;” but
these houses are the homes of separate families, and in a very large
degree are occupied by their owners, and you cannot say as much of any
other city in the world. Although there are doubtless many instances
in the oldest part of the city, and among the improvident poor, where
more than one family will be found in the same house, yet these are
the exceptions and not the rule; and so far as I know there is not one
“tenement house” in this great city that was built for the purpose of
accommodating several families at the same time. I need not point you
to New York and Boston, where the great apartment houses, with their
twelve and fourteen stories of flats for rich and well-to-do people
prevail, utterly destroying that most cherished domestic life of which
we have been so proud, and introducing the life of European cities,
with its demoralizing associations and results; nor shall I describe
the awful tenement houses in those two cities, where the poor are
crowded like animals in a cattle-train, suffering as the poor dumb
creatures do, for want of air, and water, and space, and everything
else that makes life desirable.
Of all cities on the face of the earth, Philadelphia is the most
desirable for the young man who must make his own way in the world....