Show I THE IRREPRESSIBLE > I Yesterday the schools opened and I the youngsters had full right of way as they should have Great institutions Institu-tions those youngsters How the boys can shout how the girls can chatter when they get under way Yet the hats come off to them Involuntarily for they are the thing I No one knows how deep some of them arc what dreams In their souls make the day all radiant around them and for them fill the nights with stars There was just such company here though not so large fifteen years ago Tim boys shouted and shied rocks at tha sparrows robbed a birds nest now and then played hookey occasionally seeked the dogs after the cats pasted labels on old fellows backs and munched peanut In the top gallery of the Theater when there was something I some-thing spectacular with plenty of rag 1 time music presented I They were sometimes voted nuisances nui-sances and often were the despair of their teachers But the years went on I and there came a call for countryde fenders < and some fr these boys as though It were a new game said to each other I tus try It So they went away shouting still just as they always had Went with the old careless bearing and the old saucy look fn their eyes i Some of them were crowded on ships that smelled of bilge water and where the fare was poor and for eight thousand miles were tossed and rolled until finally they neared some shores on which a foliage of green deeper than they had ever seen > WaR growing grow-ing anda strange people swarthy and halfnaked and with treacherous eyes greeted them As they entered the port the big ships there that seemed to be asleep suddenly1 aroused themselves them-selves and their sullen guns the came that had sank Montljos fleet roared out to them a welcome And then those boys learned what war meant Instead of throwing stones at the birds they began to throw cannon shots at the enemy But now all their careless care-less l ways were put aside thaI was business and when they had tried the thing a few times they said to each other This Is easy and the result was that they made for themselves a distinct fame They went away mortals mor-tals When they returned they had put Immortality A part of them came back Joyous to return and exultant ex-ultant that they had been given an experience KO splendid Some others I were brought back in ru caskets they had gone to their gr promotion beyond the stars but the hearts of their countrymen went out to them with a tenderness unspeakable and their memory Is sacred On memorial days their names are read lovingly and above them tears mingle with the chaplets with which their graves arc wreathed i And the girls that chatteredso In I the long ago what of them Some arc artists In song and painting and the drama some have done better and are wheeling baby wagons In which are embryo soldiers and as they walk lholi robes sanctly the streets As of old they have full right of way Yesterday when the new edition thronged the streets going to and corning corn-ing from school older people who have memories said to themselves itis the same old crowd who knows what some of these are to do when the time comes So as we said above they had full right of way as they should I have for these are the ones who arc lo push the laggards now on the stage aside and are to call the future acts themselves So the boys may shout If they please and the girls may chatter they may do any wild Innocent thing they please to work off their surplus energy for It Is that energy that munt carry them Into their life work and sustain them In that work until they too make names for themselves and grow to stand the bulwark even as now they are the hope of the StarT Star-T them shout and chatter |