ther. But that is not your situation, you who read this paper.

"How does ---- get along with his father?" was asked of a certain
young man of great distinction in letters. "Oh, they are great
friends!" was the answer. "Friends through duty or comradery?"
persisted the querist. "Comradery, affection, affinity. They are the
greatest chums in the world," was the answer.

I wish I could give you the name of that man. It is known in every
civilized country. No wonder he became the great power into which he
has developed. His whole life is a blessing and a benediction to all
with whom he comes in contact--parents, wife, children, countrymen,
the world. No wonder his brain is canny with resourceful wisdom; no
wonder that good red human blood pours at full tide through artery and
vein.

The man I have in mind, and whom I am describing, is a great man, and
his father before him was a great man too. His success has been
monumental. Yet his is no candy manhood. His is no smooth conduct. He
is "neither sugar nor salt, nor somebody's honey," to get down (or up)
to the picturesque phrase of the common household.

He is the sort of man who would confound sharp practises of the
crafty; or "call the bluff" of financial gamester; or walk unconcerned
where physical danger calls for nerve of steel and lion's heart; or
fling at affected fop rapier sentences that cut deep through the very
quick of his pretenses.

I cite this example merely to show you that you lose nothing of
independence or daring, or any of those qualities which young men so
prize (and properly prize), by being on terms of intellectual and
heart partnership with your father.

Don't tell us that he won't let you be on such terms with him. Show
yourself willing and worth while, and your father would rather spend
his extra hours with you than at the theater. But you have got to show
yourself worth while. No whining willingness, no soft and pretended
desire, no affected making up to "the governor," will answer at all.

You have got to "make good" with the American father, young man.

He has "been through the mill," until the softness is pretty well
ground out and little remains but the granite-like muscle of manhood.
He is a pretty stern proposition; and if there is anything he won't
stand it is pretense, make-believe. But show yourself worthy of him
and willing for his comradeship, and you have begun life with the
best, readiest, bravest partner you will ever have.