Every Boy Is A Prince

THEME OF MR. FORBUSHS' TALK SUNDAY

The Opportunity to Build Character Pointed Out and the Way Suggested

Sunday afternoon, in University Hall, William Byron Forbush, of Boston, appeared for the second time in Ann Arbor and continues to solve "the boy problem" by the "Education of Princes."

After singing by the Girl's Glee club Mr. Forbush was introduced by Professor Charles Cooley of the department of sociology. "Every boy is a prince," said Mr. Forbush, "and every boy in our country has a prince's opportunity. The elements of the education of a boy to which he has a right, are five: health, nature, tools, fellowship, righteousness."

Discoursing upon each one, Mr. Forbush says, "Disease is getting to be a disgrace. The place strength holds in the boy's ideals is supreme. The boy becomes more artificial and less wholesome who finds no chores to do in the city home."

Speaking of nature he said, "the city is the hardest place for one to see the face of God. The boy in the city thinks he is the biggest thing in the block but when he watches the growth of the grain, the blow of the wind, the motion of the waters, he feels himself in God's world and begins to wonder, which is the beginning of education. Take time to wonder. Emerson traveled through California with such magnificent leisure that it was an argument for immortality."

Turning to tools, Mr. Forbush continued, "there are men who thing with their brain and men who think with their fingers. The only thing left of ancient Egypt is the pottery of the poor man. We are losing something unless the handicraft idea gets back into life and men do again with their hands the works of their fathers."

Of fellowship the speaker said: "All goodness is social goodness. Few of us would keep out of the penitentiary if it was not for the social help that holds us up. The opportunity of the gang can scarcely be overestimated. Righteousness in a man, the fifth element, is like incensed wood in a temple, it perfumes every fibre and part."

"Not only as a personal matter but as a universal these five rights can be given to all by the men who build character. When we ride in before the king to our triumph, the road builders and the traffic mongers will have their reward, but the man-builders shall rejoice in that joy which no man taketh from them."