YOUTH HITS BACK.

Southland Times, Issue 21849, 28 October 1932, Page 3

YOUTH HITS BACK.

To the Editor. Sir, —I have noticed for some time past in the Southland Times, many a bitter criticism concerning the immoral tendency of the young people of today. I have wailed for an abler pen than mine to take up cudgels on our behalf, but apparently, “everybody’s business is nobody’s business,” as no one seems the least concerned that the coming generation should be so wickedly and cruelly slandered. I don’t think it is fair that the “old people” should do and say things like this. Did they never sin? I wonder. The world is just as good, or bad, -as it was fifty or a hundred years ago. People have sinned since the beginning of time, and I have noticed that it isn’t only the young people who are guilty; there are quite a lot of old ‘uns’ who are not just what they should be. But I suppose as these carping critics would inform me they began this in their youth so what can you expect”! It is not right that these gentlemen (and not a few ladies, I am sorry to say) should say these things because, for the pot to call the kettle black is the height of meanness. These are a few lines from a poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox which might be of interest: Somebody said, in the street this morning, As I opened my window to let in the light, That the darkest day of the world was dawning; But I looked, and the East was a gorgeous sight. One who claims that he knows about it Tells me the Earth is a vale of sin; But I and the bees and the birds—we doubt it, And think it a world worth living in I told the thrush, and we laughed together, Laughed till the woods were all aring; And he said to me, as he plumed each feather, “Well, people must croak, if they cannot sing.” Up he flew, but his song remaining, Rang like a bell in my heart all day, And silenced the voices of weak complaining That pipe like insects along the way. O world of light, and O world of beauty! Where are there pleasures so sweet as thine? Yes, life is love, and love is duty; And what heart sorrows? O no, not mine! Before closing I would like to tell the critics that it is only old people who growl and find fault with everything.— I am, etc., “BETSY HALE.”