The very books which most fascinate the boy are those which deal in thrilling tales of adventure. The wily and unscrupulous traffickers in cheap literature have ever been awake to this fact, and their highly-colored productions have been flung from the vicious presses like lava from Pelée to pollute the minds of the young. Why is it that "Robinson Crusoe" and stories of this character hold such a charm for young people, lingering in their minds long after books of a profounder type have been forgotten? It is the love of adventure. To what boy at school does not the doleful history lesson assume a more brilliant aspect when the adventures of Columbus are taken up? His interest is awakened, his imagination inspired, and he is delighted, all because again that chord in his nature has been struck--the love of adventure. Perhaps no other single painting in the art galleries at the World's Fair of 1893 attracted the attention of a greater number of people, nor awakened in so many human breasts a feeling of such intense pathos as Thomas Hovenden's painting on "Breaking Home Ties." Here we have it once more, adventure--Jason setting off on his journey in search for the golden fleece of fame and fortune. The narrow path that so long has led him out into the silent acres--the fields that so many years have responded to his toil--he has forsaken. The dull routine has ceased to inspire, the home circle has become too narrow for his expanding soul. He has caught a glimpse of the glories of a new kingdom, and now he is going out to realize them. The young man has always been the _ruling element_ in every new departure. He has been the rock upon which the ages have been founded. In the words of another: "When the roll-call which men have written is read, it will be found that the young men have ruled the world. The oldest literatures have this record. The patriarchs unfolded the careers of boys into the conquest of old age. Kingdom and empire rode upon the shoulders of young men, and their voices of enthusiasm and hope have sounded through many a black-breasted midnight and trumpeted the dawn through skies of thickest darkness. To causes that drooped they have come and added the raptures of hope; to enterprises that were sickening and faint they have brought the bounding power of new enthusiasm. To the dead they have brought life. Everything from the foundation of the world has been crying for 'young blood,' and the armies of the advance have gained the day at the arrival of 'recruits,' whose hope and earnestness have never been defeated. Age and experience put themselves upon dying pillows made by young hands; into young palms and upon young ears falls the meaning of all the past; and thus God has written the natural dignity of the young man's life in the eternal statute book of the universe." [Footnote: From "Young Men of History," by Dr. F.W. Gunsaulus.]