Now, if you think our Organization wasn't all agog and wild, with
youthful anticipation at having a diploma for work out of school
hours, you just don't know Youth. Boys and girls, though not full
grown inhabitants of a city, do know what will add to its popularity;
and having had a part in bringing about such conditions, it was but
natural to look back upon such, as any military man might at winning a
difficult fight.
So, finally our big day was at hand! That it might not cut into school
hours, it was on a Saturday; and, by noon, about a thousand kids,
singing, shouting and waving flags, stood in formation at City Park,
awaiting, with growing thrills, a signal which would start as big a
turn-out as Branton Hills had known in all its history. Up at City
Hall awaiting arrivals of city officials, a big crowd sat; row upon
row of chairs which not only took up all floor room, but also many a
small spot, in door-way or on a balcony in which a chair or stool could
find footing; and all who could not find such an opportunity willingly
stood in back. Just as a group of officials sat down on that flag-bound
platform, distant throbbing of drums, and bright, snappy band music
told of Branton Hills' approaching thousands of kids, who, finally
marching in through City Hall's main door, stood in a solid mass around
that big room.
Naturally Gadsby had to put his satisfaction into words; and, advancing
to a mahogany stand, stood waiting for a storm of hand-clapping and
shouts to quit, and said:--
"Your Honor, Mayor of Branton Hills, its Council, and all you out in
front:--If you would only stop rating a child's ability by your own;
and try to find out just _what_ ability a child has, our young folks
throughout this big world would show a surprisingly willing disposition
to try things which would bring your approbation. A child's brain is an
astonishing thing. It has, in its construction, an astounding capacity
for absorbing what is brought to it; and not only to think about, but
to find ways for improving it. It is today's child who, tomorrow,
will, you know, laugh at our ways of doing things. So, in putting
across this campaign of building up our community into a municipality
which has won acclaim, not only from its officials and inhabitants,
but from surrounding towns I found, in our young folks, an out-and-out
inclination to assist; and you, today, can look upon it as labor in
which your adult aid was but a small factor. So now, my Organization of
Youth, if you will pass across this platform, your Mayor will hand you
your diplomas."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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