Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 January 1918 — BRINGS OUT LATENT TRAITS [ARTICLE]

BRINGS OUT LATENT TRAITS

War Develops Hidden Qualifications of Many Young Heroes Now In Government’s Service. “It takes all sorts of things to bring out latent traits in us all.” The speaker in the club car rolled his cigar to the other corner of his mouth. The other occupants sat silently, surmising that a story was coming, recounts a writer in an exchange. “Knew a young fellow over East. Father had lots of money. Son did not seem Inclined to add a great deal to it by working, but made several dents in the family purse by his spending. Not that he was a bad boy at heart — only thoughtless. Sometimes I think> the rich father was attempting to make a business man out of a man never Intended for that sort of life. The boy did not seem to be able to find his niche. Said to me one day when he had gotten confidential 1 : ‘You know, my only fear is that I am not going to make something out of myself that will make dad proud of me.’ And the two surely did love each other. One day the boy asked the father for several thousand dollars. It was forthcoming. Then he asked the father to cash a check for some money left him by his dead mother. He got that. Then the boy sort of dropped out of New York life. ' - “Next thing I knew he was a lieutenant in the aviation section of the army. He had bought two airplanes, taken them down into the country to one of his father’s farms and learned to fly. Guess those that knew him thought it was another of his moneyburning ways. But when he thought himself competent he went to the government and simply said: ‘Here I am, ready for any service you may have for me,’ and the government took him up in a hurry. He may be in France. But you should have seen that father’s face light up every time he mentioned that boy. And when he does get back from France he and his father are going to be greater pals than ever, if that be possible. “Now I am not going to say that many young men are going to have about $20,000 at their beck and call to demonstrate that it only needs the occasion to make men out of them, but I do say that there are scores of young men doing just as much or more.’*