The Perrysburg journal. [volume] (Perrysburg, Ohio) 1853-1861, 1857-12-10

ss- Young man, now is the time to form useful
habits and train the mind IN those things which
aro OF incslcusble value. Few young persons Of
our time have not spare hours each day which NAV
be spent in intellectual improvement, Many who
loaf upon the streets day and night, heavy tax
and disgrace to their parents and a curse to them
selves, might become wise and useful citizens by
systematic course OF reading and study We sell
dom meet with person who is 30 constantly EN-.
ployed that he cannot inl time to read twenty or
forty pages OF some useful book each day, and
this amount, or less than the half of it. will afford
ample food for reflection during the httIc vacan-
cics which ever occur in daily business. One
weeks close application will cultivate a taste for
this exercise aud it will afford the person pursuing
it quite as much pleasure, and infinitely more prof.
it, than the evenings spent in shops stores, groce
ries, bnrrooms, or other places Of idle and often
vitiating and dsmoralzing conversation. Smms
in his biography OF Gen. Greene, says that he la
bored so iucessandy at his fathers forge, when
boy, to procure to crafty his desire to read
and improve his mind, th,t he became a cripple
for life and that ITO enable himself to pass
from the coarse work OF the forge to the manufac-
ture OF those finer fabrics on which his own per-
qiusites chiefly depended, he has been known to
grind of the calosities from h is hands at the
grindstoue, in order to give them the necessary
pliancy and delicucy of touch and this when he
was studying logic and philosophy r. But We
have few young General Grsenes--few who are
even willing TO cultivate their minds when they
have every possible opportunity. No one can say
ne has no books-that he has no means of getting
them-TOr there are public aud private libraries in
the community which are freely opened to the
young man who exhibits disposition to increase
his stock of knowledge You have no such OBJ
StacleS as those which stared the young blacksmith
Greene in the face. You have but to knock and the
door to knowledge and usefulness is opened to
you. Taking down signs and putting them up
where they are not waated--getting tight and
making night hideOus with demoniac yells,-col-
lecting in squads on the street corners and indu-
ging in indecent witcismS, low slang and vulgar
cant phrases, may crafty morbid appetite for r
moment, but who ever knew these things to bene-
fit any person How long can such practices BE-
continued without seriously gripping the better
faculties Of our natures How many men who
now cultivate these habits will not eventually Oil
druukarls graves How many, thus educated
will escape the pcplenliary or the galiows How
many wl escape that living death which makes
death itself but an instrument for the removal cfI
a gricyous pestiIcncc These are questions. young
man. which are worthy Of your consideration, and
may We not hopefully beg you not to tritlc with
yourselves? Enpoy every moment of your
time, which common pru.ence will permit, III sto-
ring the mind with imperisiable knowledge. Be
not slothfuI for
" OF sIoth comes pleasure, of pleasure riot,
OF riot comes disease, of disease comes spending,
OF spending comes want OF want comes theft,
A nd OF theft comes hanging
Beware, then, Of this great highway TO wretch
clnssS and ruin.