Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1858-12-28
WHAT IS TO BE DONE WITH OUR cHARLEYs


exactly safe and sutable except the bed. While
he is asleep there our sSnls have rest I'VE know
where he is and what he is about, and sleep is
gracious state; but then he wakes up bright and
early, and begins footing pounding, hammerlng
singing, meddling and asking questions; in short
overturnng the peace Of society generally for about
thirteen hours out of twenty-fOur e..
Everybody, wants to know what to do with him
everybody is quito sure that he can't stay where
they are. The cook can't have him in the kitchen,
where he infests the pantry to get -four to make
paste for his kites or melt lard in the new sauce
pan. If he goes into the wood-shed he is sure to
pull the wood-pile down upon his head. If he be
sent up into the garnet, you think for while that
you have settled the problem, till you find what
boundless field for activity is at once opened amid
all the packages, boxes bags, barrels, and castoi
rubbish there Old letters, newspapers, trunks OF
miscellaneous contents, are all rummaged, and the
very regin of chaos and old night is instituted. He
sees endless capacities in ALL and he is always ham,
mering something, or knocking something apart or
saving, or planning, or drawing boxes and barrels
in all directions build cities Or lay railroad tracks,
till everybodys head aches quite down to the lower
floor, and everybody declares that Charley must be
kept out of the garnet.
Then you send Charley to school, and hope you
are fairly rid of him for few hours at least. But
ne comes home noisier and more breezy than ever,
having learned of some twenty other Charleys every
seperate resource for keeping up conmotion that
inc superintendent vitality of each can originate
lie can dance like Jim Smith-he has learned to
smack his lips like Joe Brown-and Will Briggs has
shown him how to NEW like cat, and he enters
the premises with new war-whOop, learned from
Tom Evans He feels large and valorous he has learn
ed that he lis growing immensely strong and Know
ing and despises more than the CONVENTIONAL
ties of parlor life in fact, he is more than ever an
interruption in the way of decent folks who want to
be quiet
1t is true that if entertaining persons will devote
themselves exclusively to him, reading and telling
stories, he may be kept quiet but then this is dis
couraging work, for he swallows a story as Rover
does piece of meat, and looks at you for another
and another without the slightest consideration, so
that this resource is of short DURATION and then the
old question comes back: What is to be done with
him?
But after all, Charley cannot be wholly shrked,
for he is an Institutions solemn and awful fact
and on the answer to the question, What is to be
done with him depends future.
Many a hard morose, bitter man has come from
Charley turned off and neglected; many paren-
tai heart-ache has come from Charley left to run
the streets, that mamma and sisters might play on
the piano and write letters in peace. 1t is easy to
get rid of him there fifty ways Of doing that.
He is spirit that can be promptly laid but if not
laid Alright will come back, by-and by. strong man
armed, when you cannot send him OFT at pleasure.
Mamma and sisters had better pay little tax to
Charley now than terrible one by-and-by. There
is something significant in the old English phrase,
with which Scr ptures render us familiar, man
chill-a man child There you have the word that
should make you think more than twice before You
answer the question: "What shall we do with
Charley.'
For to-day he is at your feet: to-day you
make him laugh, You can make him cry, you
persuade coax him and turn him to your pleasure
YOU can make his eyes fill and his bosom swell with
recitalS of good and noble deeds; in short, you
mould him if You will take the trouble.
MIN hat
shall ring in Deep bass tones; when that small foot
shall have mans wei ght and tramp; when a rough
beard shall cover that little, round chin. and the
wilful strength of manhood fill out that little form
Then YOU would give worlds for the key to his
heart to be able to turn and guide him to your will
but if YOU will lose that key now he is little, You
may search for it carefully, with tears, other
day, and ne.sr find it.
Old housekeeperS have proverb. that one hour
lost in the morning is never found all day. 1t has
significance in this case.
One thing is to he noticed about Charley. that
rude and busy and noisy rs he is and irkSome as
carpet rules and parlor ways to him, he is still
social little creature and wants to be where the
rest of the household are room ever so well
adapted for play, cannot charm him at the hour
when the family is in reunion he hears the voices
in the paror and his play room seems desolate. 1t
may he warmed by furnace and lighted with gas,
but it is humaa warmth and light he shiverS for;
he ycarns for the talk of the family, when he
imperectly comprehcnls, and he longs to take his
playthngs down and play by you, and is inces-
sanity promising that of the fifty improper things
which he is liable to do in the parlor, he will not
commit one if you will let HIM stay there.
This instinct eff the little one is Natures warning
plea-Gods atlmoniton. o, how many mother
who has neglected it because it irkSomc to have
the child about, has longed ut twenty five to keep
her son by her SIDE and he would not Shut out
as Il little Arab; constantly told that he is noisy
mt be * ayylw ward and meddlpSO1na and parun
in general, the boy has found at last his own
pany in the streets, in the highways and hedges,
where he runs till the day comes when the parents
want their son, and the sisters their brother and
then they scared at the face he brings back to
them, he comes all foul and smutty from the COM
panonship to which they have doomed him. De-
pend upon it. if is too much trouble to keep your
boy in your society there will be places found for
him-warmed and lighted with no friendly fires
where he who finds some mischief still for idle hands
to do, will care for him, if you do not. You may
put out a tree and it will grow while you sleep but
son you cannot-you must take trouble for him.
either little now great deal by-and-by
Let him stay with you at least some portion of
every day; bear his noise and his ignorant ways
Put aside your book work to tell him story, or
show him picture; devise still parlor plays for
him, for he gains nothing by being allowed to spoil
the comfort of the whole circle pencil, sheet
of paper, and few patterns will sometimes keep
him quiet by you for an hour, while you are talk
ing, or in corner he may build blockhouse, an
noying nobody. If he does and then disturb
you, and it costs you thought and care to reg
ulate him there, balance which is the greatest evil
to be disturbed by him now, OF when he is man.
Of all you can give your Charley, if you are good
man or woman your presence is the best and safest
thing. God never meant him to to do without you
any more than chickens were meant to grow with
out being brooded.
Then let him have some place in your house where
it shall be no more sin to hammer and pound, and
make all the litter his heart desires and his various
schemes require. Even if you i'll afford the
room, weigh we'll between that safe asylum aud one
which, if denied, he may make for himself in the
street.