Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1859-02-18
THE GAZETTE.
FRIDAY MORNING. FEBRUARY Is, 1852
OR CHARLEY.


Our CHARLEY.
The following interesting article we arc
sure will be heartily appreciated BY the thou
sands of mothers oflittle Charles, scatter
ed throughout the country
WHAT is 70 BE DONE WITH orR CHARLEi.-
Yes-that is the question! The fact is. there
seems to be No place in heaven above. or
earth beneath exactly safe and suitable. ex-
cent the bed. While h. is asleep then our
souls have rest-we 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, overturning the peace Of society gem
erally. for about thirteen hours out Of every
twenty-four.
Everybody wants to know what to do with
him-eyerybody is quite sure that ne cannot
STAY where they are. The cook can't have
him in the kitchen, where he infests the pant
ry to get flour to make paste for his kites,
or melt lard in thenew saucepan. lfhe goes
into the woodshed, he is sure to pull the wood
pile down upon his head. If he is sent into
the garrett, you think for while You have
settled the problem, till you find what Il
boundless field for activity is at once opened
amid all the packages, boxes, bags, barrels.
and cast-off rubbish there. Old letters, news
papers, trunks of miscellaneous contents, are
all rummaged, and the very reign Of chaos
and old night is instituted. He sees endless
capacities in all, and be is always hammer
ing something or knocking something apart:
or saving, or planning or drawing boxes and
barrels in all directions to build cities or lay
railroad tracks, tell everybody's head aches
quite down to the lower floor, and every
BODY declares that Charley must be kept out
of the garrett.
Then you send Charley to school, and hope
YOU are fairly rid of him for a few hours
mt lcas.. But he comes home nOsier and
more breezy than ever having learned of some
twenty other Charles every separate re-
source for keeping upa commotion that the
superintendent vitality of each can originate.
lie can dance like Jim Smith-hc has learn
cd to smack his lips like Joe Brown, and
Will Briggs has shown him how to NEW like
a cat, and he enters the premises with new
warwhoop learned from Tom Evans. He feels
large and yalorous, he has learned that he is
a boy, and has a general impression that he Is
growing immensely strong and knowing, and
despises more than ever the conyentionalitie>
of parlor life; i'll fact, he is more than ever an
interruption in the way Of decent folks who
want to be quiet. -,
tits true, that if entertaining persons will
devote themselves exclusively 60 him, read
ing and telling stories, he may be kept quiet.
but then this is discouraging work, tor he
swallows a story as Rover does piece OF
meat, and looks at you for another and
another, without the slightest consideration,
80 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
shirked, for he is an institution-a solemn
and awful fact, and, on the answer tn the
question, "what is to be done with him. de-
ponds future.
MANY q hard, morose, bitter man, has come
from a Charley turned of and neglected,
many parental heartache has come from a
Charley left to run the streets, that mamma
and sister might play on the piano and write
letters in peace. 1t is easy to get rid of him:
there are fifty ways of doing that. He is
spirit that can be promptly laid. but, if not
laid Alright, will come back by-and-by, a
strong man armed, when You cannot send
him Of at pleasure. r,
Mamma and sister 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 our
Scriptures render us familiar-a man child
a man child. There you have the word that
should make you think more than twice be,
fore YOU answer the question, What shall
we do with Charley?"
For to-day heis at your feet; to-day you can
make him laugh, you can make HIM cry'y"u
can persuade, coax. and turn HIM to your
pleasure; you can make his eyes hill and ms
bosom swell with recitals Of good and noble
deeds; in short, you can mould him. II you
will take trouble. -, ~,
But look ahead some years, when the little
voice shall ring in deep bass tones; when that
small foot shall have mans weight anu
tramp: when rough beard shall cover that
little round chin, and the wilful strength OF
manhood ELL out the little round form: Then
you would give worlds for the key to his heart,
10 be able to turn and guide him to your will
but if you will lose the key. now ne ls little
YOU NAV search for it carefully, with tears
some other day, and never find it.
Old housekeepers have aproverb, that one
hour lost in the morning il never FOUND all
day. 1t has significance in the case:
One thing is to be noticed about Charley
that rude. and busy, and noisy as he is. and
;rksome as carpet rules and parlor ways are
TO him, he is still social little creature and
wants to be where the rest of the household
are. A room ever. 80 we'll adapted tor play
cannot charm him at the hour when the faml
" arc in reunion; he hears the voices IN the
psrlor, and the play room seems desGiate,I
f NAV be warmed by a furnace, and Lighted
with gas but it is human warmth ana ilgh'
he shiyers for; he yearns for the talk OF the
family. which he so imperfectly comprehends
and he longs to take his playthings down and
play BY YOU. and is necessarily promising
that Of the fifty improper things which he is !!
liable to do in the psrlor, he will not commit
one if you let him stay there.
The instinct Of the little one is Nature
warning plea-Gods admonition. W nov
many a mother who has neglected it. because
it was irksome to have the child about. ha'
longed at twenty-five to keep her son BY mel
side and he would not! Shut out as lutte
Arab; constantly told that he isnoisy, that nc
Is awkward and meddlesome, and plague
in general, the boy has found at last his own
company in the streets, in the highways and
HEDGES, where he runs till the day comes
- .ha ,arenfs want their son, and the