Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1859-03-18

:. whnt shan be Done with Our CharIeyF

81 What Shall be Done with our Charley
Set him to work "Twenty devils employ the
man who does not employ himself" says
Spanish proverb; and boys are no exception
They have supezabundance of animal life,
which is always boiling over, and it must run
into one of two channels, the channel of mis-
chief or the channel of use And it de-
pends altogether which channel it takes as to
which one Oftwo types of fcharacter WILDE found
in manhood-that of shiftlessness or that of
thrift.
One hundred miles from Boston, more or less
is the village in which reside the families of Doc
tor Pillberry and Farmer Bloomfield Doctor
Pilberry had seven boys, who became very de-
cided characters, and were very much " develop
ed" and :" progressed" The Doctor was cal
led early in the morning to see his patients, and
returned late at night; and the boys out of
schooltime had abundant leisure and opportun-
ity to seek seven other spirits like themselves,
and hang about stores and taverns, lounge in
the streets, learn to fight and swear and get
down the gun and trample the clover fields to
blow bluebirds and robins in pieces. The
Bloomfield boys were kept at work on the farm
when school was not in, except when holiday
came round, such as the old election and general
training days.
At first they thought it rather hard, and
they quoted to their father the case of Tom Pill
berry, who had good time, and had such fine
chance to be somebody, while they were kept at
work. Tom had time allowed him to hunts and
fish, skin live eels, stone windows, rob orchards
steal melons, torment the cat, shoot at marks
smoke cigars, and all such pleasant pursuits
and recreations, while the Bloomfield boys had
to drive COWS, dig over potato-patches, and do
the like tedious and vulgar things. 1t was rath-
er hard, and they wished their father had been
doctor, minister, or lawyer However,
Farmer Bloomfield knew what he was doing;
and the boys finally learned to love their duties,
and took pride in raising the largest potatoes
and pumpkins In the town; though it mortified
them when the Pillberry boys fourished over
them at election balls and Fourth of Julys, where
the Pillberrys always appeared exhaling essen
ces and strutting in buckram.
Thirty years make wonderful shifting of
scenery on the theater of life, and--pfesto!-the
| Pillberrys and Bloomfields are coming up now
| in the fifth act. Exeunt the Pillberry boys and
enter the Pillberry men. They have exhaled
all their cologne and pOmatum, and the buck
ram has got all its stiffening taken out, and
they look draggled and forlorn. They have
gone into business and failed, married wives they
cannot support, have not forgotten the store and
the tavern-in short, have progressed" into
general thriftlessness and dissipation. They
run in debt and never pay, and never mean to;
borrow and never return; have added chewing
and drinking to their first narcotic accomplish
ments; are generally loose in their habits though
"sometimes very tight" The Bloomfield boys
have gone into business and succeeded; one of
them holds high office in the State, and looks
towards the highest; and the chief enterprises
of the town depend mainly upon them. And
.t | xuh onrfhfur IL cfarfad
verance, hardihood, energy, public spirit, con-
science, generosity, and capital, people always
call first upon the Bloomfelds.
Ihis, we pledge our readers, is no fancy sketch
but chapter of history.
Now for the Improvement" of our sermon,
or story, rather, showing the advantage of giving
boys occupation.
First, it is the best physical education they
can have, giving them good digestion, hare
muscles, and robust frames; and you will not be
obliged to put them on spare diet for dyspepsia
to send them abroad to be turned blue IN wateI
cures, orput them on beeftea and toast-watel
at home.
Secondly, it is the best way to keep the TWEEN
ty devils out, by first bringing the opposite vir
tues in; for then the virtues have the ground b.
the right of pre-emption, and the vices will b.
kept out for ever by moral statute Of limita
tions.
Thirdly, they very soon learn, and in the only
way they ever will, that life is serious matter
and is not frivolity and a farce-a thing which
great many people do not learn till they learO
it to their sorrow
Fourthly, you give practical point TO you
moral instructions, instead of spending you
breadth for nothing in giving advice. Moral in
struction is well, but standing alone it is worth
less: and to applV it to bows boiling over will
animal life, and with nothing to do is like read
ing the ten commandments to a tornado.
Filthy, you settle practically the question
about corporeal punishment; for, general,
speaking, only idle boys will need it.
Lastly, and summing up, and putting it as
maxim of education, As fast as the faealties de
pslOp, giUe them something useful to do.-Rei
giOus Magazine.