Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1869-07-23
wHATIsTOBE DONE WITH OUR
CHARLEY

is. there seems to be no place in heaveI
4 above, or earth beneathy exactly saf
and suitable, except the bed. While
l he is asleep, then our sous nave rest
we know where he is and what he j,
$ about, and sleep is a gracious state
but then he wakes up bright and early
! and begins footing, pounding hammer
, ing, singing, meddHng, and asking
questions; in short, overturning the
- I peace of society generally for about
thirteen hours out of every twenty four
Every body wants to know what to dc
, with him--every body is quite sure thai
he can't stav where they are. The cook
can't have him in the Kitchen, where he
| infests the pantry to get flOar to make
/ paste for his kites, or melt lard in the
wOod-shed, he is sure to pull the wood
pile down upon his head. If he be SEM
up to the garret, you think for while
that you have settled the problem, til
you find what bou1dless field for ac-
UiVity is at once opened, amid all the
cast-of rubbish there. Old letters
newspapers, trunks Of miscellaneous
contents, are all rummaged, and the
very reign of chaos and old night is in
stituted. He sees endless capacities in
all, and he is always hammering some
thing or knocking some6hing apart, OF
saving or planning, or. MraWIug boxes
II and barrels in all dfrectfOns TO build
cities or lay railroad tracks, till every
/ body's head aches quite down to the
lower floor, end every u declares thar
! Charley must be kept OE1t of the garret
Then you send Charley 10 school, and
| hope you are fairly rid of him for few
| hours at least. But sae comes home
nOIsier and more breezy than ever, bay-
! ing learned of some twenty other
! Charleys every separate resource for
keeping up a commotion that the
sUperabundant vitality of each can
originate. He can dance like Jim
Smith-he has learned to smack his
| lips like Joe BrOwn-and VIII Briggs
1 has shown him how to new like cat,
and he enters the premises with a new
war-whoop, learned from Tom Evans.
He feels large and Yalorous he has
learned that he is boy, and has a gen
eral impression that he is growing inn
/ Inensely strong and knowing, and de-
| spises more than ever the convention
alities of parlOr life; in fact, he is more
1 than ever an interruption in the way OF
/ decent folks who want TO be quiet.
| IL 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 discour-
| aging work, for he swallows a story as
| Rover does piece Of meat, and looks
/ at you for another and another, with
\ out the slightest considera siop, so that
this resource is of short duration, and
| then the old question comes back.
/ What is TO be done with him?
| Butafter all, Charley cannot be wholly
! shirked, tor he is an institution-a
solemn and awful fact; and on the an
swer 10 the question, What is to be
done with him depends a future.
! Many hard, morose. bitter man has
/ come from a Charley turned off and
neglected many a parental heart-ache
| has come from a Charley left to run the
! streets, that mamma and sisters might
! play on the piano and write letters in
| peace. 1t is easy tUgetrid of him there
are fifty ways of doing that. He is a
| spirit that can be promtly laid, but if
/ not laid Alright will come back, by-and-
1 by, a strong man armed, when you IN
1 not send him off at pleasure.
/ Mamma and sisters had better pay
\ a little tax to Charley now; than a terri
| BILE one by-and-by. There is something
/ significant in the old English phrase,
with which our Scriptures render us
/ familiar MAN chltd-a MAN. child.
| There you have the word that should
1 make you think more than twice be-
| fore you answer the question, "What
shall we do with Charley ?"
For to-day he is Al your feet; Today
you can make him laugh you can
make him cry, you can persuade, coax
and turn him to your pleasure; you can
make his eyes fill and his bosom swell
with recitals of good 4nd noble deeds !;
in short, you can mould him if you will
take the trouble.
But look ahead some years, when that
| little voice shall ring IN deep bass tones:
| when that small foot shall have man's
weight and tramp; when rough beard
shall cover that little, round chin, and
all the willful 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 lose that key now he
is little, you may search for it carefully,
with tears, some other day, and 7leUer
find it.
Old housekeepers have a proverb, that
one hour lost in the morning is never
found all day. II has significance in
this case.
One thing is to be noticed about
| Charley. that, rude and busy and noisy
as he is, and irksOme as carpet rules
and parlor ways are to him, he is still
a social little creature, and wants to be
where the rest of the household are. A
room ever so well adapted for play, can
not charm him at the hour when the
| family is in reunion he hears the vol
ces in the parlor and his play-room
| seems desolate. 1t may be warmed by
/ a furnace and lighted with gas, but it is
| human warmth and light he shivers for;
/ vearns for the talk of the family, which
! he so imperfectly comprehends, and he
| longs to take his playthings down and
]
/ ing that of the fifty improper things
/ which he is liable to do in the psrlor,
he will not commit one if you will let
him stay there.
This instinct of the little one is
Natures warning plea-God's admoni-
ton, o, how many a mother who has
| neglected it because it was irksome to
have the child about, has lOnged at
/ TWENTY-FIVE TO keep her son by her side
| and be would not. Shut out as a little
| Arab; constantly told that he is noisy,
that he is awkward and meddlesome,
and a plague in general, the boy has
1 found at last his own company in the
! streets. in the h'rhwavs and hedge.
where he runs till tAt ay comes when
the parents want their son, and the sis
teTs their brother, and then they are
scared at the face he brings back to
them, as he comes all foul and smutty
from tie cOmpaniOpship to which they
have doomed him. Depend upon it, Il
it is too much trouble to keep your boy
in your society, there will Oe placps
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 tree and it viii
| grow while you sleep, but son you
cannot-you must take trouble for bin
either a little now or great deal by
and -bv.
Leu MIN BbGy Win you at 1SHSJ SOtAs
portion of every day; bear his noise anC
his iKnorapt ways. Put aside you
, book or work to tell him a story, o.
: show him picture devise still parlOl
a pla1 for him, for he gains nothing 10y
r heing allowed to spoil the comfort 0
the wbrle circle. A pencil, a sheet 0
paper, and a few patterns will some
lines Ike p him quiet by you for al
hour while you are talking, or in a cor
= uer he may build a blOck-housa, annoy
f ing nnhurlv- If he does now and theI
5 disturb you, and it costs you NOR
thought and care fO regulate him there
= balance which is The greatest evil-to b.
] dlsI urhed by him now, or when he i
{ man.
:, OF all you can give your Charley,
r you are q good man or woman YOU
Y presence is the best and safest thing
: God never meant him to do without vol
t any more than chick ems were meant /,
\ grow without being brooded
: Then let him have some place in YOU
l house where it shall he no sin to ham
. uner and pound and make all the little