Eaton weekly Democrat. [volume] (Eaton, Ohio) 1866-1875, 1870-05-19
BOYS AND GUNS.
BY HENRY WARD BEECHER.

HARDLY anything just now attracts to
itself as much inventive thought as the
gun. In olden times the sword was the
typical implement of war. 1t still re-
mains so in literature, and probably will
continue long to do so, just as yet we
speak of palms and laurels, though ages
ago the custom died out which gave them
eminence. The sword has become little
more than q side ornament Even in cav
airy it more and more gives place to the
pistol and the carbine. Ia,it 81,
But it is not of the gun as a military
weapon that we mean chiefly to speak. 1t
is as an instrument of amusement and
profit in the hands of private citizens.
Every man showdown a good gun (better,
if he can afford it, a shotgun and a rife
both), and no parent should let a boy go
past fourteen years of age without having
taught him to handle gun with skill and
safety. We shall give the reason for our
position after first disposing of an objec-
ton which all parents will at once express,
viz: the danger of accidents from fire.
arms. Or ...r -.,r- -.--.,-.
81. We admit that fire arms are dangerous
The long list of fatal accidents scored up
every year leaves no doubt upon that
point. 1t win therefore seem paradoxical
to many when we say that it is in part to
prevent accidents that we recommend
early instruction in the use of firearms.
:. No amount of care will keep boys from
handling guns. 1t is a fascinating imple-
ment. There is charm about a gun
which bewitches a boys imagination.
Guns are now so cheap that everybody
can have one. Even if timid parents
withhold fowling pieces from their sons,
it will not prevent their handling them.
The town is full of them. And accident
ally or on purpose your son will find ont
something about cunning. ositi
The military companies are 30 many,
and the manual of arms so fascinating,
and sharp-shooting has become such a
fashion, that you may be sure that an av-
erage boy will come by a gun clandestine-
ly, if he does not with your permission.
Now, we argue that it Is far more dangerous
to leave boys to find out secretly the plea
sures of gun than it is to teach them its
skillful use. A child soon learns caution
After few weeks, boy of ten years old
is in as little danger of doing mischief
with gun as he is of taking poison or
falling into the river, or downstairs, or of
stabbing himself with knife.
We hold it to be sound philosophy, that
children are safer by being taught how to
meet danger and to overcome it, than by
seeking to keep them away from all dan
ger. It is not the bold and brave lads
that are apt to be harmed.
In wrestling, climbing, swimming, rid
ing, leaping, shooting, they who, have
been taught skill and selfreliance are sci
dom injured. 1t is the clumsy hand, the
awkward foot, of one untaught in manly
exercises that courts disaster. The boy
that is familiar with the gun is not the
one who snapssit at his sister, thinking
that it is not loaded, and shoots her dead.
1t is the green lubber who Las never been
permitted to know anything about fire.
arms that does that. A wise father should
teach his boy how to load, how to carry a
gun safely, how to scale fence, and all
the precautionary arts of hunting. 1t
would be well, too, to teach every girl
how to use pistol. Many woman has
been placed in the power Of burglars for
lack of that knowledge. -a91 ~
The moral uses of firearms are not the
least to be considered. A boy with gun
on his shoulder, on Wednesday afternoon, /,
or on Saturday, tramping the forests
threading the river valleys, or searching
the hills, is learning self-reliance, skill,
enterprise He is far less likely to fall
under temptations which SO easily beset
high-spirited boys that have nothing to
do, than if he was pent up in narrow
quarters at home. .tstrH ~
There is more power condensed in
small compass in a rifle than in any other
engine. 1t is so docile, so manageable, so
far-reaching, so instantaneousin it's effects,
that it is attractive to every wide-awake
boy. It is still an object of fascination to
ourselves. When we shall be so old as
not to care for fine rifle, and not to be
curious of every new invention that makes
firearms more efficient, we shall consider
ourselves in our dotage. s-.-.,..
But, with q little care and instruction,
boy soon hunts for something more than
merely to secure game He becomes in
terested in satural history. He begins to
read about and to observe the habits of
- azlo TNRI 81
important than to teach a child to derive
a pleasure from the use of his higher facul-
ties. A boy that knows all the birds in his
neighborhood, their haunts and habits,
the style of their nests, their eggs, the
color of their young, their food, disposi-
tions and uses in nature, the common
wild animals that exist in the region
around his home, the flora and simpler
elements of geology, has opened up in
himself tastes and habits which will
have power upon his whole life for good
Such education, by broadening the sources
of enjoyment, and by making him less
dependent for happiness upon any single
set of circumstances diminishes the power
of misfortune and of commercial revul-
sions. Men who derive their joys from
one or two sources only are usually very
unhappy or very stupid in old age. The
wider the range on which the mind
pastures, IQ0 16SS likely Will IL UO W SuAOA
from famine.
These considerations are equally ap-
plicable to the rod. Whether it be gun OF
rod, or better yet, both, the man who
never saw anything but the pan and the
spit is not half a sportsman. The true
sportsman has keen Zest for early hours
fresh air, the exhllarations of vigorous
exercise he learns to love the face Of
heaven, of the earth, and of the sun
Rejecting the stewing and cuddling luxu.
ries of lazy life, he purchases health and
pleasure in lone bargain. Nor is a true
son of the stream and the forest an un-
kindly man. On the contrary, a true
sportsman is tenderIof every living thing
He knows the rights of birds and beasts
and respects them. .
Would true man stand near by the hou1
firing into the dense crowds Of a pigeon
roostP 1t is bird murder that should
shock true son of gunl Killing fol
the sake of killing is simple barbarity
One may, and should, be lover of field
sports, and yet be in sympathy with all
animated nature. An instructed and hon
orable boy will never kill anything for
the sake of killing. Song-birds, sparrows
and the small fry are sacred. For the
table, it is lawful to slay that you may
eat But those gunners who go forth
shooting whatever they can hit, be it
| bird, frog, or beast, are barbarians. But
this is thing to be learned. Unregulstcd
destructiveness belongs to the young