Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1871-02-23
Advice to Old Men, by q Boy.

cannot pick up q newspaper without
Advice to Boys" stares me in the face.
Old men write it, I s'pose. Nobody else
Is capable of giving any advice to boys; of
course not! They know all about us, they
do, cause they've been there. Advice is a
good thing to have, no doubt, and no fam.
lily should be without it, but feller don't
want TO be crammed with it all the time to
the exclusion of all other diet.
Now, old men need advice occasionally.
but in looking through the newspapers
don't see as they get it. So thought
would just write little Advice to Old Men
myself, if am not presuming too much,
las Aunt Chloe says and presume l am.
In the first place, you old chaps ought to
get over telling how much smarter boys
were when you were young, than boys are
now. You believe. it yourselves, of course.
cause you've told it so many times, but we
boys can't see 1t. We have notion that
boys are boys pretty much Except some
that are girls the world over, and one gen.
Grafton Of them don't lay over another
generation to any alarming extent
Only let you tell it, and you could out
jump, Out-run, Out-wrestle and outany-
when you was boy" Grandfather,
different kinds Of rheumatism, is always
saying that, heard him singing the other
day, 81 would / were boy again"
would he were. If couldn't beat him
running, and flop him on his back, side
hold, don't want cent
/ would not 90 so far as to say, "Pa-
rents, obey your children" but | would
suggest to fathers that they give us boys a
hearing occasionally on matters in which
we are the ones most interested. Don't
make us 60 and slide down hill when we
want to skate, and don't try to make
preachers of us when we much prefer to
run a saw mill This is fgurative, but l
guess you know what mean.
After giving us boys sage advice about
our conduct, and how to behave, you old
men ought to be careful how you get re.
lating your bOyish scrapcs to each other,
and laughing over them before we are out
of earshot. The other day grandfather
read me long lecture about the rights of
property, temperance and Sabbath break
ing.
That night an old crony of .his'n come
to visit him, and they had glass of punch
together. They thought was asleep on
the sofa, and the way they run on about
the fun they had when they were boys to-
gether! They told all about robbing Cap
tain Lyman's melon patch, and it turned
out it was on Sunday night too! When
l went to bed they were taking their third
glass of punch, and don't know how
many they had after that. l know, grand
fathers rheumatism was a great deal worse
the next day, and he complained about his
liver. Old men ought to be careful about
taking too much punch.
have noticed old men hate to give up
that they can't stand as much as they used
to, or as younger men can. They get mad
If Teller like me hints that they can't.
But what's the use of fooliDg yourself!
We've all got to play out some day, and
when man feels he is loosing his grip
why not come down gracefully and &C.
knowledge the corn!
Now, in the above remarks don't mean
any disrespees Hike old men in their
place, but don't want SO much of their ad-
vice. Give the boys achance. Cincinnati
Timer.