Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1872-05-23
A Word for the Boys.

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the winds that blow after them. A series
of bangs preceded their exit from the
sitting room to the outer door, and the
gate slams after them its salvo of relief
as the house settles into blessed quiet.
Before they left it was one series of eX-
periments on nerve and temper from the
time the second boy showed his head
down stairs. To be sure the first one who
was reading Oliver Optics last immoral
ity, in the shape of a novel for boys, an
swered the good-morning of the grand
mother with one so curt that it sounded
more like "Hush up and don't bother
me-"
His mother and I were just recalling
some old time frolics, which harmonic
so well with mullins and coffee, when
Francis broke in, "Ma, it's composition
day, and, oh dear how l do hate to have
to read mine. l hope nobody will visit
the school to-day. Say, will you? Oh,
don't! don't want you to-" and so on in
that silly tone which children, eaten up
with self consciousness, take to bring the
conversation near themselves. His tone
took the lead of everything which could
be said, and by similar remarks he con-
trived, as he generally does, to break up
all interest for tie older people at the ta-
BILE. His brother began sneering at him
in an undertone, leaning across the cor
ner of the table to whisper some COM
ment on young 1ady's words
Their manners were not choice in the
matter of eating. Albert, the oldest,
took piece of bread and industriously
wiped the gravy from his plate. using his
elbow for fulcrum. Ethelfred drank
from his cup without lifting it, bending
his head to the level of the table-cloth to
do so, and Francis ended by a stretch
and yawn, with arms over his head,
which told that his capacity was well
taxed.
His mother, on this, did see the propri-
ETY. of interfering, but her lecture was so
long and sharp, ending in a captious ar
gument with Francis, who cannot bear to
be in the wrong, that the listeners were
the worst punished. Having her hand in
she made it convenient to scold Albert for
leaving the marks of his gluey fingers on
the door-knob, after pasting a cover on
his book, which, as Albert vigorously
contested the point, and the boys never
think it necessary to lower their voices in
the house, finished off breakfast with a
pleasant imitation of a bear-garden.
''There," was the last injun nction, "do go
along out of the house, and stay there.
Do anything-go anywhere; but don't
come indoors. You are not fit to be
here"
The young lady visitor leaned back in
her easy-chair as the mother disappeared
pantryward. Il don't like boys" she
said. they are such plaques about the
house. Do you?"
How could l say yes after such a scene
from the domestic Comedy of Terrors
which is acted in homes all over the coun-
try. Reverend Mrs. Aldine's boys do
just so and Mrs. Percy, who writes, -
as everybody in town says as they point
out her gate posts to strangers; and Pro-
fessor Rawdon's, and the miller's, and
Mrs. Samuel Smiths, the merchants, and
my cousin GabriePs, whose wife is a
model to society, and so many more boys
whose mothers never so much as take a
book out of the circulating library. As a
rule. the more particular and exacting the
mothers, the worse the boys seem to be.
Yet, 1 couldn't say no, for there is a
whole portfolio of deeds of boyish chiv.
airy and selfdenial laid up in my mem.
Ory. l must stand up for boys. They
have been my knights from the brother
in pinafores, who drove away the great
Shanghai from my window when 1 was
in brain fever, lest his growing should
startle me, and the baby who brought his
hat full of aster and golden-rod to please
my taste for flowers, to the clever lad up
to my shoulder who used to escort me to
concerts and lecture when escort was
only needed for the look of the thing.
I've known boys to come into parlor
and behave not only endurably, but make
themselves positively acceptable compa-
ny, when at home the mothers greeting
was: ''Now take yourself off unless you
can be perfectly still, for the sight of you
worries me so | can hardly stand it,
This last case explains itself No boy
could do very well after such damper OF
welcome. But there are other boys, and
not few, thank heaven! whose manners
at home as well as abroad are as refined
as the most exacting ought to look for
Their presence is as much a pleasure in
its way as that of bright people of any
age. Wasn't it Goethe who said, "Chil
dren are the only originals?" 1t is the
mothers fault, and not the child's, if boys
are unlovely.
''How is that?" some mother will say
Pm sure talk to my boys enough, and
can't be following them up all the
| time"
Beg pardon for an unwelcome asser
tion, but that is the very thing it is youl
| duty to do. That's what you are theil
neither for, and your homes are for, sc
that your foresight, and care, and correc
ton, may be round them every hour oil
their lives. If you put this aside, your
children might as well be brought up by
the state in an asylum, as the Commun.
lists proposed, and better, too. There
| they would gain the benefit of discipline
which your training lacks.
The reason boys are not polished in
manners is because mothers do not perse
we're in their systems of education. There
is no Inheritance so valuable to a man az
that of refined address. There is moth
ing your son will so thank you for-not
college course, or the command of money
as for what is meant by good breeding
that attention to personal habits and the
self-sacrifice which fits man to minglt
with his fellow men on agreeable terms
1t is the lack of this polish which mars
the value often of great gifts and Chris
tian principles. You cannot be willing
to neglect this in your children, least O
all in your sons who will soon pass from
your control. You cannot impart i
without steady labor. Scolding will d.
very little for your purpose. 1t is a whiI
suited only for the meanest spirits tha
cannot be goaded by anything else. The
same words in a different tone will hay,
thrice the effect.
There is a method for breaking up baC
habits which never fails. Every time al
error is committed make your boy repai
it as quickly as may be. If he leaves
door open twenty times a day, twent,
times must he come back and shut it
Call him back each time, without an
sharpness of tone, but make him feel tha
it is no use forgetting-the thing left un
done will have to be done. Be inexorabl
as Fate on all bad habits, and thre
weeks work will cure what you may daw
die and scold over three years in vain.
If boy brings snow or mud into tn
house on fresh carpet or clean floor, maxi
him clear it away as neatly as you woulC
yourself. 1t will punish you more than i
will him, but you must do it. 1t saves
hundred seedlings for the same offense
A whipping would be quicker way o
settling the matter, but not half so endur
ing. And every time the fault is repeat
ed, every time let the consequences b.