The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1876-08-17
gar noung Readers
" ManlilneSS."

On. boys, | wonder if any words |
may write to you will do you good? |
think they would if you knew how
earnestly l hope they may, how ear
nestly they are written, for realize the
temptations by which you are sur
rounded. | know how hard it must be
for Il proud boy to stand calmlyby and
be laughed at for doing what he knows
to be right; 10 listen to his compan-
ions sneering words: "Ho! he's a
coward he daresn't drink; he's afraid
of his nanny: tied to his mammys
apron-string: amt he, sonny?' and
other sorely tantalizing remarks. l
know to boy at such moment it
must appear more manly to sieze the
proffered cup, and, with quick, de-
tiant gesture, pour the poison down his
throat. He thus shows to the crowd
that he dares, and wins their applause.
He has satisfied their idea of manli-
ness, but, alas, he has weakened his
own moral nature. But what a notion
of manliness is this? Where could
the idea have originated that it is man
ly to swear, to smoke, chew, drink and
do worse?
Boys, once asked young man who
was inclined to drink, How did you
ever commence to drink? What made
you do it?" His answer was the
same old excuse, Il thought it was
manly" Il know better now.' he
added, but looking soberly at me, "If
| had had such sister as you, | would
never have drunk But | shook my
head, half sad, half smiling; and, as |
told him, so, my dear boy friends, !
tell you, No sister can save you, no
mother can save you; the strength you
er's. a sisters influence is all impor-
tant, but how often, when the hour of
trial comes to you, they are far away,
and then it is left for you to resist the
temptation alone. Say Mo-. when
asked; say it gently, calmly, bat firmly,
and, If your companions urge you. if
they laugh at you, say No!' again,
and say it 50 that, if they will, they
cannot fail to see that you mean it.
But, if they persist in their persua-
sions and sneer at your steadfast prin-
ciple, take the offered glass and dash
it into thousand pieces on the floor;
it's better that that should lie there,
shattered, useless, than that at some
future time you should; and if those
boys laugh then, It's because they envy
you your splendid courage; they know
the road they are travelling leads to
disgrace and shame, and they do not
want you to stand above them, to be
respected and respectable when they
are not. And, boys, remember this,
these very ones who now ScOtf at you
because YOU do not, will BE the first, if
you fall, to jeer at you, to give you an
other downward push, to call you a
drunken vagabond," and order you
from their doors, to entirely forget
twas they who first led you into the
path you are treading, no matter how
bitterly you may remember it; there
fore, which had you better do, stand
firmly now, and let them mock and
laugh, because you are above them,
and they know it, or show yourself
coward now, and sometimes when you
are reeling through the streets, fol-
lowed by yelling boys, the miserable
butt of the inhuman crowd, hear their
jibe with the rest-which of the two,
boys, is the most manly?
Oh. boys, the first thing you do,
cast from you this false standard of
manliness. Men do countless things
that are not manly. Because chewing,
smoking, swearing and drinking are
the traits of man, it does not make
these things manly; it does not make
you manly to do these things: but
when you stand firm and brace for the
right; when you would refuse to ''take
a drink" with all the kings Of earth,
though invited and entreated by them
separately and rmitedlv; when you
have good principles, that nothing this
side of heaven can shake, then, boys,
you are manly, with true and noble
manliness, that men and women must
look up to and admire, and angels can
not but look down upon and Bless
Gale Forest, in Cincinnati Times.