Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1877-01-19

Let me tell you, my young friends, some
of the things / would do if we're boy
again some OF the too often neglected acts
/ would strive to accomplish IL II were IN
my power to begin all over anew. | would
learn the art Of using tools Of various Sorts
/ think l would insist on learning some
trado, even IL / knew there would be no
occasion to follow ii when grew up. What
q pleasure 1t is in after life TO be able to
make something, as the saying Isl TO con
struct a neat box to hold ones pen and pa
per or Il pretty cabinet for a sisters IL
brary or to frame a laVOrite engraving for
Christmas present to a dear, kind moth
er. What loss not 20 know how TO mend
a chair that refuses TO stand up strong only
because it needs few lacks and bit OF
leather here and there. Some of us cannot
even dive a nail straight, and should We
attempt to saw of an oblrusive piece of
wood, ten TO Que we should Lose finger in
the operation. think l would ask per-
mission-if l had happened to be born in
city-to have the opportunity Of passing all
my vacations in the country, that might
learn The names of trees, aud flowers, aud
birds. We are, AS people, sadly ignorant
OF all accurate rural knowledge. Woguess
at many count. y things, but we are certain
of very few. Ii is inexcussble in grown
up person, like my atniable neighbor S!mp-
kins, who lives from May to November on
IA farm of sixty acres, in beautiful wood
ed country, not 10 know maple from
beech, or bUbolink from cal-brd. He
once handed me a bunch of pansies, and
called them viOlets, aud on another coca.
sion he mistuok sweet peas Tor geranums.
What right has human being, while the
air is full of bird-music to be wholly ignor-
ant of The performers manner When we
go TO the opera, we are fully posted up
with regard TO all the principal singers,
and why should we know nothing of the
owners of voices that far transcend the vO-
cal powers of Jenny Lind and Christine
Nilsson7 A boy ought also t. he al home
In barn, and learn how TO harness a horse,
tinker up "a wagon, feed the animals, and
do hundred useful things, the experience
Of which may be of special service to him
in after life as an explorer or a traveller,
when unlock ed for emergencies belall him.
II l were a boy again, would learn how
to row a boat and handle a sail, and above
all, how TO becou. Q proof against sea-sck-
ness. L would conquer MGt nIdlady before
1 grew to be fifteen years old. 1t can be
done, and ought TO be dOue in youth, for
all OF us are more or less Inclined to visit
foreign countries, either in the way of bus
iDtss or mental improv enIont, to say moth
ing of pleasure. Fight the sea-sick malady
long enough, aud ii can be conquered al
very early age. o. course every young
person now a-days, male or female, learns
to swim, and So no advice Oh that score
need be profiered; but If were boy
again, would learn 10 float halt a dav If
necessary, in as rough bit Of wafer as
could find ON our beautiful coast. A buv
of Eileen who cannot keep his head and
legs all right il stiff sea ought TORY un-
Ill he can. No lad in these days ought to
drown-if he eau help hl aoud keep
"belter hours" ii l were a bog again that
is, would go 10 bed earlier than most
boys do. Nothing gives us more mental
and bodily vigor than sound rest when
properly applleu. steep Is -.sAt
plenisher, and if we neglect 10 take ii nat
urally in childhood, all the worae for Us
when we grow up. Ii we go TO bed early,
we ripen if we sit up late, we decay, and
sooner or later we contract disease called
Insomnia, allowing il 10 be permanently
fixed upon us; and then we begin to de-
cay, even in youth. Late hours are shad
ows fl ON the grave. II l were boy again,
/ would have blank book in which !
could record, before going 10 bed, every
days events just as they happened TO me
personally. II l began by writing only
two lines day in my diary, would start
my little book, and faithfully put down
what happened TO interest me. On its pa
ges I would note down the habits of birds
and animals IS saw them, and il the horse
fell III, down should go his malady in my
book, and what cured him should 20 there
too. II the cal or the dog showed any pc
culiar traits, they should all be chronicled
in my diary, aud nothing worth recording
should escape me. There are hundreds of
things would correct in my life ii were
a boy again, and among them is this espe-
cial one would be more careful OF my
teeth. Sceing since have grown up how
much su fiering is induced by the bad hah-
il Of constantly eating candies and other
sweet nuisances, would shut my mouth
TO all alurements of that sort Very bot
and very cold substances l would studi0ns-
IL avoid. ToOthache in our country is one
of the national crimes. Half the people we
meet have sweied faces. The dentist
thrives here as be does in no oiher land on
the planet, and il is because we begin to
anil Al tl,p .,f 81.
years. child, eight Yeas old, asked me
not long ago if L could recommend him to
a dentist "who didn't hurt g. piled him,
but was unAcquainted with such an ar
list. They all hurt, and they cannot help
it, poor, hard-workingg gentlemen, charging
as they do, like Chester. i would have no
dealings with tobacco, in any form, If
were boy again. My friend Pipes tells
me he is such martyr TO cigar boxes that
his life is burden. The habit OF smok ing
has become such a tyrant over him that he
carries tobacco bowsprit at his damp, dis
colored lips every honr of the day, and he
begs me TO warn all the boys of my ae-
quaintance, and say 10 them emphalically,
Don't learn to smoker He tells me,
sadly, that his head is sometimes i'm such a
dizzy whirl, and his brain so foul from
long habits of smoking he cannot break
OF, that he is compelled to forego much
that is pleasant in existence, and live a to-
bacco-tortured life from year to year. Poor
Pipes he is sad warning to young fell
lows who are just learning TO use the dirty,
unmannerly weed.-JdmeS T. Field in
Youths Companion.
No WAR FOR HIM.-ole 81 was standing
in a'crowd at the depot, says the Atlanta
Herald whan nna nf tho dorL iac rra,a,,,