Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1879-12-22
AZ OPEN LETTER TO THE BOYS.
BY I%CoNoLLOsT.

The following letter written by a
prominent lawyer Of New Orleans,
was read to the boys of a Southern
institution OF learning recently. 1t
contains good advice to all classes OF
boys, old as well as young:
My Dear Boys-An old man always
stands in awe of boys-if he has any
sense. When a man has occasion to
address a crowd of his own age, it is u
great consolation for him to reflect
that in all human probability a vast
majority of his hearers are as stupid
as himself, and if he talks drivel, they
delight in it! But boysl All, that
is quite different. They are like SO
many king birds pursuing a hawk.
They fly over and under and around
~a-speaker. They peck at him, and fly
ahead Of him, and come back and
hurry him up, and finally. if they are
too polite to jeer at him, they guess
at what he is going to say. They
jump, by intuition, to the conclusions
be must struggle for by slow logical
processes, aud are ready to laugh in
mis- face, with good natured banter,
when he finally reaches the end.
There is the same difference between
a boys wit and a mans as there is
between a bright new Ratchet and a
rusty old az.
Did it ever strike you how harmless
George Washington would have been
If be had been armed with the old
gentlemans rusty old ak instead Of
his own bright little hatehet2 Perhaps
yea remember the poet sings:
@Y0u may br1iss with N ~, cherry
trees, il you viii.
But the buighI little hatehet is the thing
that will XIII.
Thus you will see. that while it is a
very jolly thing TO be a boy, it is a
very sad and serious thing to be a man,
and all good b~oysshould strive against
it as long and as earnestly as they can.
1t has always been a great mystery to
me-and. indeed, to many other men
why a wise aud kind Providence
should ever had insisted upon bows
either dying or becoming men. 80
far as practical results go, boys are
infinitely .lore valuable. Men are
the greatest sp%endthriits in the world,
and accumulate absolutely nothing.
Talk about young men squsndering
their patrimony ! 1 would like to ask
whether each one of you boys are not
working hard day and night to accu.
mulate a fund OF knowledge, and
Frightening up wits for the coming
man to s%quander and stupefy? Every
age tells the same tale and shows the
same results. There is hardly a boy
or youth under twenty, who, if he
could be introduced squarely aud IN
hesitatingly to his future self, would
not blush Tor shame, and utterly repu.
date aud disown the matured IDIOT he
had become.
There would be a strange code al
laws framed for men if boys could
legislate, and few men could stand be-
fore the bar of justice il the judicia
ermine rested upon the honest breasts
and "a directed by the wise head.
and clear consciences OF uncOntami
mated boyhood.
The good DR., Holmes advised men
g . BE stupid if you can,
I1aYerysceioasthin to be "A fanny man.
How much more serious a thing i
is TO be a ran At alll From my i'm
tied experience lift we're not for tn,
fear Of my fellow sinners | shoulC
frankly advise you boys Ia hold
mass convention and absolutely aH,
entirely abolish men-as an institution
lie is OF but little use, even as an ex
ample, aud you cah do many NOR
things than he can, aud everything h
does you can do it a dozen diaeren.
ways. remember even TO this dal
that the professor in cur schoo
al ways walked from chapel to school
rooL1 and took his seat in exactly tn,
same way. ] lon't suppose even 10 .,
simple and 'sya ling as that. h
could possibly have been induced ever
to try to make that trip in any othe
way; and yet ! assure you from fire.
quent experience there were at leas
three hundred and se~Yenty-6ve differ
ent ways known and pFsetjced b,
every boy in school.
! only mention this as an ~illustfs
tion, and ! know your fertile fancie
will finish the picture. and at once in
dorse my statement as very tame,
v thin" A thousand ether fact
will at once occur to you to show con
clusively how supremacy the maturel
man disoppoints, disgusts and eYeI
disgrsces the fond hopes Of the bo
and the promises of his youth. Al
old EngBshnan, whom ever the auto
eracy Of man have called a poet, of tn
name Of Wordsworth, mas gone so ia