The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-04-24
Advice TO Old Men by a Boy.

1 can not pick up newspaper with
out "Advice to Boys" stares me in the
face. Old men write it, s'pose. No
body else is capable of giving any ad-
vice to boys; of course not They know
all about US, they do, cause they've been
there. Advice is good thing to have,
no doubt, and no family should be with
out it, but teller don't want to be
crammed with it all the time to the ex-
clusion of all other diet.
Now old men need advice occasional
ly, but in looking through the newspa-
pers I don't see as they get it. So I
thought would just write little Advice
to Old Men myself, if / am not presum-
ing too much, las Aunt Chloe says, and
/ presume / am.
In the first place you 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 are boys pretty much
Except some that are girls) the world
over, and one generation 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 out any
thing else the rising generation of to-day
when you "was boy" Grandfather,
who has got the gout, and half dozen
different kinds of rheumatism, is always
saying that. | heard him singing
the other day, 81 would l were boy
again." would he were. If couldn't
beat him running, and flop him on his
back, sideholt, l don't want cent.
I wouldn't 60 so far as to say, parents
obey your children" but I would suggest
to fathers that they give us boys a hear
ing occasionally, on matters in which we
are the ones most interested. Don't
make us go and slide down hill when we
want to skate, and don't try to make
preachers of us when we much prefer to
run saw mill. This is figuratiye, but 1
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 to
relating your boyish scrapes to each
other and laughing over them before weare
out of earshot. The other day grandfa-
ther read me long lecture about the
rights of property, temperance, and Sab
bath breaking.
That night an old crony of his'n came
to visit him, and they had glass of
punch together. They thought I was
asleep on the sofa, and the way they
run on about the fun they had
when they were boys together! They
told all about robbing Captain Lyman's
melon patch, and it turned out it was
on Sunday night too! When I went
to bed they were taking their third glass
of punch, and I don't know how many
they had after that. I know grandfa-
theirs rheumatism was great deal worse
the next day, and he complained about
his liver. Old men ought to be careful
about taking too much punch.
I 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 o feller like me hints that
they can't. But what's the use of fool
ing yourselves? We've all got to play
out some day, and when man feels he
is losing his grip, why not come down
gracefully and acknowledge the corn?
Now, in the above remarks, l don't
mean any disrespect. like old men in
their place, but don't want so much Of
their advice. Give the boys chance
Cincinnati Times.