The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-09-25
Our Young Folks.
MAKING A MAN.

boyhood.
Every boy expects to become a man.
From time to time he repeatedly
counts over the number of years that
will elapse before he is twenty-one.
Quite early in boyhood, the pleasure
taken in these counts seems greater
than in the closing years of his minori-
ty. AS he gets up higher and higher
in his ''teens," strange to say. the boy
hnds his anticipations of being his own
master afford him less pleasure than
when ten years younger.
He begins to realize that the pleas
ures of boyhood were brighter because
they were so free from the shadows of
responsibility; that, after all, it is quite
a pleasant thing to possess and enjoy
the comforts of home, without feeling
compelled to look after the taxes, or the
rent, and perhaps make constant exer-
ton to keep the interest paid up.
He finds it convenient to go to father
or mother for all, or part, of the mon
ey when he wants a new suit, instead
of having to work week after week for
somebody who feels very little interest
in him, and perhaps then be put off
month after month without his pay.
As the boy draws near the time when
he is to be considered a man, he per-
ceives that when young men try to get
situations, or start into business for
themselves, great many questions are
asked about their qualifications, their
morals, their past reputation and hab-
its. He finds that some young men,
with the best of Recommendations must
try whole year before they succeed in
| getting a creditable situation, even at a
low salary-perhaps four or five dollars
a week-scarcely more than enough to
pay board.
He realizes that if the young man at
tempts to start into some business for
himself, all others in the same line of
business consider him an intruder, who
may injure their interests, and they re-
sist his progress by making finer dis
play, by cutting down prices and by
diverting from him the patronage.
As the boy draws near manhood he
perceives these unpleasant realities
The beginner with limited capital and
small experience, cannot sustain the
strain of losses; nevertheless, he is the
first one pounced upon by the beggars
who never think of working for their
living, and by the frauds who make it
a business to buy all they can and get
the advantage of all the labor they can,
with no intention of paying for them;
and although he is now man, he finds
that fortune does not pour money into
his hands in the wonderful manner he
had read of in fairy tales; but bills
must be promptly met, or goods seized,
rent must be paid, or levy will be made,
license and taxes must be liquidated,
and unless he is extremely economical,
he will not have enough means left
to buy himself even one plain suit a
year, while he was accustomed to
having two suits everv six months when
a boy.
What kind of a man are you max
ingP
When young men start out in life
they need capital. Their father or
some friends may be enabled to loan
them some money to start into bust
ness; but if they are indolent, loving
ease rather than work, seeking pleasure
instead of attending to duty; if they
are careless in regard to small matters
and neglect their opportunities to ad-
vance their interests; if they are ex-
travagant in their habits and spend
money faster than it is earned-it can
make little difference whether their
capital is small or great; it will be
squandered-such men are failures
If young man has cultivated fond
ness for theaters, horse-racing, card
playing, drinking and gambling, he has
developed into what is called "fast
mana man stunned by all good and
worthy society-he is victim of self
ruin. If young man is spendthrift,
and wastes money upon unworthy OBJ
jects, and to replenish his supplies man
ages to procure money that does not
belong to him by roboing his employer,
embezzling public funds, or forging
drafts to be cashed, he also wrecks his
manhood and degrades himself to the
level of ''jail-bird."
If man is too lazy to make his liv-
ing, or having acquired money, spends
it so freely he has nothing left to live
on, but must be kept by his friends,
that man becomes ''sponge;" if he has
no friends who will feed and clothe him,
but must 90 from stranger to stranger
for sustenance, he is ''beggar;'' if he
| Cttu uO lnlcs IL 10 Duu ~ SOOp w OihO poOi-
house, and he is a 'pauper."
On the other hand, if young man
has acquired habits of industry, econ
omy and sobriety, and has built up for
himself a good, substantial moral
character, with high ambition and no.
BILE purposes, he makes worthy, sue
cessful, respected, honorable citizen
reliable and useful in every relation of
life, trusted and revered by all who
know him-he is ''manly man."
Who makes the man?
The boy does. But the boy must be
helped. Whenever boy is induced
to attend to his work, when he has
work to attend to, and attend to les
sons when he has lessons to learn, he is
being helped to form the industrious
habits that shall make him successful
man. Every time boy is induced to
save his money instead of spending it
for candy, kites, or other tribes, he is
being helped to form habits of econ
omy that shall aid him to become a
provident, and perhaps wealthy,
man.
When boy is taught to appreciate
his own home (if it be not an immoral
one) instead of renegading from house