The New Bloomfield, Pa. times. (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1877-188?, 1880-01-13
SUNDAY READING.
Fathers on the Skirmish Line

IOO Winh W tihii UP yOut Ohiiu
i in the way he should go, Just
skirmish ahead on that line your
self,p said wise Josh Billings, and IL
he was not addressing fathers and think.
ing of boys, he ought to have been. The
writer was present once at social
religious meeting, when very large
man with very large nose, and no
doubt very large heart, also, arose,
and used his space of time to tell what
good mother he had and how her influ-
ence had guided him, and finished with
an exhortatlon to all mothers to make
good men of their boys.
The divines followed lin similar
strain and ended with the same exhor-
tation. All the brethren settled them.
selves more comfortably into their seats,
and all the sisters bowed their heads
with meek faces, as If sweetly taking up
the heavy burden thus flatteringly laid
upon their ffail shoulders. No, not all
for one sat bolt Upright, too indignant
for speech, to see those great broad
shouldered men thus camly shirking the
greatest responsibility God ever called
them to bear.
Because some mothers, blessed with
mighty faith and powerful will, have
borne their sons triumphantly over
the quicksands of youthful temptations
and planted their feet firmly on the
pleasant upland of righteous manhood,
shall it be demanded of every frail
womon to whom God has given a son,
that she do the samep No. with equal
justice it might be demanded of every
woman that she write books like Mrs.
Stowe, entrance large audiences like
Miss Willard and Anna Dickinson, or
be brilliant newspaper correspondent
like Mary Clemmer.
What weight has mothers word
when weighed against fathers exam
ple2 The mother says, "My son, do
not smoke; it is bad for your health,
bad for the purse, bad for the morals,
and the pleasure it affords is trifling
compared to the evil it works.
w ndU uOCS n1ObhCi hnOW dDOuU
smoking ?" reasons the boy "she
never smokes father smokes, and am
going to-
Don't spend your evenings about the
bar room and village store" pleads the
troubled mother; "the conversation
there is not such as wish you to listen
to.n
"What does mother know about bar
room talk ?" questions the boy; "she
is at home rocking the baby or darning
stockings, father is there and I'm
going"
One outspoken ten-year-old boy said,
81 like my mother well enough but 1
think father is a great deal smarter"
and he expressed the feelings of the
average boy when he enters his teens.
Now, which parent is likely to have
most influence in forming the character
of that son ?
"I'll take what father takes" said the
boy at the hotel dinner table, and boys
are taking what their fathers take, all
the world over.
A father and son were clambering up
the rough, steep sides of mountain,
when the father stopped to decide which
of many paths to take, the boy said,
Be careful to choose a good path,
father, for am coming right behind
YOU"
Fathers upon the hillside of life, be
sure you choose a good path, /" for your
sons are just behind and almost certain
to follow in your footsteps. If the be-
witching voice of pleasure entices you
into the by-paths of self-indulgence and
sin, remember that where you trip he
will stumble, and the same foul mire
that soils your raiment will engulf
him. But if you choose to walk the
pleasant highways of temperance, virtue
and Christian manllness, he shall keep
even step with you, and at last dwell in
peace at your side.
THE just man walked in his integri-
ty; his children are blessed after him."