The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1881-06-17
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE BOYS.

ANO OPEN LETTER TO THE BOYS.
I have lately had letter from my
nephew. Johnny Briggs. AS the spell
inc and grammar are little defective,
l will only give the postscripts. which,
however, contain the pith of the letter
itself. They run thus:
"Ps one Reeson I have decydid TO Go TO |
soc. is Because Am SO fond OF Fun and ad- |
Up. SIS. can rize quickest in the navey or !
D' gums - JOHSNY BRfcGs."
It is q great many years since was
boy like JOHNNY great many; yet
not so long ago but that. after reading
his letter and its postscripts. fully un-
derstand Johnny's frame of mind. He
is tired of the sameness of life-the eat
ing and sleeping and going to school
are all 80 uneventful. There are no
pirates, or wild Ind ans. or typhoons to
be encountered in this prOsaic exist
ence, no fair young maidens to be res
cued from peril of field, fire or flood.
His ardent soul pants for adventure,
and he is aflame to encounter the ex-
eitement which he fondly believes to
be inseparable from
"a life on the ocean wave."
According to his letter. this newborn
desire is due to "a unquenchibel Spirit
OF Rowing" which he darkly hints
is an Inheritance from a very re-
mote ancestor, who is mentioned
by Johnny as q freebooter" My
own impression, however, is that it
arises from the fact that the news
dealer at the corner of the block where
johnny lives deals in fve-cent nautical
novels of the most startling kind. L
saw one of them once. 1t was called
1.-The Boy Blockader; or, The Strange
Secret of Hampton Hail." l was inter-
ested to notice that the publishers an
nounced it as of thrilling interest, and
intended especially for the instruction
and edifcation OF youth! All for five
cents! But am wandering from my
subject.
Now Johnny has asked my advice on
this matter of going to sea. True. l
know that, like advice asking people in
general, he will only take so much of it
as comedies with his own ideas-the
remainder will be contemptuously
ignored as the views of an Old fOgy.
But Duty with a, big d stands at my
elbow, so out of my past experience
have evolved the following:
Ny DEAR NEPHEw:-'TheB urlinS-
ton Hn,skeye man. who is one of the
most charming persons l know, says
this: Everybody likes candid man
: till he gives candid opinion that in
terferes with their own. Then he's a
:. bigot' So before finish this letter
you'll know what bigot is, and that
will be something.
"Your fondness for fame and adj
. venture is-if may SO express ia
family weakness. 1t sent your father
to California in 40. and brought
. him home with rather less money than
he took away with him. Me it sent to
to sea; and if / learned nothing else
there. found out that present-day sea-
: going hasn't quite as much fun or adj
venture about it as present-day sea-
+ stories would have US believe. If you,
my dear Johnny, should 90 to sea. you
= would probably make the same dis.
covery. 1 doubt even if you would find
among your shipmates a daring Dick
Dashaway. a romantic Ralph Rackstraw,
or even a Jolly Jack Easy. The men
}. who have taken the place of these
l. heroes of fiction are literally on earth
v earthly, rather than of the sea, salt.
a don't know Just why the salt should
% have So lost its SAVIOR since the day:
= of Cooper and Marryatt. But ont
, would think nowadays that it wa!
!. henceforrh fit for nothing but to b'
l. cast out and trodden under foot of men
j. such downtrodden race are the sailor
!; of to-day.
3 "For you will no longer, my dea
l. Johnny, find the jovial tar who in tn
8. words of your favorite song.
TO ".Sings as he views the gathering cloud
20 to be the manly, independent marine
l. of fiction. Rather is he literally. of
le entimes) under the iron heel of bruts
e. taskmaster.
10 81 have never heard heard him sin
in as he viewed the gathering clouC
w though l haze heard him, under hi
I'd breath, use unpleasantly emphati
ct words on the subject of the weather
ly And my impression is, my dear nephew
ev that after YOU have been to sea shOl
:" time. YOU yourself will not look upo
he the gathering cloud in the light of
b. subject for tuneful melody; becau;
tv when a man is called out of his watc
on below to help shorten sail four or fiv
times every twenty-four hours, he is al
to lose his ear for music.
q "Why, the summons to this unplea
". ant duty is of itself calculated to mai
". q bow think of home. The officer
ed the deck does not send word for al
in that as the weather is likely to be III
w. pleasant he would be obliged to tt
10. sailors 4 they would kindly arise al
on appear on de. K as soon as they can CO
ar veniently. Oh, no! But the secor
of mate, who is muscular Of arm and pc,
ms Of. nj of voice, thunders away at Il
Of forecastle door. shouting in . tone tn
doesn't admit of discuss on:
..Turn out here to short'n sail; al
ian oe quick about it. too! ifs6
of 81 may remark in passing. my de-
of John, that it will at such . time be us
the less for you to plead fatigue. drow'
cess or even sudden headache, as