The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1882-08-24
To a Puzzled Parent.


Ihe fact that your boy has peculiar
faculty for spending money, and PEE
cular distaste for saving or even SEEM
ING to save it. SO that of two articles OF
,ual desirability he would always pre-
fer the more expensive, especially IT
the prices were TO be known to ''the
boys may well give you some con-
cern, and certainly calls for some watch
fulness and care; but it is not necessa-
rily bad sign. 1t indicates rather ig-
norance than vice, and is a fact due
rather to the social civilization of the
times than to special personal charac-
teristics.
For in America the common though
rude test of character is the ability TO
make money and generosity in spending
it. We do not admire miser, we do
not worship, as it is sometimes said we
do, mere wealth. There is no commu-
nifty where boarding is more despised.
But those men are most respected who
have means and use them with liber-
ality. The man who has handsome
house, tastefully built and furnished,
who drives fine span, who dresses
himself and his wife and children well,
who hires an expensive pew in church,
who gives literally to public and be-
nevolent enterprises-in other words,
who apparently has plenty of money and
uses it freely-is the man most likely
to be looked up 70 by all his neighbors,
including the deacons and the min
lister. The test thus furnished is not
altogether a bad one. If man in
America has money, this indicates ener-
gy, industry, temperance and thrift-in
brief, the economic virtues; If he spends
it freely, this Indicates liberal, gener-
Gus disposition-in brief, the chief So
cial virtue. These two classes Of yir-
tues-the economic and the social-by
no means constitute q complete man
hood; but they go very far toward max
| inc a useful and agreeable member OF
society. The free spending of money is
furthermore uncOnsciolIsly encouraged
by ministers and religious literature.
Pulpit exhortatioDs to liberality are fire.
| quent; to economy, rare. The duty OF
parting with money is emphasized; the
accumulating of money is treated rather
| as a vice than as q virtue. Under such
circumstances it is not at all strange
that Our boys should grow up ambitious
| to be free spenders and ashamed Of
| small economies; that they should wish
to appear to have plenty Of money, and
| that they should think it manly TO spend
| IL freely. They can hardly be expected
| to look into the philosophy Of this mat
| ter. or to realize that there is differ
enee between spending their father
money and spending their own. Not a
/ few grown men, and some with repu
/ tation of greatness, never comprehend
| this distinction. There are members of
| Congress with a large reputation for
| liberality wholly built upon their ex-
| penditure of other peoples money, and
| others subjected to the odium Of Mig
|
| full about voting away money which
| comes out of the hard earnings of 9TH
! ers.
Nor is the mere fact that your boy
gets into some bad companionships and
| some demoralizing activities any proof
/ or even any indication of a depraVed
/ nature 1t indicates danger for him.
| and demands foresight and caution
/ from you, but it does not indicate moral
| culpability in him; certainly not Of an
| extraordinary kind nor to an extraordin-
ary degree. Good boys are often only
/ insane boys. They do nothing very bad
/ because they do nothing at all; they
NOPE and are quiet and get a reputa-
tion for sanctity simply because they
are half sick. They never tear their
clothes because they never climb trees;
never get wet becau g, Ike cats, they
are afraid of the water; never fight be-
cause they are towards; never disobey
because they have no viii Of their own.
The colt that is hardest TO break il
worth more as a horse if he is wisely
| broken. There is no danger of an eX-
| plosion in a steam-en2ine which has DO
| lire in the fire-box and no steam in the
boiler. An energetic, ambitious,
vivacious, inguis.tive boy, desirous 10
know everything that any one else
knows and to do everything that any
one else can do. full Of the sense Of his
own strength, and ambitious to try it in
season and out of season, is in some re-
spects an uncomfortable boy To get along
with; sure 10 be getting into continual
scrapes and misleading younger ana
weaker companions; but these are the
BOYS who make the efficient, successful
and useful men. II in their boyhood they
are rightly trained Christian ofs'o'''