The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1884-05-24
A BAD HABIT.

So you want to run out o. nights, ehp
Well. my boy, if there is one single
habit more than another calculated to
bring a lad to evil ways it is that of
running around village, town or city
O. nights. All the bad in human nature
begins to bubble as soon as the sun goes
down. You wouldn't dream of doing u
mean act to your neighbors by daylight,
but after dark it seems a good joke to
lug off gates, upset outhouses, steal
fruit or raise a false alarm of fire. 1t
may seem fun TO you, but when you
come to sit down and think it over you
cant help but admit that it is small
business. Any action of yours which
puts any one else to trouble and expense
may be questioned to your detriment.
Find a murderer, burglar or thief
point out to me the biggest loafcr in your
town and l will show you man who
began his career by running out o.
nights. ] don't say that George Wash
ington or Thomas Jefferson or Abraham
Lincoln didn't throw down lumber piles
or rob fruit trees at ten o clock at night,
but ii 50, they started out just right to
become bad men.
Don't l want a boy to have fun?
You bet do! and, by and by, I'm 60
ing to put you up to dozen different
things in that line. But this grabbing
your hat after supper and sneaking out
over the back fence is mean piece of
business when you come to figure it
down. Down on the corner you meet
Jim this or Tom that, You 90 lover
town" and are seen hanging around
this or that place. You may sneak
into saloon to see game of billiards,
but you hate yourself for it. You may
sit in Smiths grocery and hear lot OF
old bald-headed liars spin their yarns
and abuse religion, but you go out feel
ing that you could kick any one of them
| who dared bow to your mother.
You'd 90 home and go to bed if it
wasn't for Jim or Tom. He wants a
| little fun and he drags you into it.
What he calls fun is stringing a rope
| across the sidewalk. 1t doesn't occur
to him that some person may break a
limb and be put to several hundred dol
! lars expense, or even be killed outright.
He thinks it cute thing to roll off bar
rels of salt, barricade the bridges, sci
an oil-shed on fire or stop up the Chin
news on a widows house. When you
have played such tricks it comes very
easy to play others which the law won't
look at in the funny light
There is to-day in the Michigan State
Prison boy whose career l watched
for two years. first saw him prowling
around o. nights. He had an honest
face and good heart, but his father
had seemingly never been a boy him
self. He let this lad 90 and come as hC
willed, and within three months the pc
lice had to caution him. Inside of 81,
months he belonged to gang of juve
nile thieves. Within two years he was {
burglar. When he stood up in court t.
receive his five years sentence womer
wept to see that one so young haC
drifted so rapidly to the bad.
What can you do o nights if YOU re
main at home?
Scores of things, my boy. In the frs
place there's the checker-boar and il
the next place, your father wants to 81
right down and teach you all he know
about it. Outside OF the interest in
chance game your wits are made the
sharper by such struggles. A gooC
checker-player will never be rasl
business man. This very training
makes him cautious in his dealings
There are dozens of good boy-books t.
be had, and your father had better bu.
you two or three per week than turf
you over TO the town. There's no EN-
of mechanical tops and toys AM
games.
And suppose you learn how to draw
or paintP Look at watch and yo
will realize that all the wheels an
springs and shafts and jewels 90 t
make up a perfect time-piece. just S
with man. There are lots of one
wheeled men in this world They ca
sell goods, make boots, run an engin
or keep butcher shop, but outside G
that one thing they are all at sea. 1t
the handy man who is helping thi
world along-the man who is full {
wheels and springs. Don't be afrai
because you have planned to study law
to read up ON philosophy and science
to learn how to handle tools, to analyz
steam, to post yourself on whatever
worth knowing.
: You will discover as you grow up tha
the man who knows the least is tn