The Arkansaw traveler., 1884-07-12
A BOY WHO cor DRUNK.
puks sana

makes S tellow feel sickiish. Here is one:
 GVAyNaS, SONORA, MEN,
 une II, 1884.
 L.. W. PEck: At the American news dealers, at this place, saw one of your pictures, not long ago. and having been reader cs the Sss tor a long tune. and saw so many good articles giving advice 10 boys, and then your picture had such a help-a-tellcw-cut expression to the face concluded to drop hne and ask tor httie advice in my swn case. Well, s's an old story. am now twensy-,wo yesis old. and Jeff home tn N. Il because father and could not agree, five years ago. suppose was a httle wild. as boys naturally are a, the age of seven teen and eighteen. The way of il was, came home enc night, am sorry ,o say. pretty drunk, and father saw me the next morning he told me to pack up and leave. ] told h,m would ~ brace up and do better If he wo.ld let ue stay. But no sir, he said he had had enough ot my toolishness. and l mus, go. ard 70 d.d. Since then have never written him or he me, although write 10 mother every week. regularly. The other day recetved d letter from him. ID which he said he wanted me to come home. Now. since l have bean away. 1 have been straight as string, and haven, touched drop, and from my wages have saved up three thousand dollars and over But ,ha, would GU; no figure. as my folks are very well rxed, and 1 would not need money fl ven, home Now. k.@a tr I think nearly as much of as do mother. for she has done great deal towards brac'ng me up. Well, you know how |, IS, MT. Peck. want ,o see her, and want to sec mother and sister, but the way father has treated me, am no, very anxious 10 see him. and sometimes 1 think that as have gone so lar on my own hook" can run |, the res, of the trlp, and then again l think perhaps the governor was risht. after all, and l had better go home, and make Il all r,gh;. Now, Mir. feek, don't like to bother people, and m fact, don't do i, very often. but if you will help railroad boy ou, with httle ci your good advice and common sense. I'm sure he will never forget il. And Il a, any time you are down this way. and have lef your as- nuai in your other clothes, l can promise you good .ong f,dc wthon, the annual and all the ,oftillas and frijolas and Mexican grub you can eat.
 Trusting you will kindly favor me through the columns of your paper. am Truly yours.
 Conductor $. :. K. Co.
 Well, Mir. Conductor, s,t do~n here m the leather sea, of ,his smoking car. and we w,ll strengthen you out. and make a whole family happy. And so you go, drunk, oh: Welt, lots of boys have done that. and were sent away rom home, and they didn't turn ou, as well Al you have. II IS pretty hard thing ioI Ii father 10 ind his own son drunk, and II requires more sla,esm anship. in father. 10 deal with such d case, than II does ,o arrange the ,ann. Most men would have ] fei, lst as your father did, but many of them would have taken the boy and reasoned with him, and made him so ashamed that he would never have got drunk again. Some fathers would break boy ln two for getting drunk. and some would have simply ~ep, Tn secret, and endured sorrow enough to kIll them | You have done your duty in the case SO i far. If you had stayed around home, kept on getting drunk, you would have had your father and mother, and that girl, in the grave by this tune, or maybe the girl would have lived, though your conduct would have hurt her IL IS all right, now, and you have got chance to show the big heart that Is in you. All conductors have hearts big enough for two men.
 1 You want to know what 10 do. Tell your superintendent you want to lxy on for couple of weeks. and you take the frs, train home, without saying anything to the folks abou, Il. Or, you migh, write to your mother, and tell her that you expec, to show up in few days. an d well, you might hint 10 the girl Ina, she needn't be surprised fl she soon had a job hugging a railroad conductor from l Mexico. Don't say anything to the father about ii. He will know by the look of happiness on the dear mother s l face that something IS going 10 happen, l and for a week he will watch that depot a, home, and his heart will jump every time he sees good looking stranger. Bless you, boy, has old heart has ached enough in the last five years 10 make him hf,een years older than he was when he told you to "gi,,' and he will % all to pieces when he sees you, see fl he don't. You go right home, and don't act as though any trouble ever occurred Don, act as though you remembered anything about the drunk, and the fathers anger. Act just as though you had been of to Fourth of July If the father mentions il. and brings the matter up, Jus, laugh ii of, and say you was a big fsoi to gel full, snc he will say he was the bigger fool, and then you Jus hug your mother half string, and there will De few tears all around, and there viii be three of the happiess people in New York. And what will the girl be doing all this time. you ask Oh. the girl will have been the first to meet you At the depot, and she will have hugged