Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1884-05-29
Mlistellaueuns &eadiug.
SHORT TALKS WITH THE BOYS.

the other day as 'the old man." and of your
mother as cher highness."
What's the matter that you can't refer to
them as your father and mother?
Suppose your parents should speak Of you
as "the kid" or "the fly" You'd soon be-
gin to think you were born into the wrong
family. The son who is ashamed of his
parents ought to be ashamed of himself.
Suppose their ways are old fashioned and
their grammar little off, and they don't
feel like keeping up with the fashions of the
day? Not one father or mother in ten had
the advantages you enjoy. Forty or fifty
years ago they walked three or four miles to
a country school to pick up little learning,
while now you are talking of going TO col
lege. They began poor and have toiled
and labored and saved for their children.
You just remember that things have great
ly changed in this country. Years ago cal
leo dress was seen at church far oftener than
silk. Men went to meeting clad in home
spun. The rule in most houses was for the
children stand up to eat. The biggest pieces
of pie went to father and mother, and chill
dren were not allowed to sit up until 10
o'clock at night, or to argue question after
the head of the family had decided it.
My boy, don't get any foolish notions
into your head. If your father is old and
gray and bent-ifyour mother is trembling
and weak and has no care for the frivoilties
of this day, it is toll which has brought
these, days of hard work and nights full of
anxiety that their children might be spared
blue,jeans you have broadcloth. Where
| they ate johnnycake you have sweet cake
and pie. Where their mode of life and
| forced economy prevented them from en-
joying society, amusements or books, just
think how you make the shillings fly, and
what is offered to interest and amuse you |!
Now let's have word to say about econo-
my. I've been right among you, and l
know that you want this, that and the
other, and "Want it bad" Up to the time
of the war if one of the boys Of that day
had dime to spend for Fourth OF July, he
thought himself we'll fixed. The boys want
about five dollars apiece nowadays, and
that's all gone before noon.
If we got a new book it was considered
great piece of extravaganza. The lad who
| had cash enough to walk into panoramic
exhibition, buy pair of skates, or treat him
| self to sWeet-meats was looked upon by
the rest of us Jay Gould.
Pm not saying that you shouldn't have
money and use it, but right there is vital
point. Be sure that you really need what
you buy. Ask yourself if it will pay :?
Money is the wheels on which the world
after every novelty brought out and you'll
| by and by have a secondhand museum
and no cash to run it.
dislike a stingy boy, but when l see
| lad planking his nickels down at the desk
of a savings bank / know that he is one of
the future men who is going to build our
railroads and do our wholesale business.
| There's big difference between being stin-
gy and being economical. The richest men
Of America are liberal in giving to church
es, asylums and to the unfortunate but they
never waste. They don't indulge in this
or that simply because they have money
enough to pay for it.
Now, if you are about Is years old you've
got sneaking idea into your head that it's
big thing to use an oath occasionally.
| You never made a greater mistake 1t is
| true many men use more or less OathS, but l
would like to have you find me one who
! isn't ashamed of it !! It's mean habit, for
| it is habit. l know you can point to
the greatest men in the land and prove that
| they spit out oaths, but that'sno reason why
you should tollowsuit. There isn'ta swear
er in this country who doesn't feel quiet
satisfaction in sitting down to converse with
man whose language is clean and pure.
Swearing is about the first thing you hear
from the lips of a fool or drunkard. Even
| heather can swear.
Now, don't get the idea that / want you
to be too good. The too good boy is null
sance He was born to be an angel, but they
forgot to spike on the wings. Go to the cir
Gus? Certainly! know there are people
in this world who look upon a circus as the
next thing to visit from oldSatan himself,
but they ought to have lived forty years
ago. II you were my boy I'd walk you in,
show you every animal and curiosity, and
then we'd take reserved seat and see the
circus. When man has trained horse or
mule or dog to obey him with almost hu-
man intelligence he has proved to you the
practical value Of patience and persever-
ance. Every shade of men will stop on the
street to see man lift, or to watch jump
ing-match. Then why deprive you of the
sight of the performance of an athlete, who
has spent years to bring his strength and
agility to perfection?
Would l take you to the theatre To
good play-yes to a Buffalo Bill barn
tstorming hurrah-no. Five plays out of
seven are healthy in sentiment, and point
moral so plainly that even child can catch
on.
want my boy to rub against every day
life little while he is boy. If he has the
idea that hunters life is full of juicy buff
falo steaks and victories over grizzlies Pm
going to send him into the woods for week
to live on woodchuck meat, carry a cold in
his head and be jumped out Of his boots the
first time an owl boots. If he asks for mon
ey Pm going to give it to him, but 1 want
to sit down of a Saturday night and see how
he spent it, and show up some of his foolish
bargains. If he wants to sail the bounding
bilow l know of lake captain who will
take him on a trip from Detroit to Saginaw,
and if he can't cure him in just one voyage
nobody else need try.
would to your brother. Don't bulldOze be-
cause you happen to be his father and have
the bulge on him. Argue and reason. Don't
expect to make assertions and have him
swallow them as gospel truths unless you
have backing. Teach him what to avoid
and what to cultivate and turn him loose
for while. If he seeks the good he has
the right instincts if he runs after the bad,
don't walk him into the wood shed for a
pounding until you have asked yourself II
he doesn't come natural by that falling
N. Quad, IN Detroit Free Press.
How SENATOR EWING CAME TO BE
CALLED "SOLITUDE."-Then nicknaming of
prominent men, particularly Of those mix
ing in politics, is practiced in America more,
perhaps, than in any other country, and, as
rule, the recipient takes to it kindly. Thus
General Jackson was as we'll known as "Old
Hickory" and more readily recognized than
if called President Jackson. Senator Ben
ton in his lifetime was almost as we'll
known as "Old Bullion" so called from his
advocacy of a gold and silver currency and
his inveterate opposition to banks and paper
money. The late Thomas Ewing, of Ohio,
while a Senator in Congress, had his nick
name of "Solitude," and it so stuck to him