Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1884-01-19
Our Boys.

panion and idol of the confding sister,
the fate of our nation in the coming
years are all centered upon our boys
of today. From their ranks must
come the orators whose eloquence will
thrill the world; from them must
come the men whose minds will guide
the people in their mighty strides in
social and cival advancement to them
the nation must look for statesmen
whose broad and comprehensive views
will govern its fifty-fve million people.
To our boys of today is entrusted the
honor of perpetuating our nation,
whose every interest causes their warm
young hearts to beat with patriotism.
From their ranks there will be cho>
sen some whose calling will honor our
pulpits, our halls Of congress, our pub
lie places and our homes of the next
decade. There are some who will 90
to make up the dark category of crimi
mails. The convict in chains of the
future, who must serve his life sen.
tence in the penitentiary for murder,
must come from the ranks of our
bright, happy boys of today. From
their midst must come the victim
of the black cap and gallows.
Boys of 1884 remember this.
Some of your number will stand
upon the scaffOld and look back
over the brief years which they have
wasted, cry out in hopelessness, Ooh! !
give me back my boyhood, my home,
my mother| but ere the cry is scarcely
uttered, there will be snap, fall,
and one of the bright boys Of today
will have paid the penalty ofhis crime.
Oh we almost hear the heart-rending
cry of a mother as she reads this, as,
with an awful fear at heart, and with
trembling hands and tears of misery
she eXclaims, "Not my boy. Oh! my
God Of Heaven not my beautiful boy.
Surely he cannot be criminal" and
she realizes the possibility of his fall,
let her 60 upon her knees, and with a
heart whose plying love and tender.
ness is akin TO His who knows her suf.
ferings, pray as only a mother can,
for wisdom and power to save her boy
from the fate which some must meet.
The mothers who do this will save theil
boys, when the boy has become a man,
be he great or small, but there will
never come time but what the re
memberance of the Christian mother,
love and tenderness will cause biz
bearded lip to tremble, his strong voice
to falter and his manly tears to flow a
the thought Of mother.
Boys if you wish to be certain o
honor and success in life, commenc,
now by trusting your mother. You
are never too old to tell mother of you
troubles. Rely upon her in all things
Love her best of all except God, ant
when, in after years, different love
strong, true and manly, has crept int
your heart for another younger an,
fairer face, 60 to mother with you
new found love and trust her, my boy
trust her with all the confidence c
your manly heart Our murderer
are never made from the boys who's
dearest and most confidential friend
mother, When in this great countr
the man who crept step by step frol
mothers knee to the White House
and who dared, in the presence an
pomp of that assembled multitude
kiss the gray haired mother after kis
ing the Bible, was the boy who a
through life trusted that Christia
mother. A few years ago this gloriou
brave, heroic Garfield, was Jimmie
the pride of a mothers heart.
The cowardly assassin who killt
this hero in the hour of his success
was, too, boy of a few years ag
One died with the tears of a nation an
the world falling at his death-tl
other hanging like a dog in the j.
yard, and none to pity or prOtes
hated and despised by all, his vel
name tinges even our boys brig
cheeks with the bushes of shame.
Boys Of today, from your ranks mu
come the Garfelds and Guiteaus of Il
future. Which will you choose?