The Opelousas courier., 1884-08-23
short Talk with the Boys.

So you want to run out at night,
eh
Well, my boy, ii there is one habit
more than another calculated to bring
a lad to evil ways it is that of running
around q city or village at night. You
wouldn't dream of doing ID mean act To
your neighbors by daylight, but after
dark it seems like a good joke to lug
off gates, upset ~out-houses, 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 can't
help but admit that it is u small BUSH
ness. Any action of yours which puts
any one else to trouble and expense
may be questioned to your detriment.
You'd gohome and go TO bed if it was
not for Jim or Tom. He wants a little
fun and he drags you into it. What
he calls fun is sGringlng q rope across
the side walk. Tt doesn't occur to him
that anyone may break a limb and be
put to several hundred dollars expense
or even be killed outright. He thinks
it a cute thing to roll off barrels of salt,
barricade the bridge, set an old shed on
fire, or stop up the chimneys of a Wild
owls house. When you have played
such tricks it comes very easy to play
others which the law will not look at
in a funny light.
There is to-day in the Michigan
state prison a boy whose career / watch
ed for two years. | first saw him
prowling around at night. He had an
honest face and a good heart, but his
father had seemingly never been q boy
himself. He let his lad go al he willed,
and within three months the police had
to caution him. Inside of six moths
he belonged TO a band of juvenile
thieves. Within two years be was a
burglar. When he stood up in court
TO receive bis five years sentence
women wept to see one so young had
drifted so rapidly to the bad.
You will discover as you grow up
that the man who knows the least is
the greatest bigot to argue with, and
the meanest man to transact business.
Now, then, when you find the evenings
duh ask your father to put on his hat
and help you post yourself. Did youever
see a printing press at work? Did yon
ever look over the queer machinery III a
tin shop which bends tue metals u shape
for coVer rs aud bot rms aud handles /?
Ever visit the gas works or go through
a Touring mill or pass an. hour IN a
foundry /? There are dozens of places
to be visited at night where you can
learn something useful Each point
you seize upon helps to broaden and
enlighten your mind and make a well
posted man of you. And instead of
shouldering a gun on Saturdays. or
tramping off for a good tilnei in a swamp
go down co the round house aud look
| over the mechanism of a locomotive,
90 into d wheat elevator and see how
curi0usly everything is arranged, go
into a machine shop and see how iron
can be turned as easily as white pine
-go into d plaing mill where they saw
blocks of stone by steam-go where
you can learn something that will be
useful to You.
All my boy. il you only realized
how much this country will depend
upon you twenty years hence yon
would not waste your time You will
/ sooner OF later have to take hold as the
rest of us did. There will be the same
strife for place aud fame and riches as
you see to-day, and the boy who has
wasted his time viii be the man who is
pushed here and jostled there and
driven to the back seats because he is
in the way of the busy money making
world Il Quad.
It ia said that Queen Victoria has
made d new will. She has certainly
plenty Of money to give away, and has
certainly plenty Of people to give it to.
Prince Albert left at least $4,000 600.
a miser named Neald b~eQueathed to
her majesty So, 500, 000, and all her life
she has been saving the greater part
DC her annual income. The demands
Oh her will come from her numerous
grandchildren. Her family has d Gu
rious knack OF making poor marriages,
and the only wealthy members are
the Duke of Cambrigde, the Duke Of
Cumberland, and her son, the Duke OF
Edinburgh. who inherits in an exager-
ated form tho parsimOny of his father
and mother. The children Of the
Prince Of Wales will be provided for
by parliament, and bis eldest son is TO