Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1884-06-26
Short Talks With the Boys.

My son, l heard you speak of your
father the other day as 1.-THE old man,
and of your mother as cher highness. "
What's the matter that you can't re-
fer to them as your father and mother?
Suppose your parents should speak
of you as ''the kid" or 1.-THE fy?"
You'd soon begin to think you had
been born in 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 a 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 q country
school to pick up little learning,
while now you are talking OF going to
college. They began poor and have
toiled and labored and saved for their
children. You just remember that
things have greatly changed in this
country. Years ago 4 calico dress was
seen at church far oftener than q silk.
Men went to meeting clad in home
spun. The rule in most houses was
for the children to stand up to eat.
The biggest pieces of pie went to faith
er and mother, and children 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-if your mother is
trembling and weak and has no care
for the friYolities 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 the
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 enjoying society, amuse-
ments or books, just think how you
make the shillings fly, and what is of
fered to interest and amuse you!
Now let's have word to say about
economy. I've been right among you,
and | 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 well
fixed. The boys want about five dol
lars apiece nowadays, and that's all
gone before noon.
If we got new book it was consider
ed a great piece of extravaganza. The
lad who had cash enough to walk into
a panoramic exhibition, buy pair of
skates, or treat himself to sweet meats
was looked upon by the rest of us as a
Jay Gould.
I'm not saying that you shouldn't
have money and useit, but right there is
vital point. Be sure that you really
need what you buy. Ask yourself if it
will pay? Money is the wheel on which
the world moves. Acquire the habit
of throwing it 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 see
lad planking his niclLles 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 ourwhole-
sale business. There's a big difference
between being stingy and being econo-
mical. The richest men OF America
are liberal in giving to churches, asy-
Iums 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 10 years old
you've got a sneaking idea into your
head that it s big thing to use an
oath occasionally. You never made
greater mistake! 1t is true many men
use more or less oaths, but would like
to have you find me one who isn't
ashamed of it! It's mean habit, for
it is a habit. [ know you can point to
the greatest men in the land and prove
that they spit out oaths, but that's no
reason why you should follow suit.
There isn't swearer in this country
who doesn't feel quiet satisfaction in
sitting down to converse with man