News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1884-06-26
SHORT TALKS WITH THE BOYS.
A Little Advice About Carelessness In Gem
eraI and taking Care of Things in Partic-
MAR,
BY NJ. QUAD.

BY NJ. QUAD.
"Where's my hat p
ssWho's seen my knife ?"
.sWho turned my coat wrong side out
and sIung it under the lounge ?"
There YOU go, my boy When you
came into the house last evening you
fIung your hat across the room, jumped
ont of your shoes and kicked 'em right
and left, wriggled ont of your coat and
gave it a toss, and now you are annoyed
because each article hasn't gathered it
self into a chair to beready for you when
Won dress in the morning. Who cut
those shoestrings? You did it to save
one minutes time in untying them
Your knife is under the bed, where it
rolled when you hoped, skipped and
Jumped out of your pants. Your collar
is down behind the bureau, one of your
socks on the foot of the bed, and your
vest may be in the kitchen wOod-box for
all I know.
Now, then, my way has ALWAYS been
the easiest way. l had rather fling my
hat down than to hang it up; I'd rather
kick my boots under the lounge than
place 'em in the hall; I'd rather run the
risk of spelling new coat than to change
it. own right up to being reckless and
slovenly, but, ah me haven't had to
pay for it ten times over Now, set
| your foot right down and determine to
have order. 1t is a trait that can be
acquired. An orderly man can make
two suits of clothes last longer and look
better than a slovenly man can do with
four. He can save an hour per day over
the man who filings things heller SHELTER.
. | T. l.. h. Il, -
ton and keep it, and five times the show
to conduct a business with profit
An orderly man will be an accurate
man. If he is a carpenter every joint
will fit. If he is turner his goods will
look neat. If he is a merchant his books
will show neither blots nor errors. An
orderly man is most always an economical
man, and always a prudent one. If you
should ask me how to become rich,
should answer "Be orderly-be accu-
rate"
Now, about school. Nine boys out of
ten look upon school sometimes in the
light of a juvenile prison. They are
more than half right. The idea seems
to be to command a boy to open his
mouth and swallow as fast and as much
as he can bite off, and many of the rules
and regulations are too captions to have
come from sensible men. But, bark YOU.
ignorance means vice crime--degrada-
ton. The man without education must
make his muscles earn him a dollar a
day, where brains would earn him FIVE
The more ignorant the man the more
naturally he becomes a law-breaker.
Education will enable you to compete
with capital. 1t will make capital for
you. Only, if you were my boy I'd
educate you in particular aud not in
general. l mean by that, that if you
wanted to be a lawyer | wouldn't let
you fritter two or three years in algebra,
astronomy and the dead languages. If
you wanted to become a doctor /
wouldn't educate you for a lawyer. If
you had a fancy to become a civil
engineer I'd push you in algebra instead
of colonial history. AS the case stands
in our schools to day every boy must
study what one does. No two of them
will probably follow the same pursuit in
life, but all are thrown in the same
hopper and the mill set going.
Now about recreation. A boy who at
tends school five days a week shouldn' T
be set to splitting wood or hoeing corn
on the sixth. The labor of going to
school is just as hard for growing boy
as showing a jack-plane is for a man.
Saturday ought to be his own day and so
acknowledged. Twenty-Five years ago
the father who couldn't find other work
for his boy would throw down fence
and set him to rebuilding. The idea was
to work him. No thought was given to
the anatomy of boy. Nobody seemed
to realize that his bones were soft, his
joints easily put out of order, and his
muscles in such condition that too much
work must use him up. Find me a stiff
legged man, a bow-backed man, lop.
shouldered man, a man whose spinal
column is out of plumb, and Iii prove
to you nine times out of ten that he was
! ovarworked as a boy.