Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1884-06-24
Short Talks With the Boys.


Come, now, my lad, but you want to run /
away. No boy ever yet reached the age Oh
10 without having several times firmly re-
solved to leave home. When bad boy has
made up his mind to thing of this sort ne
ought to carry it out by all means Inc
first step in the programme is to begin saw
ing up bread and meat. When you have
bushel or SO of provisions hidden IN tne
barn or under the wood-shed you are reaoy
for the battle with the cold world. Wake
your start at night. This will prevent the
sun from tanning your complexion, and you
will be quite certain of the company Oh d
tramp or two. :,
Some boys leave note pinned to the Pill
low of their bed. This note goes on TO say
that the boy has been jawed, bulldozeu,
starved, pounded and knocked down anu
dragged out, untilhe has made up his mlno
to sever the connection. He will never De
heard of more.
When you have packed up your little bun
die and are off it will be well to settle upon
some plan for the future. Perhaps you
want to be sailor? Nothing is easier;
Make your way to some lake seaport, ana
most any captain will take you. Ii ne can
disgust you with the sailoring business ID
| :
provisions and ropes end will be calico
| upon to assist him.
| Perhaps you want to become q mighty
hunter? Mighty hunters are not made in a
| few days or weeks. You want to begin by
letting your hair and finger nails grow,
sleeping in a swamp, and wasting ~ worth
of ammunition to kill a ten-cent chipmunk
If you have decided to become bani
clerk, well and good. Make tracks for thu
nearest City, and the first bank you entel
will lump at the chance Of employing you
at salary of $500 per month. If it shoult
so happen that the bank didn't do an,
jumping as you made application, you cal
console Yourself with the reflection that /
is about to bust.
l. But, speaking in all seriousness, my boy
if had dozen sons l should be glad t
have each and every one of them take III
turn at running away from home. 1t 18th
. best cure in the world for that disease call
ed ssswell-head." There's a heap OF 70
nance in the idea of running away. 4o
, think of the sparkling sea, the green pra
ries. coral strands, robbers caves and p
rates treasures You feel that you know
so much more than your father that it Is
waste of brains for both OF you to remain l
the same house. You have been forced t
60 to school, and have been ordered to spl
: wood and go to the grocery after butte
like a common slave. Don't stand it an
longer Pick up your duds and leave th
house and go forth into the world
What Come to full stop in the road bt
} fore YOU are a mile away? You've got
peck or more of sour meat and moldy brea
in a pillow-case, seventeen cents in you
pocket, and just think how your father an
mother have missed you at home The r.
, nance begins to wear off, Ell You don
care half as much. about nerrnaids an
palm-groves and pirate ships as you did a
1 hour ago. You hate to leave mother afte
all, and perhaps father isn't SO much t
blame for bossing you around. Come
think it all over, perhaps you'd better II
4 turn home and try and stand it for a fe'
more weeks.
: All ! my SOP, but we've all been there
All these wrinlgle6 and digniied and bald
3 headed old men you meet OF the streets hav
L had about the same experience. We've ha
that same period of "swell- head,'' and esgt
$ out of ten of us have packed our bundle
' and slid out to escape parental tyranny
I Eight out of ten of us have shipped BAG
again. too, and the experience was the rigl
sort of medicine for the disease. Any tim
1 you come to feel that you are a poor, owe
, worked and downtrodden boy, &nd that
: you only had fair show you'd know more
minute than your father does in an hour
= just skip. There's nothing like it.-A
quad.