Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1885-11-26
A TALK TO THE BOYS.
aHard-Working, Thorough, Obedient, An
bilious and Truthful.

A TALK TO THE BOYS.
aHard-Working, Thorough, Obedient, Am
bilious and Truthful.
While all classes are nowadays
being lectured through our col
umns, it occurs to us that the boys will
appreciate talk that is not grand
fatherly, and not exactly fatherly, but
as it were, older brotherly. With that
in view, we have been trying in mag
iDaton to do what, alas! can not be
done in fact-turn back score and
more CT years and construct the boy
into whose place we would like to put
ourselves We are going to draw the
picture of the skind of Il boy we would
like to be. and trust that some Of our
boy readers may find some traces of
their own characters, or at least some
answer of their own wishes and hopes.
If we were boy we would like to be
a hard working boy. All success waits
on that. Only fools and gamblers trust
TO luck" We will never come to
much unless the habit of hard work
teaches us the right use of our facul-
ties. AS all boys are not specially
bright boys, as the rank and file are
average sort of boys, with ordinary
brains and opportunities it will be q
good thing if we can realize how far
hard work will 90 to make good the
lack of gifts and good chances. Sir
Walter Scott was called the blOckhead
of the school at Edinburgh. Perhaps
calling him that walked HIM up. and lie
put himself to hard work. Isaac New
ton was the dull boy at school The
smart boy one day kicked this dull
boy. That kick stung him to an iron pur-
pose. He went to work, and never let up
till the stars were at his feet Oliver
Goldsmith was SO stupid that the per-
son. who taught him the alphabet was
thought 20 have worked a miracle. So
he did. He walked up the boy who
could 10y and by astonisn the world by
writing The Traveller" and The De-
serted Village" A friend said to us,
pathetically, not long since: Il used 10
long for library. Now l have it, and
give us the use of everything that comes
to us.
Again, if we were q boy we would
want to be thorough boy. Ii it were
only 10 sharpen pencil, we would
want to bring it to the very best point
not for fine writing. but for the self
discipline. We are all well enough en-
dowed if we only know how to use the
endowments. \ spirit that is self-ex-
acting. and will permit no slight in any
kind of work, will soon get the habi: OF
bringing large and difficult undertake
inCs 10 own It's mastery.
Again, we would want TO be an obedi-
eent boy. Only those are tit to COM
mand who have learned how to obey.
Grant, after the battle of Shiloh, was
,,disgraced and ordered to report. each
morning, to an officer his inferior in
worth. He touched his hat to that
subaltern every morning as loyalty and
waited for his commands as deferen-
tally as if he were standing before the
'Commander-in-Ch Chief. That spirit helped
to make him an irresistible commander.
The boys who begin life by throwing
out flags of independence before they
are fairly out of the nursery are not
likely to come to anything. II we were
looking for Captain We would hunt
for him among the boys who never dis
,obeyed their mothers.
Ii we were boy we would want to
be boy with purpose. We would
not loaf or drift; we would set our rud-
der; we would select some aim worthy
of our best energies and then we would
stick to it, and, as Carlyle would say,
"Work at it like Hercules" There
will be people who will lecture you
against ambition. But the boy without
a good ambition will be likely to be the
boy without a good record. And only
high things are worth aiming at. As
Emerson said, Hitch your wagon to s
star"
We would also like to be truthful
boy. Truth is a cardinal virtue. In
Hebrew it means tirmness; in Greek il
means that which can not be hid.
boy at once open and firm command.
universal respect And when business
men are looking for boy whom they
may advance in their service, their mos
important question concerns truthful
ness 1t makes good foundation. HI
can build high who has that for . corn
erStone
Great things are going to be done il
the lifetime of the boys; and if we wer
a boy we would want to get the hes
tools for helping to do them. Anon!
them are the things we have named
and. however small our gifts or on
privileges, we should feel pretty sur
that our small gifts wrought out b
hard work and discipline. directed to
great aim and uplfted by true Chris
tan spirit would give us a good an
successful standing in the lists Of tn
battle. Chicago Interior.