Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-12-04
A TALK TO THE BOYS.
HANDWRITING, Thorough, Obedient, An
bilious and Truthful.

l@GN ~ IJl6 w
Woodworking, Thorough, Obedient, Am
bilious and Truthful.
While all classes are nowadays
being lccturcd through our col
umns, it occurs to us that the boys will
appreciate a talk that is not grand
fatherly, and not exactly fatherly, but,
as it We're, older brothcrly. With that
in view, we have been trying in mag
nation to do what, alas! can not be
done in fact-turn back a score and
more Of years and construct the boy
into whose place we would like to put
ourselves. We are going to draw the
picture of the kind of Il boy we would
like to be, and trust that some of our
boy readers may lind some traces of
their W characters, or at least some
answer of their own wishes and hopes.
Ii We were Il boy We would like to DO
q Woodworking 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
oiiSI1p OONSs uS III 1tllh LIZ III tIc
average sort of boys, with ordinary
brains and opportunities it will be a
good thing if we can realize how far
hard work will go to make good the
lack of gifts and good chances. Sir
Waller Scott was called tie %blockhcad
of the school at Edinburgh. Perhaps
calling him that walked HIM up, and he
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 vas SO stupid hat the per-
son who taught him the alphabet was
thought to have worked 4 miracle. So
be did. lie walked up the boy who
could by and by astonisn TIE world by
writing ''The Traveller and The De
serted Village" A friend said to us,
pathctically, not long since: II used to
long for q library. Now l have it, and
can not use it." But hard work will
give Is the use OF everything that comes
to us.
Again, if we were a boy we would
want to be a thorough boy. If it We're
only TO sharpen q pencil, we would
want to bring it to the very best point
hot for line writing, but for the self
discipline. We are all well enough Ell
dowed if we only know how to use the
endowments. A spirit that is sclf-ex-
acting, and will permit no slight in any
kind of work, wiz soon get the habit OF
bringing large And difficult undertake
ings TO W its mastery.
Again, we would want to be an obedi-
ent 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 al 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-C Chief. That spirithelpcd
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. If we were
looking for Il Captain we would hunt
for him among the boys who never dis
obeyed their mothers.
Ii we were Il boy we would want to
be a boy with Il 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, Us 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 a
star"
We would also like to be q truthful
boy. Truth is Il cardinal virtue. In
Hebrew it means tirmness; in Greek it
means that which Il not Ec hid. A
boy at once open and firm commands
universal respect. And when business
men are looking for Il boy whom they
may advance in their service, their most
important question concerns truthful
ness. 1t makes a good foundation. He
Fan build high who has that Tor Il corn
erstone.
Great things are going to be done in
the lifetime of the boys; and if we were
a boy we would want to get the best
tools for helping to do them. Among
them are the things we have named,
and, however small our gifts or our
privileges, we should feel pretty sure
that our small gifts wrought out by
hard work and discipline, directed to a
great aim and uplit,td by a true Chris
tian spirit would give us u good and
successful standing in TIE lists Of the
battle Chicago Interior.