The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1885-12-03
FATHERS LETTER.
Bill Nye in Detroit Post.

My DEAR SoN:-Your mother ant
I was glad to get your last letter
and tD hear that you was well
though both of us think it was {
little tough for you to take up SC
much OF it correcting our spelling
and grammar.
Your mother and l don't brag on
our edgucation, but, as common,
low -browed parents, we aim to be
equalled by few and excelled by
none. When 1 was young parents
didn't go without clothes so that
their children could get an edguca
tion as they Go nowadays.
My folks vas poor, laundering
poor, you might say. 1t was some
time before they could sfford tue
luxury of Webster's spelling book
for me, and then ALLOW me TO walk
three miles in a tow shirt and a
pair of linsey woolsey pants, TO the
hot bed of learning. l hadn't been
IN the edgucation business long be
fore an accident happened to my
! library. The school house wasn't
rugged up with a furnace doTn
stairs and them iron refrigerators in
everyssroom, so you can turn the
warm off or on as you want to, but
it was plain. And it cost, probab-
", forty-seven dollars, including q
wooden button on the outside door,
which was supposed to hold the
blame thing shet when school Was
out at night.
But one night in the early histo-
~ OF my junior year, as you would
call it, the front door of the school
house got unbuttoned and a half
starved two -year-old steer wander
ed in there and spent the night.
He swallowed my text book while
thinking over his past life, and SO
he kind of shet up my currickulum,
as you would say.
l suppose l ought to have bor
rowed q copy Of the Koran, or the
Inyad, or some other big, high
priced book, and laid down on my
stummick and committed it to mem
ory by the light of pine knot; but
at this time l hadn't read the rules
for self-made men, or Every Man
His Own Self-Made Man" So
didn't know what TO do in order to-
get an edgucation, or would have
just got it or bust.
I hate to have my children
ashamed of me, and so does your
mother. That's all we care about.
| dol.'t care a cuss for an edguca-
tion for myself, but it grinds US to
have you ashamed to show our let
tefs to the other boys. That's why
1 want you to git so you kin write
a good hand and use big words that
it would take me year to think of.
Then your children won't be asham-
ed of you when you come to be a IA
ther or mother, yourself, George.
We'd like tip-top to come down
this spring and see you, your moth
er and l, and listen to your valetu-
dinarian, as you cali it, and we
could, too, only very likely we'd
give the whole blamed thing away
before we get through, and make
you so 'shamed you'd~ swish you
was dead.
So it's probably better for US to
stay here and run the farm. and
keep you there as long as there's a
shote left; for l want you to get
your head so full Of knowledge that
folks here won't know what in Sam
Hill you're talking about half the
Da1,.la lyiv,1 ,f
throwed it out from time to time
that / lacked culture and / admit
that l have tried to use language
on several occasions that l wasn't
entirely familiar with; but that is
neither here nor there. want you
to come home with words on your
tongues end that will make the
neighbors' heads ache. Some of
'em have allowed that l had better
have you come home and help sup
port the family but don't you wor-
ry about the family. You are there
TO get as much knowledge for the
money as yon can.
1 want you to be so that when
you come home you can get the
square roof of a hay stack in two
minutes, with your eyes shet, or
talk to a Hebrew or an Agnostic, in
his own mother tongue, and so all
fred slick that he will think you
WAS born right there yourself
Your mother is well, barrin' a
bone felon on her thumb, which is
not very good thing for woman
of her age, trying TO do her own
work. She sends her earnest love
to you, George, and says she thinks
of you night and day, and that no
work is too tough that helps to
kind of lift her dear boy out of the
low spear which our poverty and
bad spelling has kind of subjected
us to.
AS what's his-name who runs for
president, said, l guess you'd bet
ter burn this letter, George, and
then your classmates can't use it
against you.
Enclosed you will find a postoffiee
money order for two dollars and
thirty eight cents, TO get the youker
deck which you so much needed.
don't know as I've spelled youker
right, but you will be able no doubt
to gather the idea. Ever your affec
tionate FATHER.
P. S. Next week will tell you
about church sociable which we
lust had here at our house.
Animals as Factors.
Animals should be factors on the
farm for something besides con-
suming food. This question comes