Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1885-11-12
A TALK TO THE BOYS.

Hard Working, thorough, Obedient, Ann
bilious and Truthful.
While all classes are nowadays
being lecturedA 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 We're, older brotherly. With that
in view, we have been trying in mag
nation to do what, alas! can not be
done in fact-turn back 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 a 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.
Ii we were . boy we would like to be
a Woodworking boy. All success waits
on that. Onlylfools 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 goto 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 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-
till the stars were at his feet. Oliver
Goldsmith was so stupid that the per-
son who taught him the alphabet was
thought to have worked d miracle. So
he did. He walked up the boy who
could by and by astonisn the world by
writing ..The Traveller and 1.-The De-
serted Village" A friend said to US,
pathetically. not long since:rI used to
long for library. Now have it, and
can not use it. But hard work will
give US the use of everything that comes
to US.
Again, if we were boy We would
want to be thorough boy Lift were
only to 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. A spirit that is self-ex-
acting, and will permit no slight. insany
kind of work, will soon get the habit of
bringing large and difficult undertak-
ings, to own its mastery.
Again, we would want to be an obedi-
emit boy. Only those are fit 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 deferen4
TALLY as if he were standing before the
COMMUNICATIVE Chief. That spirit helped
to make him an irresistible commando.
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.w were
looking for Captain we would hunt
for him among the boys who never dis
obeyed their mothers.
Ii we were a. boy we. would want to
be boy with a 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- a
STAR
We would also like to- be truthful
boy. Truth is a cardinal virtue. In
Hebrew it means firmness; in Greek it
that which can not be hid. A
boy at once open and firm commands
universal respect. And when business
men are looking for a boy whom they
may advance in their service, their most
question concerns truthful
ness. 1t makes good foundation He,
can build high who has that for a 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 uplifted by true Chris
tan spirit would give us a good and
successful standing in the Lists of the
battle. Chicago Interior.
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