The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1886-07-17
More About Boys.
Mary Sidney in Farm Journal.

lover OF the boys, and although my age
prevents them from returning this fond
ness with the fervor of former days, yet
my interest in them abates not, and as
time rolls on broadens and deepens, 'as
streams their channels deeper wear /
can see possibilities for good or bad in
boy now, that were undreamed of in
my girlish philosophy. They all SEEM
ed good then. l look back among
score of my youthful society associates,
and recall with pleasure the unquestion-
ing faith had in their worth. 1t would
not have been any use in those days for
anybody to have set up and told me
that this boy will turn out a falsifer,
and that one will fill drunkard's grave,
and some other will sit down in idle
ness and let his wife support him. My
trusting nature would have rebelled
against such insinuations cast at my
friends; and yet all this and much more
has come to pass in the years gone by.
| presume that every one of these young
men felt, as l did then, that they were
safe, and that the future would pour
only blessing in their measure. Nature
had been bounteous in her gifts. They
had all good sense, good health, and
pleasant surroundings. Why then should
some rise and others fall1 Looking back
to those days and remembering the high
opinion entertained for many who had
the elements of decline in their compo-
sition, can readily see why SO many
young, innocent and trusting girls marry
doubtful characters, and have great rea-
sons to be thankful to the Power above
for protecting me from marrying man
| didn't want, or wouldn't continue to
want, for not else could have saved me,
except that none of them wanted me.
Now, in my ripened years, | am of
the belief that there is not enough care
expended in the training of children
and disciplining their understanding.
Parents are too willing to trust to luck,
do not appeal to the sense of honor in
their boys enough, nor show them by
precept and example what certain habits
formed in youth will lead to, and that
there is only one sure way to climb the
ladder of life. Joseph Cook, in late
Boston lecture, says: 'The want of our
age is not so much intelligence as
sense of moral obligation, and this part
of child's education is the part most
neglected. We are SO apt to desire
great things for our children, but seem
to expect them to be attained without
much effort. To be fed and clothed
and sent to school is only a part of a
boys requirements; he must be awak-
ened to think for himself and to act in
accordance with the wisdom given him.
The beauty of industry can not be too
early ingrafted in his constitution. There
are so many openings at the top for
young men of every pursuit. Little fell
lows are standing thick all around the
foot of the ladder, looking up with envy
at those who by slow toiling processes
have reached higher perch, and in
their hearts saying, what lucky dog he
is. Il wish l could get half his salary,
or had half of his knowledge But in
looking and signing for great things,
they let the little every day duties lie
unheeded, forgetting that it is to them
only who have been faithful over a few
things that the promise is given to be
made rulers over many things. Right
at home, on some farm, in some coun-
try village or obscure place, more peo-
pie have started on the road to fame
than anywhere else.
If a person has real ability the world
will find it out, and bring him to the
front in spite of himself. Let me illus
trate by example. You have all heard
of Elihu Burritt, called the learned
blacksmith. He was the youngest son
of family of ten children, and his fa-
ther was small farmer and shoemaker
combined in the town of New Britain,
Conn. Elihu was apprenticed to a
blacksmith ard was obliged to work ten
or twelve hours a day at the forge, but
while blowing the bellows he was calcu-
lating sums in his head, eager to become
good surveyor, or conjugating some
latin verb. He wrote lecture in course
of time entitled Application and Geni-
US, in which he endeavored to show
that all extraordinary attainments are
the result of application; this he deliv-
cred sixty times in one season. Twen-
ty of his later years were spent as lee
turer upon peace. He was great lin
guist, and his name is familiar to every
school boy. His last years were spent
on farm in his native town,
Chauncey Jerome, the great clock
maker, who in 1887 first thought of u.s.
ing brass instead of wood for clock ma
chlnery, is another specimen of what
perseverance will do for boys. His early
life was spent in the hardest of unpaid
toll on a farm in Connecticut. Eli
Terry, the founder of the Yankee wooden
clock manufacture, was ridiculed for at
tempting to make two hundred clocks
all at once. Jerome lived to make and
sell two hundred thousand in one year.
Ichabod Washburn, the great wire
maker, Myron Holly, the market gar
dener, Henry Bessemer, whose ceaseless
experiments resulted in a process for
converting iron into steel in quantities,
George Hope, the Scotch farmer, and
many more of the worlds workers, l
would be glad to mention and give short
biographies of had l the space, to show
that successful business men of all va
rieties of occupations have begun where
fortune placed them, to show the mettle
of which they were made. They were
not sewers of wild oats, or gEumblers
at fate, but took up life's work in hum
BILE places, doing what their hands found
to do with their might, and SO irnprov-
ing and advancing, until at last the
world is brought to recognition of
their genuine merit.
This theme is endless, and my space,
brief; but let me say, fathers and moth
ers, if you would not have your hearts
filled with sorrow in age, look after your
boys. Would you establish good
character for them, the foundation must
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