The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1900-10-19
HOW TO REACH THE BOYS.

for their good; how to induce them
to live on higher plane of moral
and christian manhood.
The HERALD, in Its impairment
way, will make lew suggestions on
the same line.
Talk Is cheap. And the trouble
here In Columbia Is that all of these
alleged efforts to improve the moral
tone of the town, is taken out In
talk. Meetings are held and the
boys are wept over, and prayers are
said, and there the fort practically
ceases for season, and the devil is
given undisputed right OF way until
the good folks get loaded up again
on talk.
One good way to reform the boys,
and perhaps the best way 10 start
the reformation, is by good example.
If boy sees his mother open wide
her PAL Tor doors to young man that
he knows she knows 10 % "a
drunken, dissolute rake, what is the
good of that mother telling her son
to be virtuous and he will be happy?
If boy, aspiring to be lady's
man, sees the sweetest girls giving
their sweetest smiles to the least de-
serving of his sex, what ia the use of
that sister telling her brother to be
nice and good aud the girls will like
him?
Society could more nearly ana
more quickly improve the morals OF
our young men, than any other
agency. But society must reform
itself first. 1t can do nothing SO
long as the fathers allow the mothers
to control it, and SO long as the
mothers are more concerned about
the popularity of their gills than
they are the morals of their boys.
Old men sometimes grow careless
with their clothes, and become more
or less impervious to public opinion
But young man will change his
habits and conform his morals tC
meet the demands of the society be
is in, as quickly as he will the cut o.
his coat.
If a young boy, on his way to a
} negro minstrel show, peeps in upon
his rastors's prayer-m Getting anc
counts barely a bakers dozen, a1C
a little later, from the lott of tn,
theatre counts scores Of church
members there, where does he thinf
, the heart of the average church
member is?
If he is told not to play cards, blu
reads in the papers where hi
mother and his sister and his cousin
and his aunt play cards, and learns
from like source that the care
players mainly are church members
will be obey the precept or the ex
ample of his advisor?
When he sees church membe "
getting drunk, and gambling; whel
. he hears them swearing and lyinj
9 and cheating, and he knows that hi
J pastor knows these things but take
no official action, and yet he is toll
to join the church, isn't it rattle
S natural for him to ask, whats tn
9 use?"
g When the boys Of this town khoy
that their parents and guardian
know that Sunday saloons and gamh
ling bells and other wicked place
abound, and yet are so afraid c
= their business interests or persons
popularity that they talk in whi'
pers about them aud make no pub
lie or united effort to abolish then
but smile upon these malefactors fc
;. business reasons, and vote for thel
for political reasons, all the Will
telling the boy in goody goody sol
Il of way not to-isn't it just like DO
= to say that the old man is talkin
v through his hat and don't mean ha
"a he says?
If In conclusion let us say that befol
any reforming is done, the rsforme
must get in earnest; dead, bar
i earnest; determined to. do some
- thing, even IL it costs somethin
% And further, let us say, that befol
. the boys are reached the churC
y must be walked up, society must
y toned down and purified, and I'll
elderly learn to set a good, piou
y consistent example. Then when "
j. start out to reach and reform Il
n boys, you will find that they are a
r. ready all right.
A. The Hon. JOHNNIE MCCALL
ye opposed to the Tennessee electi'