The Lamar register., 1904-05-18
w. c. T. u. COLUMN.
How Much Is . Boy WORTH

A student of statistics has ciphered
out that every boy who goes to the
bad is clear loss to society of ten
thousand dollars. This is his com
putation:
"The average male worker makes
SIX hundred dollars year. He may
be compared to a ten-thousand-dol-
lar factory earning six per cent divi-
dends. The ruin of a worker is
equivalent to the destruction of a
dollar mill"
That is straight enough. Did you
ever regard yourselves, boys, in the
light of a ten-thousand-dollar fac
tory? There are all sorts of fac
tories, of course. Some boy faoto-
ries may be going to turn out prod
uct of skilled hand or machine la
Dor, some of law, some of trade,
some of science when manhood
comes. But each boy is potentially
equal to ten thousand dollars of cap
ital, while some go far beyond that.
A 6rst-rate lad, high in his classes,
clean and strong in character, is Of
ten a fair equivalent for million,
at least. His parents wouldn't take
two millions for him-we may be
sure of that. But even the world
would consider him likely to be
worth the interest of million be-
fore he gets through.
1t isn't, however, what other peo-
pie estimate him at that makes the
worth of the boy. 1t is his own de-
cision about himself. If he is will
ing to be absolutely worthless, be
can be. He can be dead loss to
himself, to his parents, to society.
He can be minus quantity, valve
less investment. 1t will not take
much effort on his part, either. All
he has to do is to get into the habit
of going with boys who do not
amount to much themselves. BY
yielding to the temptations of tobac-
co and liquor he can lower his value
as strong, vigorous worker daily.
By learning to gamble, by frequent
ing vicious company, he can wreck
every hope that has been founded
upon him by his father and mother.
No matter how clever he seems, how
splendid his young strength may be,
how manifold his chances in life, he
can be utterly worthless before he
comes of age. Amy man who has
studied tramps-the wreckage of
civilization-can tell of dozens of
penniless, drunken, debased crea-
lures who, as boys, had fine talents,
beautiful homes, college educations
and business opportunities far above
the average. They have brought
their own value down from the mil
lions to a cipher. Society pays their
board in reformatories and work
houses and jails, and counts their
very existence burden.
But if boy chooses to be worth
something, he can always be sure of
the average figure, and often go be-
yond it. It's a poor kind of boy
that isn't up to the ten-thous.nd-dol-
lar mark. Every lesson well learned,
every duty cheerfully and thoroughly
done, adds its mite to the increasing
valuation. The boy who at four
teen seems a ten-thousand- dollar boy
may be a twenty -fivs-thousand-dolla
one at eighteen in this way. The
reliable boy increases steadily in val
ue in all markets. The lad who
adds integrity to ability and will
power to integrity is adding cumula-
tlvely to his capital-heaping it up,
in plain Anglo-Saxon- How much
is boy worth? 1t depends, in the
end, on the boy. If Abraham Lin
coin, in the backwoods, had chosen
to be worthless, all America could
not have stopped him. That, in
stead, Abraham Lincoln chose to
develop his full value, was gain to
the nation beyond any row of figures