The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1904-02-20
THE COST OF a BOY AND HIS D1vrDErDs.

uC WIllcI COuputcS tudL ny III
time boy has reached the age o
fifteen, a good boy, enjoying the ad
vantage of life, costs, including com
| pound interest on the annual invest
ment, not less than FIVE Thousand
dollars. If the boy continues a
school and goes to college. he will cos
not less than FIVE thousand dollar:
more by the time he has reached the
age of twenty-one years.
In making this calculation it is
supposed that everything is included
which properly goes into the expense
account. There is the item of living
what it would cost if all had to be
paid for in money at SO much week.
! Then there is the hire of nurse
1 through the hours of babyhood, and
fof teachers from the time t.1ezes.;safs
old enough to be taught. All this,
Of course, the mother does, giving
her days and nights to it, nor ever
thinking of putting valuation of dol
lars and cents on what she does with
such unwearying love.
Nevertheless, there is a money
value on all this material service-at
least if there were no mother, and if
it all had to be hired and paid for at
regular rates, the cost, year after
year, would be very great. There is
also the cost of clothing, of doctors
bills, of education, of books, and of
allthat is done for the boy in the home
during the year.
1t is only the pecuniary cost that
is included in this interesting COM
putation. There is another cost
which never can be put into figures.
No price is put upon the mothers
love and solicitude and care and tears
and prayers, and the fathers toll,
struggle, self-denial and self-sacrifce.
There is no computing the value of
such services, and yet these make up
by far the greater part of the cost Of
the boys bringing up.
An artist was making portrait of
a mother who had died and was try
ing to take out the lines which ap-
peared in the face of the photograph
from which he was copying his pic
ture. 'No," said the son, don t
take out the lines. Leave them,
every one. 1t would not be my
mother if all the lines were gone. !"
Then he spoke of the years of disin-
terested love, the long time of sick
ness when the mother had nursed the
children through scarlet fever and
diphtheria, and how she had given out
the best of her life in most costly
cure. ooh, no." he said, leave the
lines in the picture. They tell the
story of the mothers love and SER
vice." Nomere computation of what
it costs in money to bring up boy
in a good home begins to tell the full
price that has been paid.
.-fKxsSs CS5ys y izzxS 'E1e
to young manhood, represents large
investment of money, love and SER
vice. In matters of business, men
seek for reasonable returns from their
investments. When there has been
an outlay of ten or twenty thousand
dollars in boy, what kind of return
should be expected? A great many
fathers aud mothers put all they have
in their boys. They have no lands
or houses, no stock or bonds, no ac-
cumulation in the bank-they have
toiled hard for many years, and all
the results have been invested in their
| children. Surely they have right
to look for return. What sort of
return should this kind of invest
ment pay?
First of all, there should be love.
This is the only return that really
brings satisfaction to the hearts ol
parents after they have toiled, suffer
ed and sacrificed for their children.
One of their bitterest Disappointment
of life is when boy who has had
done for him all that love could do,
and has had lavished upon him all
that love could bestow, through years
of infancy and youth, fails to give
to his father and mother the love that
their hearts crave. No matter how
brilliant he may succeed in the world
how his name may be honored among
men, no prosperity and no fame will
make up in satisfaction to his parent:
for the want of flial affection. tt
honor father and mother is the frs
duty of every one who has been rear
ed in love. The first dividend that
should be paid on the parental in
vestment in the boy is love.
There should also be repayment il
character and work. When thou
sands of dollars have been spent on {
boy in order to fit him for starting
hopefully and with advantage in life
the least that can be expected of hin
is that he shall enter upon an honor
able and worthy career.
1t certainly is a most unfit return
when the boy neglects his studies
throws away his opportunities TO
learning, aud turns to waste thu
money his parents have gathered al
such cost to educate him. 1t is {
sore disappointment, also, when in
stead of realizing their dreams ant
visions for his character, the boy set
out in wrong ways, choosing evi
companions, indulging in sinful pleas
ures, making for himself a tarnishet
name and spotted character.
It is surely the duty of every boy
to make his life beautiful and good
realizing in it whatsoever things ar
true, whatsoever things are honora
bic, whatsoever things are just, what
soever things are pure, whatsoevel
things are lovely, whatsoever things
are Of good report. :" Children holt
| in their hands the happiness or un
happiness of their parents. A sol
who does we'll is not only an honor t
his father and mother, but a JOY ant
a pride as we'll. The memory of thei
love and of all that love has done TO
him should inspire him to strive afte
I'll that SC hacf IN character IN attain