The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-01-06
SUNDAY, JANUARY ., 1907.
A MODEL LETTER.

Tn a recent issue of The Philadelphia Ledger we find the following letter written by young girl away from home to her parents at the cloah of the year:
 .'My Dear Parents: Only few days remain of the old year, and these days Are slipping rapidly away. Our thoughts are turning to the new year about to dawn. I have all my accounts to set ale before 1t comessAl
 TT these wise merchants in the great busy world look back and sum up their pFofts and losses, so can I. You are &av greatest most loving creditors. I Fnm up all my indebtedness to you, my dear parents. There has not been a The end that has not been filled with benefits that came to me through your kfndnes to me. Now I am 0 whole gear older. appreciate more than eyer efforts you have made to secure for me all the advahtages of a good education. So l must try to make this little let my loving gratitude to you, and so pay q little of my great debt All the balance long very much to pay, and in the years to come hope to do so by
 ATking God to bless you and keep you, and wishing you all joy of the glad new year, with all my heart. I am 
 We call this a model letter and one that is well worth reading carefully ny other young people of both sexes. How few there are who would care to balance the years account in that way. ar who would be competent to do so, even If they could? Too many of them. unfortunately, never seem to think or Feel that there is any debt or obliga- fzon resting on them. They appear to 4hink that their parents are always in Aabt to them. and that there is noth- fug on the other page of the ledger. TO that large class of young people. ns contemporary puts it, "who are too fortunate and too happy to have time 10 stop and think, and to that other less innocent class of young people who are consciously or unconsciously Inclined to look down on their par enfs because the latter are not "up-to- date" or because they In their time enjoyed inferior educational and social Advantages, this admirable expression of niiaI love should be a timley re- hinder of the debt of gratitude that is due from the young to the old for pro- ssction. for home, for innumerable ad- vaftaKes of every kind for which only lasting affection and respect can fully pay"
 None but parents themselves can ever realize the pain of having heartless or unErateful children. As poor old King Lear expressed it. How sharper than a serpent's tooth 1t is to have thank less child" and he spoke from the bit &erness of his heart. Many there are. zfke the unfortunate King. who feel as he did, but do not give expression to fl They suffer in silence. and perhaps try to find some excuse for the heart- less children on the ground that it is only the thoughtlessness of childhood and youth that lead their offspring to forget that there is any obligation rest ing on them.
 We gre sometimes glad to think that many instances of apparent cruelty and Indifference on the part of children to- wards their parents are the result of youthful levity and ignorance Unlike the young girl who wrote the letter we have copied. they are not skilled in bookkeeping and never take time or thought to add up the books and try to ascertain how much they owe the parents who have loved and cared for them when they were unable to care for themselves. To all young people, however. this girls letter Is a beauti- enI lesson.
 After reading the message of Gov