Year: 1862

BY AN OLD MAN.


Walter, my boy, there are two. mean
things on this variegated flower garden
On which We live: ene of these. things is
chestnut burs, and the other is the. Rab-
it many people have of taking "style."
There are folks, my boy, who. can't stand
prosperity. 1t hardens them, as beiLing e
water hardens an egg. 1t spoils them
They succeed ever SO little, and at once
take more style than a nan could raise
even with balloon. Not one in ten
score, my boy, were ever intended to
prosper, and it looks bad to see success
even by accident, growing their efforts.
How it looks, my boy, for poor man to
take style, put On airs, saw his wood
down cellar for fear people will see him
laboring; go without stockings for the
sake of wearing gloves, just to make a
show of gentility, when there is not a
pinch of salt, or half a potatoe in his
whole cellar, kitchen and pantry. Yes,
it sh oMs very thin stock of brains
when man is poor and ashamed of la
ber. When person is above his bust
ness he ia useless, except to try new
herse with. Every day, ny boy, we see
such men. They wear pinch back jew
elry to show off at night, and take style
in all sorts of ways by putting on airs
and talking big to honest men.


And, my boy, when you see young
man from the country who has learned
the fast gait of the city, going back on
his mother for wearing colored stock
ings, and >tieing her shoes with calf-skiu
strings, aad is ashamed to visit her or
her visit him, believe US, my boy, that
he is taking style too deep. And when
he becomes ashamed of his father, who
comes in town by the side of an OK
team with cabbage, butter, wheat, wool
or other produce to sell, believe us, my
boy, that he has been taking style of
the most contemptibles, and dsspicable
kind. There are lots of such boys


And there are girls who style until
they had sooner take their chance with
the itch, salt rheum, canker, rash, mea-
sles, whoopiDg cough or lung fever,
than be seen in kitchen over wash
tub, or wearing a smile except in the
parlor, when the ssfellerp who does the
kissing comes around. Shun all such
people, my boy, as you would hot
horse shoe in blacksmith's shop.


And there are men, my boy, who
take style as soon as elected to some
petty office, appointed to some insignif-
cant clerkship; smiled upon by some
handsome woman; surprised by a legacy,
or who have swindled some tailor out of
handsome suit of clothes, till you can't
rest where they are.


And there are men who have worked
their way to riches, prominence and
position, who all of sudden take
style and forget their early friends, for
get who stood by them through thick
and thin; forgot who made them, and
who win deign to speak to nothing in the
shape of\lumanity unless done up in
silk or broadcloth Such folks, my boy,
are hunbugs. They take style too
thick, and so far as good opinion goes,
they s'play out Twenty pounds of
prosperity to the square foot will
squeeze the lacteal kindness out of too
many men. Style and sense are diff
ferent, my boy. Sense wears well, but
many people style take in preference. Let
US not do it, my boy, as style will
change every time. Brief authority is
hard testing machine, and the man who
can stand its pressure and not get stiff
in the back and forget to look low
enough to see his friends is worth hitch
| ing to. We are made of flesh, bones
and blood, my boy. We all must die,
and then, unless we have minded our
own business aud stuck to our stand
even if we did not sell cents worth,
people will say we were good fellow
until style made levy.


If your are man-if you are a
butcher, roll up your sleeves, my boy,
and stick to your business. If you are
poor man don't be ashamed of it. If
YOU have business, stick to it like man.
Ifyou have no business, find one. lfyou
exceed, in it don't get proud and go back
on early friends.


This is a queer world, my boy. Peo-
pie get dreadfully mixed up. People
do not inherit Office in this country
Election day comes quite often, and ro-
tation in Office is the word. Be just
what you can. There are different kinds
of tim mber-all useful. If poor, don't
take style to deceive folks; if rich, don t
take style to- disgust them; if in authori-
ty, don't be Shog, because it is easier to
grunt than talk; and never get above
your business. We are all of US, my
boy, more alike than we are willing to
acknowledge. This habit of taking
style and putting on airs is like sticking
pine limbs into the ground on gala days
to make country folks think they are trees
withoat the root, and the summer sun
soon dispels the illusion.


In this country, my boy, where ono man
/ is just as good as another, where the priest
and murder walk to the gallows side by
side, talking style over summer clothes,
small feet, curly hair, relations, petty
Offices, OF positions others helped you
to, is very silly. Rather, my boy, be
man and let fools take style. There are
packages marked honest, so we will not
have to open them to find out the con-
tents. And they are the Find, Walter,
my boy.