866 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



him temperance not only in drinl\ing, but in eating. Volumes have been 

 written on intemperance of drinking, but few on the baneful effects of 

 intemperance in eating. Our average boy must know the effects of cer- 

 tain articles of food on his system and why athletes are kept on such 

 rigid rules. I solemnly believe that intemperance in eating is one of 

 the roads to intemperance in drinking. Then teach him the great lesson 

 of temperance in drinking. If possible make him by exaruple, by precept, 

 by any way most helpful to the boy, to be a total abstainer. Show him 

 the effects of alcohol on his body, his mind and his soul. One of the 

 best temperance lectures I ever heard was these few words: "There 

 is nothing funny in intemperance." Teach him not to laugh or rail at a 

 drunken person. The average boy is a social being and it is from this 

 phase of his make-up comes much of the danger of intemperance. He 

 must be with other boys and from a mistaken idea of being one of 

 them he learns much that he really in his heart despises. 



Our average boy must now be fourteen or fifteen. What a problem. 

 He is comparatively speaking a good boy. He begins now to be a little 

 more particular about his hands, his ears and his clothes. He has been 

 known to give a girl, on the sly, an apple, and he takes a little interest 

 in St. Valentine's day. But these are only minor attractions beside a foot 

 ball or base ball game. I hope the teacher where he attends school is 

 a good young fellow just such as you are in hopes your average boy 

 will be. Ah! What a help, what an encouragement, not only to the boy, 

 but to you and the community. Our boy is studying history now for a 

 lesson in patriotism. How proud he is that he is an American citizen. 

 He begins to take interest even in the election of school director. He 

 aow learns the language of our flag. Teach him what the flag stands for, 

 why it is striped with white to show our love of purity. Show him 

 what a pure life means to a boy. Show him how it is striped with red 

 so it would gleam as his life should gleam. Show him how the great field 

 .of blue that represents the strength of our country and the stars that 

 glitter in the twilight and emblazon the morning. Teach him to honor 

 the flag and fight for it if need be. 



Of course we take it for granted that our boy is polite as boys go, 

 but now he begins to think a little of etiquette himself. He watches 

 persons whom he considers a model, conduct themselves at church, at 

 the table and on the street. His ideal may not be yours but do not laugh 

 at him, encourage him to look further and higher and not confine his 

 ideal to so small a compass. 



He now, probably, will try his fii'st cigar, he may have tampered 

 just a little with tobacco before, but on the sly, and if he wasn't afraid the 

 other boys would laugh at him he wouldn't have tried but once. But 

 this is different; he considers himself quite a man and a cigar seems to 

 be a necessary adjunct. Maybe years ago you have told him that if 

 he didn't smoke until he was twenty-one you w'ould give him a watch or 

 a team or a hundred dollars. That may help some toward helping him 

 to resist, but you must somehow plant in that boy's mind, for he has 



