572 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



bright, so as to make a high mark in the world, he may not be able tc 

 become a great scholar, he may only be a plodding, steady-working boy, 

 and yet his honest and manly actions may, and often do, honor his father 

 much more than the actions of your smart youth who smokes cigarettes, 

 chews tobacco and plays "seven up" in the hay left. I often feel sorry 

 for many boys on our streets. They want to be manly; what boy doos 

 not? They observe men around them, and imitate them. In so many 

 and many cases they imitate not the best men in the community, but 

 the bully, the strong, swaggering bluffer, the braggart and the prize 

 fighter. Whom he thinks he honors by so doing I do not know; cer- 

 tainly not himself, nor his parents. 



The duty of obedience is one that a son must carefully consider. 

 In childhood obdience is certainly required, and it is to be supposed 

 that the father will only demand obedience in what is right. But say 

 that as the boy grows, up his father asks him to do something that is 

 wrong. When the son is of an age when he can judge between right 

 and wrong, a duty devolves upon him to refuse to do wrong. This 

 refusal may not be, however, in a haughty manner, as if the father is 

 the inferior. With due regard for the position of a parent, a son may 

 refuse in such a way that a father can not take offense, and that his 

 action may even prevent his father from doing wrong. If the action 

 is doubtful, it should be debated in the intimate and confiden- 

 tial way that should always mark the relation of a father and son. 



The question of obedience is a very hard one to settle. No rules 

 can. be laid down except the rule that one is never justified in obeying 

 when ordered to do a wrong, or commit a crime. "I was told to do so. ' 

 is no excuse whatever, in such a case, and does not take the punishment 

 from you and put in onto another. "The fathers have eaten sour grapes 

 and the children's teeth are set on edge" is not true in such cases. 

 '•The soul that sinneth, it shall die," is true, and we must never forget 

 this. Each case depends upon itself, and must be judged alone. A sound 

 judgment is very often resuired, and the son may not always be con- 

 vinced that his duty requires approval or disapproval. The sensible 

 father, in such a case, will aid his son to form a just opinion, and the 

 son must strive to form it, for "the children of today are the men of 

 tomorrow." and when they are men they will often be compelled to 

 stand or fall on their own' judgment. 



But the duty to which I last call your attention is, it seems to me. 

 the greatest of all. It is the duty of a son to serve his father. Not 

 that this is not included in honoring, for it certainly is. Our laws fix 

 a period when a son is free and entitled to his own wages. We do not 

 object to this. To us service means much more than the giving of 

 one's labor. One can be working for himself, and still in the highest 

 sense of the word be serving his father. The service we refer to never 

 ends until death severs all earthly ties. We heard a few weeks ago 

 that an old man of ninety-four years of age came to Sioux City to have 

 cataracts removed from his eyes. He was accompanied by his two sons, 

 one seventy years old and the other sixty-four, who very carefully tended 



