A CHAPTER FOR BOYS 



BOYS, this chapter is for you. It is written and 

 printed expressly for you. The author does not 

 care very much if a single page is not read by 

 grown men, but is very solicitous that every boy shall 

 read each line thoughtfully and carefully, weighing 

 well the facts presented and the words of warning 

 offered. You may find nothing to laugh at, nothing 

 pleasing; but you will find something to think about, 

 something worth pondering and remembering. 



Genuine Boys.— Eeal boys are scarce nowadays. 

 In the days of Methuselah, male human beings were 

 still boys when nearly a century old ; twenty-five years 

 ago, boys were still such until well out of their 

 ' ' teens ; ' ' now, the interval between infancy and the age 

 at which the boy becomes a young man is so brief that 

 boyhood is almost a thing of the past. The happy 

 period of care-free, joyous innocence which formerly 

 intervened between childhood and early manhood is 

 now almost unobservable. Boys grow old too fast. 

 They learn to imitate the vices and the manners of 

 their seniors before they reach their teens, and are 

 impatient to be counted as men, no matter how great 

 may be their deficiencies, their unfitness for the impor- 

 tant duties and responsibilities of life. The conse- 

 quence of this inordinate haste and impatience to be 

 old is premature decay. Unfortunately, the general 

 tendency of the boys of the rising generation is to copy 



365 



