A CHAPTER FOR BOYS 383 



breaking down of the digestive organs of our Ameri- 

 can boys, if we leave out of the consideration the 

 effects of bad food and worse cookery. A boy ten or 

 twelve years of age ought to have a stomach capable 

 of digesting anything not absolutely indigestible; but 

 there are to-day thousands and thousands of boys of 

 that age whose stomachs are so impaired as to be 

 incapable of digesting any but the most simple food. 

 The digestion being ruined, decay of the teeth soon fol- 

 lows. Hardly one boy in a dozen has perfectly sound 

 teeth. With a bad stomach and bad teeth, a founda- 

 tion for disease is laid which is sure to result in early 

 decay of the whole body. 



A Cause of Consumption.— In this awful vice do 

 we find a cause, too, for the thousands of cases of con- 

 sumption in young men. At the very time when they 

 ought to be in their prime, they break down in health, 

 and become helpless invalids for life, or speedily sink 

 into an early grave. 



Upon their tombstones might justly be graven, 

 "Here lies a self-murderer." Providence is not to 

 blame; nor is climate, weather, overwork, overstudy, 

 or any other even seemingly plausible cause to be 

 blamed. Their own sins have sunk them in mental, 

 moral, and physical perdition. Such a victim literally 

 dies by his own hand, a veritable suicide. Appalling 

 thought! It is a grand thing to die for principles, a 

 martyr to right and truth. One may die blameless who 

 is the victim of some dire contagious malady which 

 he could not avoid; even the poor, downcast misan- 

 thrope, whose hopes are blighted and whose sorrows 

 multiplied, may possibly be in some degree excused 

 for wishing to end his misery with his life; but the 

 wretched being who sheds his life blood by the disgust- 



