Ideas For Boys | Page 3

the age of forty or fifty years. The boy should therefore never think that he has acquired all of the knowledge in the world upon a subject, but he should be glad to receive instruction from older and more experienced and learned persons than himself, and especially should he welcome advice from his parents who are deeply interested in his progress.

BOYS.
What are you?
You are the young offspring of human parents, possessed of a body which contains the vital organs, a brain, and the spirit of life.
Your ancestors have passed on to you many characteristics which they received from their ancestors or which they have acquired by their own actions. You are a composite of hundreds of generations who preceded you. If your parents had white skin, your skin is white; if theirs was black, yours is black; if theirs was yellow, yours is yellow. Racial features and complexions pass from one generation to another, but with intermarriage between different races these distinctions pass away.
Your parents may have possessed brilliant intellects and fine bodies, and you will profit thereby if you put forth proper effort; or your parents may have had but moderate brains and sickly bodies, but it does not follow that you are doomed to the same misfortune. Your development and success in life depends almost entirely upon your own efforts; you must develop from within. Abraham Lincoln's ancestors were persons of small material achievements, but he developed the powers within him by his own efforts, and this is substantially true of all successful persons.
All persons cannot achieve great renown, that is allotted to but few, much depends upon the age in which they live and the circumstances of the times; but all men can achieve a success in life if they will develop the faculties necessary to make themselves useful to others.
Usefulness to others, is really the best measure of success in life. There are about a billion seven hundred million persons living on this earth, you can be useful to some of these persons, and many of them will be useful to you.
The chief executive of a great nation, who exercises great wisdom in the performance of his many duties, is useful and helpful to millions of persons daily. The merchant who conducts a great store, the banker who controls and loans large sums of money, the president of a railroad system carrying thousands of passengers daily, the doctor, lawyer and minister doing things helpful to others, the farmer raising his crops, the workman and laborer doing their duties, are each successful in their respective callings in proportion to the use and help they are to others.
Boys ten years old, and even younger, can begin to learn how to become useful to others, and the boys who learn this lesson early in life and continue to be useful throughout their lives, will attain the greatest success and happiness possible for them.
The boy who learns to work in the garden, thereby helping the vegetables to grow and make food, is useful to others; the boy who cleans the snow from the sidewalks or distributes papers, or who serves as a caddie or studies well in school, or who does many other similar things, is a useful boy. But a boy who lives an indifferent or careless life, with no impulses to help others, is exposed to evil and becomes a constant care and source of anxiety to those who watch over him. Characteristics developed in boyhood will continue through manhood days. "The boy is father to the man." Your success and happiness increases as your sphere of usefulness grows larger.
A boy can easily learn to do some small useful thing, but he must be trained and taught how to do the great things which are useful and required of men in the busy world.
Boyhood days are short, manhood soon arrives. The boy of today is the man of tomorrow. The president of the United States was a boy a few short years ago; the men who are serving as judges of our courts, and the men who are conducting our great banking, mercantile, transportation and other corporations will soon be too old to perform these great services, and the boy who properly equips himself, will soon be called upon to take the place of a leader who has passed on, or to perform some new service equally important. But bear in mind that the competition is fierce, and the prize will go to the best qualified.
The thoughtful boy asks, what must I do to win success and happiness in the race of life? Whatever you do, do it the best way you know how, with care and patience, keep on learning how to do it better, and always keep a contented mind, and be cheerful.
There are many things