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VOICES OF YOUTH
THE FARMER BOY.
Some praise the twentieth century girl,
Who wins in business or social whirl,
But my humble pen I will employ
Tn praise of the twentieth century boy—
The boy on the farm, tog, ’.et m»; say.
Willing to work but ready to play.
He is strong of arm and honest of heart,
And resolves always to do his part.
A student he is of history's page,
And he likes to read The Golden Age.
He is kind to his homefolks, courteous to all
And true to the girl who holds him in thrall.
He goes to his work in the dew of the day,
He plows the cotton and mows the hay,
Conies home and puts up the horse and plow,
Washes his hands and milks the cow.
Whistling the while, as gay as a bird,
His best girl hears him; her heart is stirred;
She leaves off working the biscuit dough
To kiss her hand to her brown-eyed beau.
But there! If I write like this in truth,
I'll not be allowed in “The Voices of Youth.” ,
KITTY OF THE HILLS.
A LITTLE TALK.
Why, boys, I believe we are going to have the
liveliest kind of times. Miss Pansy had no idea her
letter would create so much excitement. Well, I
don’t blame you one bit and I’m mighty glad to
see you defend yourselves in such a manly way. It
never would have done to let Pansy’s accusations go
by and not make some defense for ourselves. I would
be glad to hear from every one of you on the sub
ject. “The more the merrier.” Calsor, you put up
a splendid defense in your clever exposition of the
causes why boys neglect their home girls for visitors.
I believe you are right about it. Among my other
letters of defense I have one from Bert, of Athens.
Ala. I think he gives some excellent reasons, and
I want you to read his letter and see if you don’t
think so too. Why yes, Mazie, certainly we will
let you into our band, we are glad to have you, and
hope you will come again. Sister Annie, we want you
to come and scatter some more leaves among us
from your rose jar. The fragrance of the last
ones you distributed lingers with us still. With love
and one of my old-fashioned handshakes, I am, your
“BROTHER WILLIE.”
With ®ur Correspondents
THE REASON WHY.
Four days patiently waiting for a letter from his
“absent but dear Dolly Mills,” Jim Dent, going over
the evening mail, found the dainty little blue envel
ope posted from Cameron, many hours behind time,
he thought as he tore the seal and read: “Dearest
Jim: I declare I am having the biggest time of my
life. I met Jack W. last night and he is the ‘cutest’
fellow in town. He carried me driving yesterday
and gave me so much nice candy. There were six
boys called by yesterday eve to go with me to an
entertainment given in ‘my’ honor at Mrs. J.’s. Now
Jim, when I get time I will think of you. I have
been up every night till two o’clock since coming
here, and now I must go sleep some. Bye bye. Ta-ta.
Yours forever, D. M.” Passing down the street Jim
meets me with a look which indicates “blasted hopes”
and coming up close he says to me, “Calson, why
is it, when our home girls get away from their old
friends, that they forget all about them, forget the
many buggy rides, forget all the boxes of candy show
ered on them by their own town boys, and go wild
over the young men of another town?” Jim has a
way of characterizing the whole young fail’ sex when
he is speaking of “Dolly Mills,” and so I caught on —
and I said, “Jim, you must remember they have
you always with them.” Jim says, “Yes, I know it,
but let a strange boy come to town and it won’t be
twenty-four hours before he has met Dolly M. and
they will be taking on “more than friends.” I told
Jim about the only way out of this perplexed and
irritated state of his mind was to go up and meet
Miss “Adelle” —who was visiting the Smiths —so
he goes—meets Adelle —and finds, to his surprise, in
her those feminine qualities which he had no idea
could be found anywhere except in his Dolly Mills.
When his troubled heart is stilled; after resting
in the shade of another tree in the garden of love
for a few brief moments, he turns and —Behold! here
comes Dolly Mills —back home. Now, seriously, I
would suggest to “Pansy” that for her personal griev-
The Golden Age for June 13, 1907.
ances, she move to another town and be a visitor
herself. My answer to this question would be:
That these sidesteps by young men are often taken to
bring out and test the good qualities of the girls at
home. If you keep your standard of womanhood
upon the highest plane, your principles of integrity
and virtue above the shadow of reproach, your digni
ty beyond the pitfalls of jealousy, and be serenely
independent, you will find that the home boys will
turn back and flock around you like stray sheep—
yea—they will come back in the attitude of the “prod
igal son.” “CALSON.”
Fort Deposit, Ala.
*
HOW HIS BACHELOR CAT SURPRISED HIM.
Jack’s mother had taught him that sweet evening
prayer, “Now I lay me down to sleep,” which all
you dear little girls and boys have said while you
knelt at mamma's knee. Every night he repeated the
trusting words in his childish accents, and then
kissing mamma goodnight he sailed peacefully into
slumber land. But at night was not the only time
Jack talked to God. At different times during his
play I have heard him lift his little voice to God in
some petition. One day in summer during a long
dry spell, his mother was talking about the absence
of rain and said: “I think the people would best
get together and pray for a shower; our crops need
it so badly. They used to pray for rain a long time
ago.” On hearing the remark Jack stopped suddenly
at his play, lifted his big brown eyes to heaven and
said, “O dear Lord, please send some rain.” And
what do you think? Next day there came a big show
er, softening the hard earth and refreshing the droop
ing flowers and plants. Jack also had a number of
pets, among these were four fine cats. Each of these
came in for his or her share of teasing, and it was
usually a pretty large share. He thought he loved
these as much as cats could be loved but he was
made very happy by finding one of them in the hay
with a family of kittens. Before summer had gone
three families of little cats were added to the list
of pets. Milton, whom we thought was a bachelor,
seemed to lose favor with his master. One day, I
peeped in the nursery door and there sat Jack pray
ing for our bachelor cat “to find some kittens some
where.” Not long after, to our astonishment we dis
covered Milton with three purring kittens. Now,
whether it was Jack's prayer or not that brought
them, you will have to decide for yourself.
Neeses, S. C. MRS. G. A. CARBETT.
*
THOSE VISITING GIRLS.
Well, Pansy, you were pretty hard on us boys, for
neglecting, as you say our home girls when the
visiting young ladies make their appearance in town.
Granted that the boys do pay a good deal of atten
tion to the stranger girls, isn’t there plenty of reason
for it? In the first place, it is only giving tit for
tat. When the boys from the city or some other
burg, come visiting in your town just see how you
take on over them. You forget there is such a per
son as a native boy in a hundred miles of you. An
othei- reason why we boys show attention to visit
ing girls is from a feeling of chivalry and town
pride—a desire to be courteous to the visitor, wheth
er it be a man or a woman. Here’s still another rea
son: The visiting girl is usually nice to us boys. She
treats us with polite consideration; she appreciates
our attentions, while the home girls think any old
way is good enough to treat us. I speak foi- myself.
When I was seventeen the home girls used me as an
escort and errand boy, and had me to do little jobs
for them —carry wraps and rugs and baskets at
picnics; and mighty seldom did I get a “thanky.'
One day two visiting girls arrived in town, and I,
with the other boys, began to try to give them a
good time. One of them seemed to prefer me as an
escort, and it was my privilege to show her a number
of attentions. She was so sweetly appreciative; she
treated me with so much consideration and kindness
that it raised me in my own estimation. I .began
to have respect for myself, and so determined I would
be somebody worth while. That dear little visiting
girl helped me to make a man of myself, and I shall
always love her for it. She was a year older than
I, and she told me frankly that she was engaged to
to be married to a young man she loved. She did
marry him —the lucky fellow —and I have no doubt
they are happy. So, Pansy, if girls would treat the
home boys right, they would never have to complain
of being neglected when strange young ladies come
to town. BERT.
Athens, Ala.
THEY PREFER BEAUTY TO WORTH.
Yielding to a long cherished wish I come seeking
admission into this charming band. Were I egotisti
cal I should think about being very interesting, but
I shall not make any startling statements (because I
can’t). Should the dooi’ of the Household be opened,
I fear I should be only a “buttinsky.” Pansy, don’t
you think the boys will have a time over your ques
tion about visiting girls? It’s true, though sad, that of
the good, the true, and the beautiful, boys nearly
always choose the beautiful. It would seem that the
other qualities should be preferred. When a pretty
girl is in town the average boy gets wild in his
head. “Earnest Willie,” my brother has your book
and I have had the great pleasure of reading it. It
is certainly grand. Brother is afraid he will never
own it again as I have taken full possession of
it and hold it as one of my greatest treasures.
Jonesboro, Ga. MAZIE.
K
HOW HE WAS CURED.
Let me tell you a true story of how a tramp was
reformed. He was a young fellow, a printer by trade,
who could never keep a situation because he loved
whiskey too well, so he became a tramp; and one
day in company with anothei’ knight of the road,
he called at a lady’s house and asked her to give
him something to eat. She said: “I’ll give you
some chicken if you’ll work half enough to earn it.”
She brought out a pair of brass candle sticks very
much tarnished, and they agreed to clean them.
When they had rubbed at the brass for a while one
of them said to Mrs. Jones: “Lady, don’t you know
that whiskey’s a great thing to get brass clean? If
we had a little whiskey we'd soon have these can
dle sticks so you could see your face in them.”
“Is that so?” she remarked. “Well, I think I have a
little whiskey in the house; I'll get it for you.” She
presently brought some whiskey in a preserve jar,
and gave it to them. As soon as her back was
turned they drank the whiskey, then began rubbing
the candle sticks. When Mrs. Jones passed by them
a little later, she said, “Why, how bright the can
dle sticks look; so whiskey is of some use after all.
I’ve had that I gave you ever since last year. We
bathed my poor dog, Fido, in it the day before he
di d with the mange.” The tramps looked ghastly,
both were soon dreadfully sick. The young printer
vomited until he was too weak to walk. The lady
made him a bed in an outhouse. When he got well,
she obtained a place for him on the local newspaper.
He was never again turned off for drinking. He
couldn’t bear the smell of whiskey. How would it do
to try this kind of cure upon others —just fool them
into drinking whiskey that dogs or cats had been
washed in and tell them about it afterward.
WILL MERIWETHER.
*
A BOY.
He is only a boy you say,
And smile my zeal to see.
But let me tell you, I pray,
What a boy once did for me.
When Fate had locked Hope’s door
His hand came knocking there
His loving -words up-bore
My spirit from despair.
Just a few sweet simple words
And a touch upon the hair
But my drooping heart was stirred
As if by an answered prayer.
Oh there’s much that is good in a boy
Which eyes that have wept can see
You may find the good to your joy
For love —just love is the key.
ANNICE.
APPLICATION FOR MEMBERSHIP IN A. O. OF
GOLDEN AGE.
I hereby make application for membership in the
American Order of The Golden Age. I promise to
speak kindly to and of others, and to be kind to
animals. I will try to acquire useful knowledge
and encourage others to acquire it. In my sports
and recreations and also my work and studies, I
will try to be agreeable, just and honest. I will
engage only in such recreations as promote the
health of mind and body.
Name
Address
Conducted by
the “Editor.
