Ideas For Boys

Ideas For Boys by Walter W. Ross
105 South LaSalle St., Chicago, Illinois
Printed and bound by Tucker-Kenworthy Co., Chicago.
Copyright 1915 by Walter W. Ross.
All Rights Reserved for All Countries

FOREWORD.
Correct ideas are obtained only by thought and labor. The ideas which an immature boy develops from time to time are the result chiefly of his environment, associates and reading. He needs help.
An idea which is worth while, cannot be implanted in a boy's mind without effort, he must read, study and confer with older persons, and be willing to act on their sound and thoughtful advice.
I have three boys who are now about eleven, thirteen and twenty-three years of age respectively, and like most fathers I have wanted to help them obtain correct ideas on as many subjects as possible. My own father died when I was less than three years old, and realizing the uncertainty of life I have written down some thoughts for their guidance in the event I might not be with them later on, but of course I hope to be with them for many a day and to discuss with them personally, not only the matters herein contained, but many others as the occasions arise. It has been suggested that some of these ideas may help some other boys as well as my own, and in the hope that that may be true this little book of conferences is published.
However stale the old truths may seem to mature persons, they are new and fresh to each rising generation. Boys retain throughout their lives many of the ideas taught them in youth.
As I look back over my younger days I feel that the words of advice, both written and verbal, given me by my maternal grandfather were of substantial benefit to me and as many of the old truths herein recorded were first called to my attention by him, a few personal words regarding him may be interesting.
He was born in Rhode Island, where his ancestors had lived since the latter part of the seventeenth century. In his youth he studied medicine, and soon after his marriage moved to Southern Illinois in 1840 and resumed the practice of his profession on the frontier. Not long after he had settled there the Illinois Central Railroad was built through the community in which he lived, and coal was soon discovered and Grandfather provided the funds to develop one of these mines which was among the first of the coal mines operated in Illinois. The country developed rapidly, additional railroads were built, new coal mines were opened, business thrived, schools and colleges were founded, and within a few brief years the frontier had changed into a busy center of trade and commerce.
The active life which he led in the development of this new community, and in the practice of his profession, developed him into an unusually strong and rugged character. By the time he was sixty years old he had acquired a competency and soon retired from active practice. He lived to the ripe old age of eightytwo years, and the last twenty years of his life were spent principally with his books, his children and his grandchildren. He had been a student throughout his long life, and was learned not only in his profession and in business, but also in politics, geology and astronomy, his favorite studies.
He was a very kind and generous man, and the intimacy which existed between us was unusual. During the vacations of my student days we spent many hours together. Sometimes we would drive into the country taking our lunches and spending the day in the woods, which in those days was equivalent to the companionship of a golf game nowadays. At other times we would work together in the garden or chop wood, for he was fond of exercise and believed boys should learn to do manual work. Often he would awaken me at various hours of the night to point out constellations of stars in the heavens; and I recall his obtaining specimens of geological formations, and explaining them to me. He was interested in the politics of the day, and we read books upon such questions together.
During the last fifteen years of his life we spent some portion of each year together, and when we were separated we were constant and frequent correspondents especially during the years I was away from home attending college at Princeton, and law school in Chicago and at Harvard.
His letters of advice to me were extremely interesting (a check was sometimes enclosed which greatly added to my youthful appreciation), and I have often wished that I had preserved these letters for the benefit of my boys. His letters dwelt upon questions which pertained to the mental, moral, physical and political development of a boy.
Crises frequently arise in