ught to make his mark in the world, that ought to become a distinguished
statesman, orator, clergyman, physician, or author, becomes little
more than a living animal, a mere shadow of what he ought to have been.

Old Boys.--Often have we felt sad when we have heard fond mothers
speaking in glowing terms of the old ways of their sons, and rather
glorying that they looked so much older than they were. In nine cases
out of ten these old-looking boys owe their appearance to this vile
habit; for it is exceedingly common, and its dreadful effects in
shriveling and dwarfing and destroying the human form are too plainly
perceptible, when present, to be mistaken. Oh! this dreadful curse!
Why will so many of our bright, innocent boys pollute themselves with
it!

What Makes Idiots.--Reader, have you ever seen an idiot? If you have,
the hideous picture will never be dissipated from your memory. The
vacant stare, the drooping, drooling mouth, the unsteady gait, the
sensual look, the emptiness of mind,--all these you will well remember.
Did you ever stop to think how idiots are made? It is by this very vice
that the ranks of these poor daft mortals are being recruited every
day. Every visitor to an insane asylum sees scores of them; ruined in
mind and body, only the semblance of a human being, bereft of sense,
lower than a beast in many respects, a human being hopelessly lost to
himself and to the world!--oh, most terrible thought!--yet once pure,
intelligent, active, perhaps the hope of a fond mother, the pride of
a doting father, and possibly possessed of natural ability to become
greatly distinguished in some of the many noble and useful walks of
life; now sunk below the brute through the degrading, destroying
influence of a lustful gratification.

Boys, are you guilty of this terrible sin? have you even once in this
way yielded to the tempter's voice? Stop, consider, think of the awful
results, repent, confess to God, reform. Another step in that direction
and you may be lost, soul and body. You cannot dally with the tempter.
You must escape now or never. Don't delay.

Young Dyspeptics.--If we leave out of the consideration the effects
of bad food and worse cookery, there is in our estimation no other cause
so active in occasioning the early breaking down of the digestive organs
of our American boys. A boy of ten or twelve years of age ought to have
a stomach capable of digesting anything not absolutely indigestible;
but ther