e 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, the teeth soon follow
suit. Hardly one boy in a dozen has perfectly sound teeth. With a bad
stomach and bad teeth, a foundation for disease is laid which is sure
to result in early decay of the whole body.

In this awful vice do we find a cause, too, for the thousands of cases
of consumption 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 one's
principles, a martyr to his love of 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 misanthrope 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 disgusting maneuvers of
self-pollution--what can be said to extenuate _his_ guilt? His is a
double crime. Let him pass from the memory of his fellow-men. He will
perish, overwhelmed with his own vileness. Let him die, and return to
the dust from which he sprang.

The Race Ruined by Boys.--The human race is growing steadily weaker
year by year. The boys of to-day would be no match in physical strength
for the sturdy youths of a century ago who are now their grandparents.
An immense amount of skillful training enables now and then one to
accomplish some wonderful feat of walking, rowing, or swimming, but
we hear very little of remarkable feats of labor accomplished by our
modern boys. Even the country boys of to-day cannot endure the hard
work which their fathers accomplished at the same age; and we doubt
not that this growing physical weakness is one of the reasons why so
large a share of the boys whose fathers are farmers, and who have been
reared on farms, are unwilling to follow the occupation of their fathers
for a