hin and are inseparable
from our race and from the age of the children they would regard with
the greatest concern every influence that is brought to bear upon their
rapidly developing boys.

This is no light matter we are discussing and is one that ought to be
considered seriously by every father. Every teacher, every psychologist
knows that the time comes when a man must lead the changing youth. Who
shall do it? Obviously the father. No man can put aside his
responsibilities in this matter nor can he delegate it to the mother.
She may be the one big factor in the development of her boy's character
and yet there is one time when all her carefully laid plans may go awry,
when for a little while her restraining influence is powerless to save.
No father can, in fairness to the children he has brought into the
world, say that when he has made the home and furnished it, when he has
fed and clothed his wife and children he has done all that he ought to
do. It matters not how difficult a task it has been to find the money to
support his family, nor how hard he has been obliged to work to get the
daily bread; it matters not how tired or how much in need of recreation
he may be when he returns to his home at the close of the day; he finds
his responsibility always facing him. Do not misunderstand the question,
nor the purpose of these lines. This is in no sense a criticism nor is
it a bit of preaching at the hard-working fathers upon whom rest the
hopes of the race. Every true father is willing to give his life if
necessary for his offspring and there is no greater devotion in the
world than that of father to son. But the fact remains that many a busy
man has been so overburdened with the cares of his everyday life that he
has had no time to make himself familiar with even the smallest of his
duties to his family.

Suddenly he becomes conscious that his son is growing away from him,
that the little things that have bound them together have no longer the
strength to hold, that they are drifting apart. Perhaps the father never
has been on intimate terms with his son and has never really known what
his child was thinking about or what his ideas and ideals really were.
When this consciousness comes to the father, when he learns that he is
no longer the one big figure on his son's horizon and that his words
have ceased to be accepted as final on every question, he is startled
and seeks strenuously to regain his position. Difficult