A SERMON TO PARENTS
"KEEP YOUR BOY AT HOME"
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THE strongest ties in life are the home ties. It makes a lot of difference, both to you--his parents--and to him too, when a young man has grown up whether his thoughts dwell with sweet pleasure upon his old homestead, or whether the remembrance of his home and his past home-life are painful to him.
How many well-meaning, fond American parents develop the home-idea in the young boy? Are you not a bit to blame if your boy, when still in his 'teens, is seen too much in questionable company and in questionable resorts? Your boy is not naturally inclined to stay away from his home and his family. He is usually forced out, for want of something to keep his growing, inquisitive mind occupied; it's the something that he can't find at his own home that forces him out. So out he goes. He drifts on, away from you--the heartstrings loosen more and more, you--his fond parents--wonder and wonder and the boy becomes a stranger before you realize it.
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IT IS USUALLY THEN TOO LATE TO MEND |
This is--alas--only too true a picture of the average American youth. And it is so easy to keep your boy at home. He doesn't want much, just something to dabble, to tinker, to experiment with and to keep his inborn insatiable curiosity satisfied.
You know your boy likes nothing better than this, he was born for it; are you going to club it out of him?
How do we know all this about your boy? Why, bless him, if it wasn't in his system, if he wasn't soaked full of it, do you think he would have written for this catalogue of ours?
He has the right idea--the home idea; somewhere in him is a spark alive that needs but proper fanning to create a future Edison, a coming Marconi.
It has been our business for ten years to keep hundreds of thousands of boys at home, and the multitude of letters of grateful parents testify that we must have done it successfully.
Electricity, especially Wireless, are positively the strongest home-magnets to-day. His workshop, his small Electric laboratory or his Wireless Den are the most powerful home attractions for the 20th Century Boy.
Electricity and Wireless are the coming, undreamed of, world-moving forces. Don't kill the electric spark in your boy. It costs little to keep it going, and some fine day it will pay you and your boy handsome dividends.
Only one in 300 boys is interested in Electricity and Wireless. Your boy has the electric "bug." Thank the stars for it that he is so deeply interested in the greatest art the world has ever known. It's distinction, besides:
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"IT KEEPS YOUR BOY AT HOME." |
H. GERNSBACK. |
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