Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 October 1887 — AN EXPENSIVE LUXURY. [ARTICLE]

AN EXPENSIVE LUXURY.

What it Costs to Rais# a Bey for the First Twenty Y ears of His Life. Bn tfiiio Express. ; - - “My father never did anything for me,” recently remarked a young man who a few weeks ago finished his school life, and is now seeking a good business opening. Judging by the words and the complaining tone in which they were sttered the member of the firm who heard them is prone to believe that the young man’s idea of “doing something” is the outright gift of a thousand dollars in a lump, or the purclias* of a partnership in an established concern. This young man, to the knowledge of the writer, has never done one month’s actual work for others in his entire life. His life has heen passed in the pleasant pastimes of the home circle, in reading study, hunting, fishing, ball playing, yachting and other employments not particularly beneficial to ethers. He is j a type of that class of boys whose parents are sufficiently well-to-do to keep servants to attend to the household drudgery, and whose fathers follow vocations in which no use can be made of the boy’s spare hours. Like most hoys of his class, he looks upon his board and clothes for twenty years, together with his pony, jewelry, bicycle, etc., as matters of course. The writer, while the complaining remark was still ringing in his ears, had the curiosity to make a conservative compilation of what it costs to raise an ordinary boy for the first twenty years of hi 3 life,* and here it is: Ilf# per year for the first fire years ...$ 50C IlfiO per year for the second fire years 750 SWt) per year for the third fire years I,#oo MOO per ) ear for the next three year* ;.. 900 I.o# per yaar for the next two yeari.... 1,000 Total S4.UO Yes, this is a moderate estimate of the complains that his father has never done anything for him.