---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 7
number: 11
published: 1904-09
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Talks to Young Men. XI—Telling a Secret," *Improvement Era* 7, no. 11 (September 1904): 867.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0711unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera0711unse
start_page: 867
end_page: 867
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1904-09)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0711unse
  publication_year: 1904
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1904, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# Talks to Young Men. XI—Telling a Secret

<!-- page:867 -->

TALKS TO YOUNG MEN.                            869

to the district school,      I   remember that it was with grave misgivings
that we hitched        up and drove with Charles to Delaware, when he entered college.    We were not certain what would be the influences there,
and were afraid that, like so many country boys, he would not be able to
withstand the temptations of town or city life.          We were very uneasy,
though members of a neighboring family would drive up to see him every Saturday, and this uneasiness continued until we received a letter
from Charles one day, something like this:
     Dear Mother:       —To-night had to disobey your instructions to stay
                                     I
off the streets at night.        When I came to my room to-night I found that
there was no oil in the can, so I had to go down to the grocery to get some.

    That set our minds at rest, and we knew that the town influences
were not corrupting our boy.

     He was keeping his promise.             His covenant with his parents
was not being broken in the slightest, and his conscience would not
let the least seeming        breach rest upon him unreported. He would
not stand for the penalty of any secret between him and them.             He
had fully grasped the meaning of the commandment, "Honor thy
father and thy mother."
     Young men who do likewise are on the right road to success.

                          TO AN OBSTRUCTIONIST.

                  This would I say to you, dull brow of wo,
                       Mourning our country's loss of noble aim,
                       Framing a lengthy bill of surly blame
                 Against the stouter men who face the foe:
                 Not such as you, in that loved long ago.
                   Rose in the might of their majestic scorn,
                   .   And full af faith in us, as yet unborn.
                 Won us the country that you cherish so:
                 But such as you sat at the chimney-side.
                   Cursing the folly of their fellow men.
                 Praising the "good old times," while others died
                       That Liberty entombed might rise again;
                  And now their sons, with that same flag unfurl'd,
                  March down the widening highways of the world!
                                                From "The Reader."