Confidential Chats with Boys

by William Lee Howard

It is to be hoped that you will never come in contact with or know such beastly men. There are not many of them sneaking around, nevertheless I feel I should warn you against everything that might be the commencement of your ruin.

Almost all the deeds and thoughts which go to make up a career of success or failure, have their beginnings in youth. Youth is the springtime of life. It is the planting time, the crop you sow is reaped in the summer and autumn of life.

Just being good amounts to a useless life unless you can be good for something. You cannot be good for anything unless you are good to yourself. The time has passed when a youth or man can neglect his body and brain and, when they are no longer working as they should work, go to a doctor and have him repair the trouble with medicines. The doctor of the future and those of the present who understand man and his powers, study to show you how to keep in the best physical and moral health. These two conditions cannot be separated; neglect your body and evil thoughts and weak will are sure to follow. Both come from the Great Source and both must be equally cared for and respected.

You have been told that it is wonderful to look around and see God’s work. But this is not exactly the whole truth. It is more wonderful to study self and recognize the spirit of God IN YOU. And this spirit in you will always respond to your appeals for help in these matters of taking care of the body and all that belongs to the body.

Just say to yourself: “I have a lot of dirt in my body; I know now how to get it out and keep it out. I have some filthy thought germs in my brain, I will wash them out and keep them out.” Doing this until it becomes a silent habit, you start as a youth whose foundations are such that, as a man, you can become what you will.

Boys have been scared to death, or to the point where they think death would be a relief, by being told that pimples on the face were signs of self-abuse and the commencement of “Lost Manhood.” Pimples on the face of a growing boy have no more to do with these conditions than a corn on the toe. Remember this truth: Self-abuse kept up will, of course, bring about a dirty complexion, pale face, trembling limbs and the general appearance of something wrong with the youth. But the purest-minded and healthiest youth will have pimples on his face for two or three years.

When the age of puberty arrives, every gland, including the sweat glands of the face and others, which exude a fatty material, are pouring out an excess of their secretions, like the sap in young trees during the springtime. This state naturally leaves a complexion muddy-looking and helps also to make pimples. But the pimples on the youth’s face are mainly due to another cause.

When the beard commences to grow, each hair, in trying to push its way through the tender skin, leaves a hole a little larger than the size of the hair. Consequently there are around the pushing hair of the beard little open spaces into which dirt and some of the acid secretions enter. This sets up a slight inflammation and so, of course, makes pimples.

Let these pimples alone. All pinching, opening and applications make them worse. Sometimes a boy becomes so worried and ashamed about them that he goes to a druggist, who gives him an ointment or wash which closes up the opening spaces and thereby keeps the dirt and inflammation hidden for a time. But this is an injurious thing to do; for soon the inflammation increases downwards in the skin and unless at once relieved the boy will have one form of a real skin disease, which, even when treated by a doctor, is liable to leave scars on the face; deep pits which resemble those of smallpox. If you are foolish enough to smoke cigarettes when growing, your pimples will be irritated, and then, of course, enlarged and more difficult for Nature—the only genuine doctor—to bring about a good complexion.

As a general rule, the stronger the man you are to be, the more numerous the pimples will be on your face and body. This is because a full and heavy beard generally belongs to the strong man. So if you have more hairs pushing through your skin than a less-powerful youth, you will have more pimples. Temperament, that is, your racial traits, color of hair and family complexion, all these kinds of things, of course, make a difference in the way your beard grows and the quality of it; but the principles are all the same for every growing youth.