Beulah, Ga. Nov. 15, 1882.
		James T. Geiger

My Dear Son: Today you enter upon your twenty-first year--today you pass the threshold of manhood. Your infancy and boyhood stages are passed, and a new era now opens before you. This is your first day of manhood, and it ushers in new responsibilities, new hopes, new expectations and new labors.

Your father and mother (till her death) watched over you from earliest infancy. They cared for your necessities and supplied your wants as best they could. They consulted about your welfare and prayed separately and together--for your prosperity. They labored to furnish your body with good, wholesome food and comfortable raiment whereby you might feel well and become a hearty and strong man physically. They labored jointly to supply you with the necessary means for improving your mind and storing in with useful knowledge, also with rich spiritual food which by the grace of God is calculated to make you a wise and useful christian and prepare you for a bright immortality. Your father has the happy satisfaction of seeing you this day ushered into manhood with a sound body--no limbs broken, or organs seriously diseased--with a mind very well stored with useful knowledge, and a trade by which you will be able to supply the necessaries of life and build up society, together with a heart (it is hoped) beating with the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ. Your father feels that you enter manhood with all these as the gift of God through his and your lamented mother's instrumentality. He feels proud of you, and hopes you will never disgrace the name you bear, or dishonor the God he loves, or disrespect the religion you profess. Now, on this, the first day in your manhood life, he offers you the following thoughts for consideration, and cheerfully gives you the advice he thinks necessary:

I. Relative to your own body and bodily comfort.

    1st. Take care of yourself. Do not act in such a way as to bring on disease. Whenever convenient read good books on Physiology and Hygiene, and act out their teaching in order that your health may be preserved and your body kept strong and you enabled to persue[sic] your labors.

    2nd. Do not go in debt whenever you can avoid it. Do not buy anything you can do without because it is cheap, unless you have the money to pay for it, or see plainly how you can make it profitable to yourself and beneficial to others and see how the payment for it can be made. Even then you should use a greal deal caution [sic] and exercise strict judgment. Remember a cheap coat paid for fits better and feels nicer than a costly one for which you are in debt.

    3. Take special care of your money. Remember dollars are made of cents. Take care of the cents and the dollars will take care of themselves. Do not be stingy, but be careful how you spend your money, always exercising strict judgment in everything you buy.

    4th. Be careful with everything you have--clothes, shoes, tools or anything else you may have in the shape of property. Do not idolize it, but use it right and not abuse it. Remember that in early manhood is the time to commence providing for old age, should you reach it, this only can be done by exercising a strict degree of care.

II. Relative to your education.

    1st. Strive to improve your education by reading and studying good books and papers, by consultation with informed persons, and by every other available means. Try to retain everything you learn that is good or useful, and forget, as soon as possible, all that is bad or useless. Let others reap the benefits of your education to as great an extent as is possible without too much sacrifice on your part.

III. Relative to your deportment.

    1st. Always act and speak respectfully to and about your parents, brothers and sisters. Such expressions as the "old man," "the old fellow," etc. when speaking of your father is not respectful and never tends to build any son or daughter up in the estimation of any respectable society. When speaking of your father always speak with the highest degree of respect, if you would have others respect you. Your dear mother is gone, never speak of her disrespectfully. She had her faults, (who has not?) never speak of her except with reverence. You have a step-mother--she, too, has her faults, but she has her virtues, and, really, they are many. She is your father's wife--your step-mother, and if for no other reason you should hold her and speak to her and about her with the highest degree of respect; your brothers and sisters should all find an equal share of affections in your feelings. None should be disrespected in the least because they have another mother. Treat them all alike, and lay an example before them worthy of their emulation. In short, treat every person with due respect, whether your relative or not. "Speak evil of no one," is a scripture injunction not to be ignored.

	May the 14, 1883.

The above was written at the time of your entering manhood, and there were some other things I wished to say to you then, based upon a little birthday present, I wanted to make, but failed to make in consequence of the low state of my finances at that time, and this document was laid aside with the hope that I might be able to make the present this spring, but as my financial matters are still too low to justify the expenditure, I will close this document with one other injunction, hoping soon, to reward you, in some way, for your fidelity to your loving parents.

IV. Relative to your entering upon the married state.

The time is not very far off when you should, and will probably, think of entering the married state. God intends for people to marry and raise up families to his honor and glory. Treat all respectable ladies with due respect and politeness, and have no association with those bear a bad name. Never propose to any lady till your mind is fully settled relative to the matter. Never, never, for the sake of your mother, who was a woman, deceive a woman. No gentleman will ever do it. When you select a lady for a life-long partner let her possess the following virtues as far as possible: 1st. A sound mind. 2nd. A sound healthy body--a lady with a long body not too stout is preferable. 3rd. Of good character. 4th. Of a respectable family, even for generations back is preferable. 5th. Industry and economy are indispensable. 6th. Of a good education, literacy, moral and religious, if possible. 7th. As "two cannot walk together except they be agreed," she should be of the same religious faith with you--a Baptist. 8th. No person should marry for wealth, yet if a lady possesses the other necessary qualifications, she should not be objected to on account of property she possesses, but be sure that she is industrious and economical, or her property will do no good.

I will say no more now than this: study what I have said carefully and prayerfully, try to act it out. Preserve this document as a keepsake from your father. And when I am in my grave, should you be the longest liver, read it frequently in memory of your loving parents. From your father.

		--W. L. Geiger