The Nevada Democrat., 1858-03-24
no..,,e,r. on tho Bow Questlon.

Ooegtfclks on the BOY QuestAons
Children are, believe, indigenous 10 th'
State Of Matrimony, which is . dominion Of SC
great an extent that its products may be said t'
grow spontaneously over pretty much all rh'
world. There are but two sorts of children un
der the sun, decent children and mean children
All children are decent by nature, and only
mean by education. When the Lord sends chill
dren to q man, be doesn't intend that man tC
corrupt those children into juvenile christians
who are always sceuadrels in after life; but he
means to have him bring up those children al
human sinners until they are old enough to see
for themselves what the world is made of, and
TO shape their course for the Heaven on the 9th
er side Of it. Fer there never was a man yet
who thoroughly believed in a Heaven, who
didR't try to get there, and we have the tallest
kind of authority for the belief that no man ev'
or tried to get there and failed.
Ne man ever got to the door Of Paradise that
he didn't find the latch-string on the outside.
and hearty welcome within. The path thith-
er may be narrow, but no sinner ever yet found
it closed against him and marked "No Thor
oughfare" That man however, who attempts
to start his children in the road and tries to fog
then through at 2.40 moral speed, without any
rest for worldly antics, will find them perpetu-
ally making sharp turns from the main road
wood Of ungodliness which borders on both
sides Of it, whereas, If he'd give them play
spell now aud then, with chance to work off
their juvenile steam and cut up their regular
allowance Of devilment, they'd sober down into
o steady gait after a while and locomote straight
along in the right direction.
A child Is normally in a condition ofmonkey-
shlnism, and when it isn't engaged in some kind
Of frelic, il is out of condition, and is either
sick or asleep.
object to pious children, for they only illus
trste the besotted ignorance and authoritative
depravity Of their parents.
/ pity the boy under the age Of dozen years,
who pretends to like Sunday School, for If he's
decent boy he doesn't like it, and despises
himself for q liar every time he is dragooned by
his parents into saying that he does, and if he's
q mean boy, he only likes it for the sake of get
ting the prizes at the end Of the year, for learn
ing the greatest number of verses. The boy,
who, during long sermon, makes pictures OF
elephants and grim school-masters in the prayer
book or extempOrizes out Of the foot stool
turned bottom up, an imaginary ship with four
masts, enc at each corner. and navigates that
original craft with bis feet all about his end OF
the pew; or who pinches his sister, and then pre-
tends II wasn't he, is human boy and decent
boy; and IL, in addition to the aforementioned
prsnks, see him throwing sly spit-balls at the
sleepy deacon In the next slip, Immediately
conceive an immense respect for that boy, and
want to instruct him in the art Of kite-making
and in the art of chestnut-wood whistles. Who
doesn't have a regard for the youngster who
puts Robinson Crusoe inside his prayer book,
and peruses that interesting narrative instead
of reading the responsesf
Who thinks that a child of six years old is ca
pable of breaking the Sabbath? Why, nobody
but stulti6ed neral ass. The sacred day is
not of such fragile material as to be fractured
by the efforts of children, and think it would
Withstand the shock, even II their father should
be morally independent enough to join in their
game of hide-and-seek, or impart little practi-
cal instruction in the appropriate diversion of
lsap-frog. When / am Informed that q certain
man is too pious to let his childron have their
romps on Sunday, look very sharp at that
mans weights and measures, in any weekday
dealings with men.
All "preper" persons, who never do any
thing on Sunday but 60 to meeting and read
good books, are fearfully bored by their starch
cd-up morality, and only get through the day
with tolerabls appearance of propriety, by hav-
ing dinner at the end Of it, Of such super-ex-
trs quality that 1t keeps them all day in state
Of delightful anticipation.
Year A. /. religionist who is too good to take
. walk in the woods on that day, Is sure to sur
felt himself at dnner-time, and go to sleep i'm
mediately after, In a state unctuous grace. And
the child Of that pattern-man has not even the
satisfaction of stufing himself as full as his re-
spscted parent, being generally admonished,
when making timid request for second help
ing of pudding, not to ''make little pig Of
himself" And If that tortured child slips into
the back yard and fires stones through the
neighbors' cucumber frames, and is caught at it
and soundly whipped by his father, who is
awakened from his postprandial nap for that
purpose, and is therefore ten times more severe
than usual, fully believe that that boy is an
injured member OF society; and it gratifes me,
as . lover Of abstract right, to believe that the
Christian parent will get that thrashing all back
again with the compounded kind of interest
when he is brought up to the shop where they
dispense retributive justice.
Boys trained up in this reprehensble manner
are always mean boys and If they don't make
mean men, it is because their Creator endowed
them with innate manliness of sufficient vitality
to live, and thrive in spite Of all the moral kill
ing down Of their earlier years. l am not ac-
quainted personally with the Adversary the
monarch Of the internal realm, but from my
knowledge Of his ascribed attributes, aud gene
raj character for shrewdness and perception of
human nature, have no doubt that he consid-
ers himself eventually sure of those men who
once were Tue ''u0uei DOyb Ol Tue Ouuuuy
Schools. But if he sees q boy who has an ocCa-
sional school-boy fight, and is up to great va
riety OF harum. scarum mischief, he considers his
hold upon that young chap as very insecure,
and soon comes to regard him as personal en-
envy.
Now mind, don't mean to speak disrespect-
fully of religion, or Of holy things, or of auy-
thing pertaining thereto; no man living has
greater reverence for these things than l ; what
| say is, that the whole notion of making
Christians Of children. is humbug,
Of the most unmitigated stamp Decent chill
iren, while they are children, are the only per-
feet Christians Of which mortals can have expe-
rience. NGod hadn't wanted any children in
the world, he wouldn't have made any, and to
attempt to convert his little ones into prema-
ture proper men and precocious pattern women
IL to libe! The Supreme Intelligence.
The boy. who, for the first time in his life,
steals apples commits larceny. if the apples
are very good, and mean man owns them but
the decent boy will divide the spoil with all his