The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-08-27

man are the only two to whom cruelty per Sc |
is pleasure. With some others the inhic- |
tion of pain may be to some extent an element
in the pleasure derived from a sport, but with
the boy and the red man it is q sport in itself
All experienced travellers are agreed as
regards the one, and as to the other, to quote
the words of Mr.. Lecky in his "History of
Morals, few persons who have watched the
habits of boys would question that to take
pleasure in giving at least some degree of
pain is sufficiently common Nevertheless,
in the one case as in the other, society
has always INDUCED in deceptive senti-
mentalism. We hear people talk of the
fine, free generous nature of boys, just
as we hear them talk of the
noble red man of the forest, the noble sa-
wage, the gentleman of nature, etc, when
they really mean greasy, whooping, screech-
ing, tomahawkng savage. In the second
place, the boy and the red man are the only
two varieties of the human animal that evince
an impacable enmity to civilization, and upon
whose natures it fails to exercise any infu-
ence for good. The difference in this respect
is .merely one of opportunity and circum-
stance The Indian has comparatively few
chances of declaring his sentiments The
utmost he can do Is to massacre a family of
settlers now and then, or, Just at present,
tear up piece of Pacific Railway, and scalp
O few Station-masters and stoliers The bow
on the other hand, has a much wider range of
opportunities, but he is unable to make use of
them in the same complete and satisfactory
manner. Society is rather too strong for
him, and the expression of his feelings, though
varied in kind, is limited in degree.
In studying any animal we must of course
take that variety which on the whole appears
to be most typical and least affected by dis
turbing influences. 1t would be idle to
expect sound deductions as to the
| nature of the OK from an examination of a
stalled short-horn, or of the dog from an
| inquiry into the habits of a puppet-show
| ''Toby.' So for purposes Of boy-study we
| must not select specimen cowed, subdued,
| stitfened, and made unnaturally gentleman
| like under the system of DR.. Blimber, but
rather go to some breed less widely removed
from the natural animal, such as, for instance,
| that which a penny-a-liner, with his usual
fowery infelicity, insists upon calling the
| ''street Arab the most monstrous, perhaps.
| even of his misnomers. for if there is a
| being in every respect the opposite of
! the grave, decorous. reverental Arab, it is the
! boy of the streets. No one who has observed
him with any degree of attention can doubt
| that warfare against society is what he lives
for, or that if he had only the power, any
member of society, say policeman, would
! fare Just as badly in his hands as stray Salt
Lake emigrant in those of war party of
Amapahoes. The policeman, to be sure, is an
| extreme case; for, besides the natural hatred
due to him as an adult and q membnT a.
society, he is odious to the street-bov
from the nature of his duties. He is hated
not only as a man, but as q policeman for it
! is always his unfortunate fuction to stand be-
tween the boy and his dearest pleasures
Whenever there is fire, or fight, or an
UPSET, or a turnover, or any other opportunity
.1,ts e 81,
the sons of men, just as the boy is at the
very height of his enjoyment the policeman
is sure to appear, drive him back, and
interpose a form aggravatingy bulky
and OPAQUE between him and the
sight which was nffording him un-
mixed qualification. This conduct is espe-
cially irritating at fire, for it may be OBJ
served that boys always take peculiar inte-
rest in a fire. They have somehow got into
a way of regarding it as something specially
got up for their entertainment, and, indeed
of all ordinary disasters there is none so well
calculated to afford them thorough satisfac-
ton. There is, at the very least, the destruc-
tion of property to be witnessed which is
always delightful. If it should luckily hap
pen to be in a dwelling house, there is the
additional pleasure derived from the terror
and confusion of the inmates, and the chance
of the sublime treat of seeing them carried
blankets, not to speak of the possibility of
some one being entirely roasted. From
this paradise OF delights at the po-
hceman's bidding the boy has
to ''stand back and sometimes
so far that he can only heal
the distant sob of the aboring engine; and al
the supreme moment, when the roof falls in
he is left to his own Imagination to estimate
the amount of damage done, and the proba
bilities of life lost. Consequently there are
few spectaces so soothing to the boy-mind al
that of policeman in difficulty, and for thi
reason boys may be always observed to muste
strong in the neighborhood of polce-station
for the sake of seeing the force involved il
taking charge of troublesome cases Of intoxi
cation. An elderly lady on her way to thu
station, while suffering under that form o
inebriety which makes the patient lie dowr
and kick every dozen yards, and betweel
halts bite and scratch the officer, is a sigh
particularly refreshing to Z the boy
presenting, as it does, two being
| with whom he is at feud unde
humiliating and uncomfortable circumstances
, For if the boy hates the policeman he hate
l lovely woman too; and it must be confesse
that in this case also he has some reason fo
! the antipathy, because unquestionably Lowell
r woman hates him. The affection of mothe
, and son apart-which is purely a matter o
instinct, a merely animal attachment-n
, woman ever yet was fond Of boys There i
{ a natural antagonism between them. Wome
are conservative by temperament; boys an
naturally revolutionary. Women are lover
of order: disorder in all its forms is what boy
: love. All the feelings that are strongest il
! women, reverence, pity, tenderness
: sympathy with suffering, are in boy
Conspicuous by their absence.
! ig 1ns