The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1869-05-28
ABOUT BOYS.

The Kew. Robert COllyer, of Chicago.
III sermon recently, thus said of boys:
Boys. he said, could not be defined
with words. 1t would be easier to han
die a crooked streak of lightning with
out gloves. There is big knot of 300,-
100000 of them in the world, into which
are tied up all the schemes, activities,
loves and fears of the human heart
They are a useful institution, especially
in this utilitarian age. Buds are as use
full as roses. They compose One-fourth
of the muscle of the world, and are
therefore good for something besides
mischief, although this is their forte.
But work is done by boys. They weave
the silks our ladies wear, and gather the
teas they drink, climb rigging on the
sea and set types on the land. The girl
is the chemical, the boy the mechanical,
force. Girls are as destructive as bows,
but little slower and neater at the bus
mess. The boy progresses by antago-
nism. He gets things wrong end fore
most, considers the cats TAIL her natural
handle, plays hob with his grandfather's
wig, and dubs his parents the '.old gent"
and ''old lady," The destructiveness
of the boy is natural, for nature is de-
structive. Cosmos comes from chaos.
Some boys are precOcious. Chatter
ton astonished the world at Is; Mozart
II and an English boy was executed
for murder at 10. These may not be av-
erage boys. But average boys move
the world ahead. And they do it ire
spective of birth or parentage. James
Cooks parents were servants, but he
sailed around the world nevertheless.
Sir James Lawrence had been a pastry
cook, and Benjamin West made his first
paint brush out of the cats tail. The
boyis belligerent, but his belIigerency is
invincibly potential. He loses the pow
er only with the loss of reason. His ma
ture should not be repressed. His indi-
yiduality should not be destroyed.
The coufections of effeminacy are ruin
Gus.
How shall bundle of Inconsistencies
be educated! 1t is the great question.
He should not be drowned in philologi-
cal mysteries, nor put so far out to sea
that he can't swim back. Give him facts.
The boy is a fact himself. He can COM
prehend facts. If he can whistle Van
ke&l)oodle, he knows more than HON.
er. Much education is false. and fash
ionalSe schools are famous for fine feast
ing; more like dancing schools and po-
tite parlOrs than intellectual stills and
calisthcIic courts. They should not be
saugage machines for stuffing. Boys
need to kick themselves free from for
malities, and be taught to think. He
wants no ice-cream or sugar plum cdu-
cation, but self-reliance and srlf-asser-
ton which he will impart to the girls.
from whom he learns contemplation.
j He is now too often pampered and Ca
ressed into the grave. The road to man
hood is shorter TO the gutter gamin than
the pampered pet. The poor boy has
pluck A runaway apprentice is Pres
! ident of the Northwestern Railroad.
! Sometimes there is too much chastise-
ment. A clerical biped in New York
whipped his son to make him religious
until the soul left the body, as much as
to say: 81 am going to find a father"
Boys are heroic. Knud Iverson died
rather than lie. How many would do
/ that. If all the liars were dead, the ap-
preaching census would be an easy job.
and Congress adjourned sine die. God
makes the boy, man the bad boy. Work
/ for the millennium must begin near the
| cradle.