The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1869-09-11
Boys.

Psychologists, we believe, have discover
ed, or at any rate have demonstrated, that
there are facts to justify the poet in holding
the gray barbarian lower than the Chris
tian child The Caucasion BRAIN they say,
even i'll its earliest stage of Development,
is shown by its convolutions to be as highly
organized Il structure as the brain Of the
adult negro, and by the time the period of
childhood is reached it is on a level with
that of the Mongol. 1t may be that this
line of investigation, when pushed little
further, will throw some light upon qucs-
ton which has from time immortal puzzled
parents and guardians, perplexed legisla-
tors and magistrates, and generally troubled
society. Why should that section Of mans
life commonly known as boyhood be distin-
guished by that bitter hostility to civiliza-
ton and order which is only too frequently
shown to be its leading characteristic
| Why should it be impossible to take up 4
newspaper without finding that two boys,
aged nine and ten respectively, have been
endeavoring to upset an eNcursion-train
| by placing obstacles of some sort on the
rails, or tlinging stones at it from bridge,
| like Masters Hall and IIustin week or two
ago, or attempting to set fire to dwelling
house, or blowing up letter-box or burn
ing down bobbin-mill, like those amable
youths at Barnsley the other day, or beat
ing a little girl to death for wearing green
ribbons, like those others at Manchester, or
engaged i'll some other enterprise which had
for its object the destruction of life or prop
erty, or both? Why should it be that, when
agitators in London or Paris want to get
up a little disturbance and intimidate or
annoy society, they can always get any
number of boys to overset kiosks, or pull
down ratings, or smash lamps and windows,
and perform other services the mere per-
formancc of which is obviously a sufficient
reward for the labor? If there be anything
| i'll the theory we have mentioned, it offers
an explanation of this mystery. If the
| civilized man in arriving at maturity does
really pass through stages corresponding
,nent to be found in the human family, and
| if i'll babyhood he is to be considered the
analogue of the negro, then, assuredly, in
boyhood he is the representative of the Red
Indian. This fact-of which, by the way,
that acute philosopher Sam Weller seems
to have had an inkling when he charged Il
boy with behaving with as much polite
ness as a Wild Indian cannot of course
boy aud Choctaw have been placed side
by side and dissected by some competent
anatomist but in the meantime we have
abundance of collateral evidence tending
boy and the red man are the only two to
whom cruelty per sc is Il pleasure.
With some others the intliction of pain
may be to some extent an element in the
pleasure derived from sport, but with the
boy and the red man it is 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 His
tory 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 i'll a
deceptive sentimentalism. 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 saw
age, the gentleman of nature, &c, when
they really mean greasy, whooping,
screeching, tomahawking savage. In the
second place, the boy and the red man
are the only two varieties of the human
animal that evince an implacable enmity
to civilization, and upon whose natures it
fails to exercise any influence for good.
The difference in this respect is merely one
of opportunity and circumstance. 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, inst at present tear up a
piece of Pacific Railway, and scalp few
station-masters and. stokers. The boy on
the other hand, has much wider range of
of them in the same complete and satisfac-
tory 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
effected by disturbing influences. 1t would
be idle to expect sound deductions as to
the nature of the OK from an examination
of Il stabilized shortlorn, or of the dog from
an inquiry into the habits of puppet-show
.Toby.' SO for purposes of boy-study We
must not select a specimen cowcd, subdued,
stitlened, and made unnaturally gentleman
like under the system of 4 DR.. Blimber,
but rather go to some breed less widely
removed from the natural animal, such as,
for instance that which the penny liner,
with his usual tlowery infelicity, insists
upon calling the street Arab, the most
monstrous, perhaps, even of his misnomers,
for if there is being i'll every respect the
opposite of the grave, decorous, reverentia
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 4 stray Salt Lake emigrant
in those of Il war party of Arapahoes.-
The policeman, to be sure, is an extreme
case, for, besides the natural hatred due t,
him as an adult and a member of society
he is odious to the street-boy from the