The Bloomfield times. [volume] (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1867-187?, 1872-06-04
S U N D AY READING.
The Boy John.

s. @ Kendall says some very true and
suggestive things about "The Boy john"
in the April number of iScribner's. We
quote as follows:
John is young His tastes are uniformed
His feelings are very far from being re-
fined. In fact he is little gross in his
sympathies, He wants amusement. Every
bone in his body aches for recreation, for
play, fun, laughter. He does not care
he has never been taught to care-what the
fun is, if only it will give relief to the fidget
that stings him. Not at all refined, he will
60 for what he wants where others 90.
And going where others go, he finds the
hunger of his nature coarsely met-just as
the tainted meat will fill the hunger of a
starving man--in the low revelry, vile
stories, unclean mirth of drinking cellars
and saloons. The boy does not dscrimin-
ate very closely, and to the longing of his
crude appetite, the entertainment of these
places is infinitely better than any he ever
could find in that place he has been taught
to speak of as home. For eating and sleep
ing and getting his clothes mended, he feels
that no place can be like Christian home
but for good time, for passing a dull
evening hour, for learning something new,
for words of cheer, for professions of sym
pathy, for those genial ways which any boy
but Uriah Heep must love, John will tell
even minister to his face that home is
nothing to street or corner, or billiard
room with the attachment of beer shop.
Well, by and by, just before the clock
strikes ten, the father wakes from his doze
the specatcles falling and the paper sliding
upon the floor, and looking around with a
bewildered gaze, asks, "Where is John ?'
Where is he? Why, for want of better
instruction, he is out practicing our
modern plan of training himself up in the
way he likes to go, having no thought that
when he is old he will care to depart from
it. But the father who has inquired for
his boy rubs his eyes looks out into the
darkness and listens but he hears him not.
lie wishes that his boy would not 90 out
so much at nights but then he does go
out. He wonders that John cannot sit down
at home like other boys. What other
boys? And then, with a very feeling re-
mark that, "If John does not do better
and become steady, he will make miser-
able shirk of HIMSELF" the father goes to
bed The mother waits till her boy comes.
BY and by he does came in,-his restless
ness blown of, the uneasy fidget of the early
| in tha ali II
of some kind, a boy must have,-and then
at last the house is quiet. Sleep and rest
prepare the household for another day and
evening like this.
And when an other evening comes, out
goes the boy again; and the father again
wonders, and wishes that John would be
steady and stay at home, and very feelingly
predicts that, "If he does not change his
course; he will very likely come to mis-
cradle end"
But, good father, why should your boy
spend his evenings at home? What is
there at home for him? What pleasant
recreation, what happy plan for Willing
away the hour, does he find inviting him
there, or that would invite any boy there I?
What have you done to make homo attract
i've and wnsome to him as Johns home I?
lie would like amusements suited to his
young, restless, brimming nature; how
much real thought and care did you ever
give in schemes, devices, plans, efforts,
with a view Of meeting this passionate
yearning of his mind? How much do you
play with him, talk with him of what you
have done and seen, of what your father
did and saw? What games, what sports,
what efforts at skill with slate and pencil,
with knife, saw and gimlct, have you de-
vised for him, while your look and action
were saying, "My boy, want you to love
your home more than any spot on earth ?"