The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1873-09-18
The Boy Tanner.

Boysl What world of badness is
suggested by the word "boys." There
are no good boys. Some boys are worse
than other boys, but they are all bad.
There are mule-wrestlers, horse break
ers, lion-tamers, -charmers, plenty
of them. The world is full Of such peo-
pie. But the man or woman who can
train boy, and conquer him with kind
ness, the only way it can be done, is a
| first-class natural curiosity.
Some have even believed that boy
cannot be tanned or trained, but this is
O mistake. There is an old policeman
called "Bijah" in Detroit who is an in
fallible boy trainer. The old man must
have a good heart. A late tough case
that came into his hands shows there is
heap of 'human nature" in him. He
is janitor at the police station, and a
part of his business is to pacify and en-
tertain nervous children that are
brought in lost, or strayed, or stolen,
or otherwise abused by this pretty
rough world on children.
They come to him bowling with ter
ror or pain, and he has regular system
of paGifcation. Candy and peanuts
generally do it, but there are many cases
that these simple remedies will not
reach. Then he tries throwing them up
and catching them if they are very
small, or riding them on foot if they
have arrived at good jolting age;
whistling and singing will mollify
some dispositions, and so on. "Bijah'
had never been known to fail. But the
other day he got hold of a little chap
that taxed all his resources and was
very near proving that some boys would
not manage. This is the way he did it
He was brought in bowling and kick
ing, and he turned from the sight of a
stick of peppermint candy with whoop
and yell. Bijah then tried whistling,
but the young reprobate spit on him,
and whooped the louder. Offers of pop
and soda water was responded to by
taken in by the display of a big jack
knife or a bunch of keys. When all
these little things failed, aud the boy
continued to dance up and down, and
howl and spit, Bijah kindly put the
hose on the pen-stock, and offered him
the pipe. He threw it down, and was
SO mad that he got white around the
| mouth.
Then he was offered the city dlrecto-
ry, an insurance picture of Washington
crossing the Delaware, and a one.
wheeled cart which had been brought
in from the alley, but he lay fat down
on the floor, and his shrieks set every.
body's hair on end. For more than Que
straight hour Bijah racked his brains tc
find means to make that little imp shut
up, and by and by he hit the thing. Pour
ing pailful of water into the gutter he
made a fish-pond, and then he bent q
pin into hook, got stick and piece
of string, and seated the boy on The
curb-stone.
The young rat had begun to hold in
little as he saw the preparations going
forward, and when he took the pole
and sat down he was quiet as lamb.
For two long hours he "bobbed" away
in that pond for trout, heavlng sigh
now and then, but, feeling a bite and
jerking up the pole regularly every ten
seconds, and al, last he fell asleep, Topped
over, and was carried in and placed on
two chairs, to lie there until called for.
AS Bijah remarked when the job was
ended: "He who overcomes boy is
greater than he who Stays ten thousand
men,"