The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1874-12-25
Bad Boys.
From the New Orleans Times

Bad boys are usually the predecessors
! if not the fathers of bad men. They
readily develop from juvenile mischief
makers into adult rOughs and rOwdies,
and, not unfreQuently, end their days in
the penitentiary or beneath the gallows.
| Such cases prove sad realities in the
| history Of humanity-sad to the individ-
uals themselves, who are cut off from
| perhaps glorious possibilities; sad to the
relatives and friends, who are disap-
pointed in their dearest hopes, and sad
to society at large, to which they prove
| burdens instead of helpers.
In some cities of this Union bad, bar
| barlan boys are SO numerous as to be q
| constant threat to the entire community.
| Gregarious in their depravity, they at
| first require the encouragement and sup
| port which comes from numbers to ena-
bic them to carry out their schemes of
Wlckedness. Soon, however, q conscious
| ness OF individual capacity and import
ance Is acquired, and, in the secrecy ne
cessary to malice aforethought, they de-
wise dark plots and carry them out with
but one or two accOmplices.
The City of San Francisco seems Just
now the champion stamping ground for
juvenile depravity. Why this should be
! the case, is not very clear, unless the boys
of that city have exceptional opportun-
ltles for ldleness. Long since, the saying
that AN idle brain is the DEVILS work.
shop" passed into proverb; and, on the
other hand, there is no sort of doubt
that labor is the best of civilizers. Had
the Indians of this country, instead of
being demOralized by gifts annually
doled out, which made idleness to them
q perpetual possibility, been required,
as white men and negroes are, to earn
their bread by the sweat of their brOws,
the once stately children of the forest
would not now be the degraded and
brutal creatures that they are. We in
cline to the opinion that there is great
deal of idleness among the Frisco boys,
and that thus, as the sparks fly upward,
they are prone to evil. The ways of
wickedness are by no means hard to learn,
especially by the idle gamin.
To prevent the idleness, so fruitful of
mischief, should be the duty of every
household and of all forms of organized
society. The young Of both sexes, if
family intiuenCetO to amuch greater extent
than is now customary, would be i'm
mensely benefited by such predatory
training as they could there acquire. We
would not exclude them from all know
ledge of the outer world, and thus leave
them innocent victims to the first temp
tatiOn which offered, but train them as
we'll by precept as example, into the way
hatthey should go. With the two fruits
which grow upon the tree of knowledge
they should beso ofamiliarized, as not only
to kOnw the difference between the good
and the evil, but be panoplied with such
moral strength as would enable them to
accept the former and reject the latter.
Our boys, as matters stand, are allowed
too many liberties. They assert their in
dependence at too early a period. The
prerOgatiVes and the weapons of man
down begins to sprout upon their lips,
and they defend their honor to the
death before they have any proper con-
ceptiOn Of what honor is.
In speaking Of the imperative necessity
Of home training the San Francisco Call
observes that unless boys and girls are
placed under proper restraint by their
parents, and receive those moral lessons
which can be taught alone in the family,
they will naturally grow up idle and
vicious. Their time should be so 0c-
cupied that they would have but little
of it to spare on tie street; and above
all things they should be kept indoors at
nights" It is duty which parents owe
to their children to provide them with
such resources as will best serve them
under the possible frOwns of fortune.
Girls as well as boys should be brought
under home restraints and taught home
lessons. AS Northern paper we'll re
marks: "The best school for cookery
and for everything else that is good is
home. The most valuable practical les
sons OF life must be learned there, and
the teaching of them never can be so
safely delegated to others as to the par
ents. Whether it be the domestic vir-
tues or the domestic comforts, the best
training for them is under the parental,
roof. When parents teach their children
to be selfdenying, they have helped
them far on the road to moral excellence
and happiness, and when, no matter
what their social position, they seek to
make them useful and practical, and be
able to take care of themselves in what
ever state they may be called upon to
fill, they have bequeathed fortune to
them which can never be taken away
by the ordinary vicissitudes of human
life.n
We trust that in our next departure
family influences will be more highly
esteemed and more studiously cultiva-
ted than they are at present. The aver
age boy and girl should be better pre-
pared for the duties of the man and
woman.