The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1875-02-25

School Is called, and battle DER!
ToM.-The New York Tribune has the
following appreciative article on boys:
Tom slung his satchel over his shoulder
and set off to school after his ten days
holiday, just as unwillingly as when two
hundred years ago the melancholy Jaques
made him immortal. His morning face
does not shine nowadays, however;
there are black dabs of burnt cork upon
it, after the minstrel performances which
he and the other fellows had last night.
They tone with fine fitness, with limp
shirt-collar and unlaced muddy shoes.
The American school-boy does not whine
either; he shows his memorable prejudice
against learning and authority by bang
ing his slate against the hall walls, dash
ing his Caesar at the pet poodle he beats
tantara at his brother Percy's door
asleep-after last nights opera and sup
per at Delmonico's, tumbles over Tot on
the stairs, gives her a bearish hug, and
goes out, slamming the door, and down
the street, not creeping by any means,
but shouting out, "The fox jumped over
the parson' gate," or other "chaste aria"
stopping to talk to the policeman, with
whom he is on friendly terms, to follow
fire engine down the next street, or to
swarm with a hundred of his congeners
about dog fight or procession. The
house falls into blissful lapse of silence
as soon as he is out of it; the late sleep
ers turn in their beds with a sigh of re-
lie; the servants 60 about repairing
damages with many unspoken Oaths (;
Tom is no favorite with them; they see
no use for him but to "eat like glutton
and to order about his betters."
The trouble is that nobody can find
the use for Tom; he is crude, noisy,
malapropos in the house, or the woods,
or the street; the one limb of the social
body, awkward and ill-set the uncouth
molecule for which even Tyndall could
find no work in nature. Out Of doors
Tom is as sure harbinger of row or a
fight as a cough is of consumption; in
doors he stamps out carpets, breaks china,
and leaves the print of his paws on the
walls. The land before him may be an
Eden of bric-a-brac, but behind him will
be bowling wilderness. In literature
nobody found place for him but great
hearted, gentle Thackeray, who loved
and made much of the lad. His sister,
a sweet, Christian girl, who teaches the
little wretches in mission school with
enthusiasm, endures Tom with patient
resignation. They are picturesque
through dirt and misery; but what can
you make of a creature who mimics
your singing of All non giungc-and cley-
erly, too-or thumps you on the back
with, "Give us the Mulligan Guards,
Nancy" Percy, brilliant young
lawyer, marked in society for his fine
aesthetic taste, does not endure Tom he
holds him an unmanherly cub, with
neither heart nor brains His father,
out of regard for his corns, holds him al
arms length, and mentions him only to
grumble at his shoe and tailor bills
Percy had been head of his class in
schoOl-a career and distinction waited
for him; but what can be done with this
dull, lazy fellow?
Even his mother, since he put or
trowsers for knickerbockers, has uncon
sciously drawn away from the boy; she
is a loving, gentle neither, too; when he
was a baby lying on her breast, he was 6
part of herself a good deal dearer thar
herself. But this Mailman, halfchild
with all his strange developments o
cruelty and roughness, thoughts ant
ways which are alien to her own, appal
and perplexes her. If she is coars,
woman, she snags and scolds him inces
sanity; if she be of gentle breeding, sh'
quietly leaves him to himself. At schoo
Tom herds with the undistinguisheC
rabble. There are certain pale, broad
brOwed youths who carry off the prize
at every exhibition day, and certain
other broad-shouldered, ruddy fellows
who are masters on the ball ground, bu
there are one or two hundred Toms re
markable in neither brain nor body they
are neither head nor foot of the roll tn,
masters hear their hating lessons drow
silly; they are worn out with surfeit o
commonplace boy.
Meanwhile nobody remembers tina
Tom is to himself-the only hero HI
, knows in the world-the one being who's
{ pleasure and hurts and chances for to
morrow he considers night after nigh
and day after day. You think that hi
mind is full of the chunk of cake he i
munching, or the licking he means Il
give to Joe Peters. But the boy knows
quite we'll where he stands in life; HI
sees all the impatient looks, feels the &C
III every angry Woru. lio Sceo Will
keen insight how he is somehow OUTSIDE
the world of other people; grown mel
and women have their places and work
outlined and clear; his future and capa
| bility are all vague, mere nothing
which nobody concerns himself mucf
about. There is a certain immorta
charm about the baby Tot. She brought
the glory with her when "she came from
God, who is her home" Tom himsel
has a reverence and passionate love fol
the little thing; it brings the tears tt
his eyes when she hugs or kisses him, OF
when he sees her watching at the window
for him.
But the charm and glamour were worr
off of him long ago; even his mother
! does not see it now. He does not know
what can be the matter with him; he
! does not know why, when he would bt
graceful and manly like Percy, he il
only priggish and ridiculous; he does
not understand why the problems which
come by nature to otherfellows make
his heavy brain ache. The dullest
toughest Tom does not want to be dull
or rough. He is in the cropping, transi
ton state when he can not appear the
child he was or the man he will be. Inc