The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1875-02-27
Tom.
The New York Tribune has the fol.

lowing 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
200 years ago, the melancholy Jaque
made him immortal. His morning face
does not shine nowadays, however
there are black dabs of burnt cork upor
it, after the minstrel performances
which he and the other fellows had last
night. They tone with a fine fitness
with limp irt-collar and unlaced
muddy shoes. The American school
boy does not whine either he shows
his memorable prejudice against learn.
ing and authority by banging his slate
against the hall wallis, dashing his Casa.
at the pet poodle; he beats tantara
at his brother Percy's door (asleep) afte,
last nights opera annd supper at Del.
monico's, tumbles over Tot on the
stairs, gives her bearish hug, ard goes
out, slamming the door, and down the
street, not creeping by any means, but
shouting out, "The fox jumped over
the parsons gate" or other "chas.e
aria" stopping to talk to the police.
man, with whom he is on friendly
terms, to follow fre-engine down the
next street, or to swarm with hundred
of his congeners about dog fight CT a
process sion. The house falls into a
blissful lapse of silense as soon as he is
out of it; the late sleepers turn in
their beds with sigh of relief; the
servants go ABOUT repairing damages
with many unspoken oaths Tom is no
favorite with them they see no use for
him but to seat like glutton and to
order about his betters."
The trouble is that nobody can find
use for Tom he is crude, noisy, NAL
apropos 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 a row or
a fight as a cough is of consumption :;
in doors he stamps out carpets, breaks
china, 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
nobody found a place for
him but great-hearted gentle Thack-
cray, who loved and made much of the
lad. His sister, a sweet, Christian girl,
fho
school with enthusiasm. They
are picturesque through dirt and mis-
cry but what can you make of crea-
ture who mimics your singing of Ah
non giunge (and back with "Give us
the Mulligan Guards, Nancy!" Percy,
q brilliant young lawyer, marked in
society for his fine aesthetic taste, does
not endure Tom he holds him an I'M
cub, with neither heart nor
brains. His father, out of regard for
his cerns, holds him at arms length, and
mentions him only to grumble at his
shoe and tailor bills. Percy had been
head of his class in schools career and
waited for him; but what
can be done with this dull, lazy fellow
Even his mother, since he put on trows-
ers for knickerbockers. has uncon-
sciously drawn away from the boy she
is loving, gentle mother too; when
he was baby lying on her breast he
was part of herself, a good deal
1earer than herself. But this half
nan, half-child, with all his strange de-
of cruelty and roughness,
houg hts and ways which are alien to
Ter own, appalls and perplexes her.
# she is a coarse woman she nags and
colds him necessarily 1; if she be of
,entle breeding she quietly leaves him
o himself. At school Tom herds with
he undistinguished rabble. There are
'ertain pale, broad proved youths
Who carry off the prizes at every exhi
,ition day, and certain other broad
rudy fellows who are
masters on the background, but there
re 100 or 200 Toms remarkable in
either brain nor body they, are neither
lead nor foot of the roll the masters
ear their hating lessons drowsily /;
hey are worn out with a surfeit of
10y.
Meanwhile, nobody remembers that
'om is Tom to himself-the only hero
70 knows in the world-the one being
hose pleasure and hurts and chances
Or to morrow he considers night after
light and day after day. You think
hat his mind is full of the chunk of
axe he is munching, or the licking he
leans to give Joe Peters. But the boy
nows quite we'll where he stands in
fe; he sees all the impatient looks,
cells the act in every angry word. He
ees with keen sight how he is some
ow outside of the world of other peo-
lie grown men and women have their
lace and work outlined and clear his
1ture and capability are all vague-a
lere nothing which nobody concerns
imself much about. There is certain
charm about the baby Tot.
he brought the glory with her when
ne " came from God, who is her home"
ON himself has a reverence and a pas
onate love for the little thing; it
rings tears to his eyes when she hugs
r kisses him, or when he sees her
at the window for him. But
lie charm and glamour were worn off
inn long ago /; even his IL other does not
,e it now. He does not know what can
e the matter with him he does not
now why, when he would be graceful
i'd manly like Percy, he is only prig
ish and ridiculous /; he does not under
and why the problems which come by
ature to the other fellows mako his
eavy brain ache. The dullest, rough
vt Tom does not want to be dull o.
ugh. He is in the cropping, transition
ate when he cannot appear the child
8 was or the man he will be; he per-
etually essays to be something, to
and firmly somewhere in the world