The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1876-03-16
OUR BOYS.

| In spite OF praying parents in spite OF
preaching priests in spite of law against
allowing minors to drink liquors or play at
gambling games, the average kerosha boy
to-day is fifty per cent. worse than was the
average Kenosha boy of ten years ago.
Pass through the streets of the city OF al
most any time of the evening and you will
see lads of all ages from eight to eighteen,
loafing around the corners, in the door-ways,
and along the principal streets smoking,
swearing, telling vulgar stories, repeating
indecent jokes, ogling "Our Girls' as they
pass, and making insulting remarks in the
hearing of passing ladies.
Visit nearly any of the saloons in the
evening, and there you will see lads of about
the same ages, lolling about, smoking and
talking as learnedly as the regular habitues
of older growth, and getting off the slang
phrases of the saloon as glibly as any one.
If there are any appliances for gaming.
you will see these lads taking a hand in
these debasing pastimes, and at the end of
the game taking their rot-gut and paying
their money with as much. sang froid as
would the best practiced or richest renegade
present.
Go through the streets on The Sabbath,
and you will find these same boys, following
these same pernicious practices insulting
the pious, exposing the de'inquencies of their
parents, holding the law in utter defiance
and carrying themselves lower and lower in
the opinion of all good people. Visit these
same saloons on the sabbath for they can
be visited en- the Sabbath, the law to the
contrary notwithstanding-an you will find
the boys there, doing their share of the work
of public ruin.
What is to be the result of this degenerate
moral condition Let any reasonable wo-
ma1 or man look this question square in the
face, aud they will not fail TO see mirrored
in the mind some of the results which must
of necessity follow. Already are some of
the results visible to those who will look for
them: The rapid increase OF drunkenness,
the large number of saloons, the fragrant
obllquity of society, the lack of love of vir-
tue, and the general disregard OF law, is in
great measure the natural outcome of this
looseness among the youths of the city.
Lately there have come so light circumstan-
ces which show that two young men have
for some time past been deliberately plan
ming the ruin of two young girls. Three
times have they laid out the plans for elope-
ment, and three times have their plans been
discovered and frustrated. But these are
not isolated cases; others of more or less
wicked character are transporting in our
midst all the time.
Who are to blame for all this ? Read the
list ; The parents the preachers; the off,
GERS of tie law and society at large. The
parents, because they have not and do not
train up their cons to lives of industry, So
briefly honesty and virtue. The preachers
because they have not and do not preach
and practicesa practical morality. The Off
GERS of the law, because they have not and do
not enforce the wholesome laws and obey
theee same wholesome laws themselves.
Society at large, because it has not and does
not create and maintain public sentiment
that would crush into the mud and mire of
pubic execratlon all whose business or prac-
tees tend toward the moral debasement of
the people.
Does not this subject deserve the serious
consideration Of all who desire the wellbeing
of those who are to follow us in the manage
ment of public affairs? Should not each one
feel that on him or her falls portion of this
load of responsibility !? If this subject is
taken under consideration with an earnest
desire for the elevation of Kenosha society,
The magnitude andimportance of the theme
Will be apparent. nearly parallel subject
Our Girls"-will be taken up at some
future time which will no doubt show still
more plainly some CT the evils for which
here must of necessity be some one to
blame.