The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1877-05-23
THE SCROoL-sHIP MUTINY.

So now it appears that after all there Is TO
be no public scandal over the mutiny on
board the scholarship st. Mary, 1t was not
any cruelty on the part of the officers which
drove the boys to desperation. 1t comes out
now that no nobler cause is to be assigned
for it than the ordinary one.
The Nev York Tribune announces the ex'
PLANTATION, and adds few comments which
are worth reading in times like ours:
"The mutiny on the Scholarship the other
day, it appears, originated in the infamed
ambition of some of the lads who had been
reading the adventures of certain cheap
hero Of the Bowery variety. Fathers and
mothers, in the days when Sanford and Mer.
ton and Peter Farley furnished the boys
library, knew that their sons were beng
made into prigs, perhaps, out at least decent
prigs and gentlemen. Now they watch Tom
and Joe lay down their spelling books ano
regale themselves at will with the heroic
deeds of ten-y ear-old Jack Shepherds or Capt.
Kidds, and rub their hands delighted at tine
boys taste for reading. Three newly
breeched lads, as We learn, set off last week
from NOrristown to the Far West, each with
dollar and revolver in his pocket. Be
fore the end of the frat day, luckily, one
had shot another in the neck with the reVolV
err, and they were sent back home before
they had fairly entered on the short cut
Their intention when they started was to live
BY shooting chickens in farm-yards, and to
sleep under hay-stackS. The Mayor of Phil
sdelphia, it is said, asserts that ne could rio
the isils of two-thirds of the juvenile oriml
malls in the next year if ne could Danish GER
tain plays from the boards of the variety
theatres and put certain books ont of print.
We only suggest these facts to mothers and
fathers. It is their part to clear the jails in
future; no Mayor can help them"
And that is just all there is to it then
the community excited, politicians trying to
make handle of it, mothers crying out,
"Poor innocent little sailor-boys, whom no
body cares for" And now it turns out thai
few chaps, full of high heroics which they
got out of trashy newspaper somebody
brought aboard for them, fancied they could
almost be pirates in New York harbor on
ship that could not move, and began then
awful career with swagger and swear
rightful authority, and ended it with gene
raj rebellion.
Now all we ask is that those who have ruI
into such Mysteries of pity for abused boys
will keep their own boys from buying TIT
same sort of newspapers, crowded with every
thing to infame passion and give distorted
views. Said mother only the other day tc
ourselves; "My son is trying nae grea
deal since his father died; he is wilful ant
perverse; do you know he actually said some
thing yesterday about running array, when
made him get ready for school! The only
redeeming thing about it ig, he has decided
taste for reading, and feel safe when l se'
him seated in his little room with mis- papers
around him.
And, out of simple curiosity and friendly
regard, we took pains to ascertain that hi
"papers" we're those very sheets of destrue
ton that Raunt their pictures and stories OF
the corners and in their windows! Becaus
the boy was quiet when he was solidarity de
basing his whole soul, this easy, going mOthe
felt he was out of peril. And she opened he
ewes with vast amazement, wondering wher
he ever got the notion of boys running
away. He got it precisely where the lads
the schoolship got the notion of its being al
heroic thing to murder captain and seiz
the ship Christian Weekly.