The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1877-07-12
A Plea for City Boys.

hAuoo nav w SaoS uio tso AAo
hands are idle the proverbial provider of
occupation for idle hands is always ready
with instructions for him. A boy makes
noise in utter defiance of the laws of
acoustics. Shoe him in velvet and carpet
your house as you will, your 10y shall
make such hubbub with his heels as no
watchman's rattle ever gave forth. Doors
in his hands always shut with violence
which jars the whole house, and he Is
certain to acquire each day the art of
screaming or whistling il some wholly
new and circulating way Loving his
mother so violently that his caresses de.
range her attire and seriously endanger
her bones, ready to die in her defense if
need be, he nevertheless torments her
from morning to night, and allows her no
possible peace until slumber closes his
throat AMI eyelids, and peprives his hands
and feet of their demoniac cunning.
In public your boy is equally nuisance.
Collectively or Individually he Offepds the
public in the streets. Whatever he does
is sure to I've wrong He monopolizes space
and takes to himself all the air there is
for acoustical purposes. Your personal
peculiarities interest him, and with alt
the frankness OF his soul he comments
upon your appearance, addressing his re-
marks to his fellow on the next block.
Nevertheless, the boy has his uses. He
is the material out of which men are to
be made for the next generation. He is
not bad fcllow-that is to say, he is not
intentionally or consciously bad. There
are springs in his limbs which keep him
in perpetual motion, and the devil of up
roar of which he is possessed uttcrs the
ear piercing sounds which annoy his
elders, but the utterance of which he can
no more restrain than he can keep his
boots or trousers from wearing out. In a
ten-acre lot, vel! away from the house, the
boy is picturesque and agreeable person !;
it is only when one must come into closer
cor tact with him that his presence causes
suffering and suggests statue to King
HerOd. 1t is in cities that the boy makes
himself felt most disagreeably, and We
fancy that the fault is not altogether his.
AS the steam which bursts boilers would
be a perfectly harmless vapOr but for the
sharp restraint that is put upon it, SO the
etfervescent boy becomes dangerous only
when he is confined, when an effort is
made to compress him into smaller space
than the law of his expansive being abso-
lutely requires. We send him upon the
war path by encroaching upon his hunt
ing grounds; we drive him into hostility
by treating him as a public enemy. In
most of our dealings with him. in cities,
our effort is to suppress him, anu it is an
unwise system. If his ball. playing in the
streets becomes an annoyance, we simply
forbid ball.playing in the streets, and it is
an inevitable consequence that, deprived
of his ball, he will throw stones at street.
lamps or at policemen. What else is he
to do?
In Brooklyn, for example, whose streets
are long and wide, there was thought to
be room enough for boys, and the inspirit-
ing rumble of the velocipede was heard
there until somebody objected, when
straightway the policemen were directed
to arrest all machines of that character,
whether with two, three or four wheels,
found upon sidewalks. Now this order,
we hold, was not only cruel, but it was
unwise as we'll. Without doubt the We
locipedes were Il source of serious annoy
ance in crowded thoroughfares, but they
are not so in streets in which pedestrians
arc few, as they are in fully oRc-half
Of Brooklyn thoroughfares. Velocipede-
riding might have been forbidden in the
main thorOughfares, and permitted in less-
frequented ones, and the boy would have
been content; to forbid it where it offends
nobody-merely for the sake of prevent
ing it where it does Offend-is illogical
and unjust. and, worse still, it is unwise.
The boy cannot be banished or confined,
and, lacking his velocipede, he will re-
sort to something more annoying still.
What it will be we do not pretend to guess,
but for its capacity to annoy we may safe
Nv trust to the bows ingenuity.
Speak ng in all seriousness, it is not
well to suppress the sports Of boys from
which they derive strength and health
and manly vigor of body. We may and
must regulate these things; but mere sup
preston is crude and tyrannical method
of dealing with them, In Boston, a city
of notions. whose notions are sometimes
surprisingly wise and good, care is taken
to give the boys room. A sport which
becomes annoying is not suppressed, but
is given ample room in places where it
will annoy least; and when, for example,
certain streets are publicly set apart for
coasting, as they are in Boston every
winter, the police have no difficulty in
preventing cOasting elsewhere. The boy
who may ride his sled or his velocipede to
his hearts content in one street will not
care to intrude upon another. We need
to adopt like system in our larger cities.
The boys must have room in which to ex-
ercise and grow. If we do not give it to
them in one place they will take it in an.
other, TO our sore inconvenience.-N.Y r.
Eoening Post.
The miserable little three-cent pieces
coined in 1853, and whose disappearance
from circulation did more than anything
else to reconcile the people to postal cur
rency, are returning again, not to ''plague"