Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1878-03-02
What Onr Bows are Reading.

Prof, Summer, of Yale, has been ex-
aiming the fish story so widely read by
boy4, and in Scribner for March gives
some earnest words OF warning to parents
accompanied by specimens of types de-
scribed in the stories. Here is one
Another type of hero very common in
these stories is the city youth, son of 4
rich father, who does not give his son as
much pocket money as the latter con-
| siders suitable. This constitutes stiugi-
ness on the fathers part, although it
might be considered ~pardonable, seeing
that these young men drink champagne
every day, treat the crowd generally
when they drink, aud play billiards
for 500 a game. The father, in this
class OF stories, is represented as secretly
vicious and hyprocritically pious. In
the specimen oil this class before us the
young man il discovered in the police
court as a prisoner, whence he is re.
manded to the Tombs. He has been
arrested for collaring a big policeman to
prevent him from overtaking a girl
charged with pocket-picking. He inter
erred because he Judged from the girls
face that she was innocent, and it is
suggested, for future development in the
story, that she was running Az ay from
insult, and that the cry of "stop
thief" was to get help from the police
ard Others to seize her. The hero
who Is the son of a mau worth five
millions, and who is in prison under an
assumed name, now sends for his fathers
clerk and demands 81 900, saying that
otherwise he will declare his real name
and disgrace his family. He gets the
money. He then sends for a notorious
! Tombs lawyer, to whom he gives $500.
: With this sum his release il easily pro.
: cured. He then starts with his cousin
to initiate the latter into life in New
! York. They 90 to the thieves college,
y where they see Il young fellow graduate.
! His part consists in taking things from
! the pockets of a hanging figure, to the
4 garments Of which bells are attached,
I without causing the bells to ring, OF
. this a iull.page illustration is given.
4 The two young men COUP the BOwery
= to a beer saloon, where the hero ~sustains
! his character by his vulgar familiarity
, with the girl waters, Next, they hear
a row in 4 side street. They find
a crowd collected watching a
: woman who hangs from Il third.
: story window, while her drunken
: husband beats and cuts her hands to
make her fall, The hero solves this sit.
!, uation by drawing his revolver and
shooting the man. As he and his com.
y, panion withdraw unObserved, the former
wards of the compliments OF the latter
I by saying modestly that he could moi
bear to stand there and see such a crowd
looking on, and not knowing what to do
so he Just did tho proper thing. Mex
day the hero, meeting the thieves
college graduate in the corridor of the
. Filth Avenue hotel, agrees to receive
10 and hold for him any booty he may
i seize in the bar. room, which he does
At night he and his friend go to q dis
reputable masked ball, where the her,
n recognizes his father in disguise anongs
- the dancers. Securing a place in tn,
same set, during a pause in the dance, hi
" snatches the mask from his own face anC
/ his fathers at the same moment. Thi
,difying incident is enforced by a full
page illustration. A friend suggests tn
: question, "What demon of trnthfulnes
makes tho artist put such brutal an,
/ vulgar faces on the men? ?" In this elias
= OF stories, fathers and ons are repre-
. sented as natural enemies, and the tru
position for the son is that of suspicion
y and armed peace.