Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1878-03-22

TEXT BOOK OF yILENEss, RAsCAL1TY AND MUIR
DER.
Professor Sumner of Yale has been exam
lining the fash story papers SO widely read
by boys, and in Scribner gives some earnest
words of warning to parents, accompanied
by specimens OF types described in the
stories. Here is one
Another type OF hero very common in
these stories is the city youth, son of q rich
father, who does net give his son as much
money as the latter considers suitable. This
constitutes stinginess on the fathers part,
although it might be considered pardopas.a
seeing that these young men drunk chs,.,...
payne every dav, treat the crowd generally
when they drink, and play billiards for 500
a game The father, in this class OF suv,,os,
is represented as secretly vicious anu uypo-
critically piops. In the specimen before us
the young man is discovered" in the police
court as prisoner, whence he is remanded
to the Tombs. He has been arrested for col
laring big policeman, to prevent him from
overtaking q girl charged with pocket-pick-
ing He inteifered because he Judged from
the girls face that she was innocent, and j. is
suggested for future development :. -
story that she was running away from ;;:==...--,
and that the cry of ''stop thief" was to get
The hero who is the son of man worth five
millions, and who is in prison under an as
sumed name, now sends for his fathers clerk
and demands 81, COO, saying that otherwise
he will declare his real name and disgrace
his family. He gets the money. He then
sends for notorious tombs lawyer to whom
he gives $500. With this sum his release is
easily procured. He then starts with his
cousin to initiate the latter into life in New
York. They 60 TO thieves college, where
they see a young fellow graduated. His part
consists in taking things from the pockets of
a hanging figure, to the garments of which
bells are attached, without causing the bells
to ring. Of this a full page-illustration is
given. The two young men then go up the
Bowery to beer saloon, where the hero sus-
tains his character by his vulgar familiarity
with the girl walters. Next they hear row
in side street They find crowd collected
watching a woman who hangs from a third
story window while her drunken husband
beats and cuts her hands to make her fall.
The hero solves this situation by drawing his
revolver and shooting the man. As he and
his companion withdraw unobserved. the
former wards off the compliments of the lat
:er by saying modestly that he could not
bear TO stand there and SEQ such q crowd
looking on. and not knowing what to do be
Just did the proper thing. Next day the
hero, meeting the thieves college graduate
in the corridor of the Fifth avenue hotel,
agrees to receive and hold for him any booty
he may seize in the bar-room which he does.
At night he and his friend go to disreputa-
bic masked ball, where the hero recognizes
his father in disguise amongst the dancers.
Securing place in the same set, during a
pause in the dance he snatchss the mask
from his own face and his fathers at the same
moment This edifying incident is enforced
by full page illustration. friend suggests
the question, What demon of truthfulness
makes the artist put such brutal and vulgar
faces on the mem In this class of stories,
fathers and sons are represented as natural
enemies, and the true position tor the son is
that of suspicion and armed peace