Morning journal and courier., 1881-12-13
Glasgow Boys.

~~1~NroO"
 As for the Glasgow boys of the lower class, they are nearly past speaking about. gentleman residing in the West End tells me | that the boys living in a low-class street in | his neighborhood have become perfect ! torment to his household. At certain hours especially after school time-they swarm \ into his broad and airy street, to which. see- ing that they live in installations neigh borhood, there would be no objection if they | conducted themselves properly. The reverse, | however, is certainly the case. They ring his door-bell and run away, they throw dirt | by handfuls into the area of his house, and | three or four of them remain to spit down f upon the servant whose duty it is to clean ! away the filth which they have provided. \ The language of the dirty little wretches, too, is of the ''most beastly description, D too bad \ to be repeated in this communication. It | would be easy to multiply examples of con- stantly recurring rudeness, or of mischief l done by the kind of children to whom refer ence has been made, as, for instance, on oc- casional Sundays have noticed boys putting bits of dirty paper and other rubbish into private letter boxes. and generally exhibiting a tendency to ''hash' all sorts of property, knocking the heads of area railings, scratch ! ing the paint off doors, throwing mud on newly-cleaned windows. and committing, with the greatest deliberation, nameless nuisances in common stairs and closes, like wise other acts of juvenile rufianism too numerous to mention. The cruelty of the children of the city to stray dogs and s'wan- dered cats, ,'' of which many instances could be given, is also most reprehensible.
 How rough the groups of swaggering ap- prentice boys are who occasionally invade quiet neighborhood is really painful to see. They occupy the whole breadth of the foot way, and ladies in consequence are compelled to go on the carriage road in order to pass them. These bands of ''trades' lads'' are not at all choice in their manners, their language is sometimes abominable, they are generally smoking, and for the time in every way offensive. Probably they would 'heave half brick" at any person who chanced to cross their path, were they not restrained by fear of the police. To remonstrate with such persons or rebuke them in any way is labor in vain for out of their mouths the ever ready oath or volley of slang comes with force which admits of no reply. As regards the younger "vagabonds," !" whenever they are caught, or in any way checked for their ong-doing, they find host of defenders of their own class. A little trough" threw some most offensive dirt on a lady's dress,
 week or two ago. and was being vigorously handled by the lady's husband, who had caught him in the act, when three or four men rushed up to ask what he was doing to tsthe poor wean." They were vastly indig- nant that stthe poor wean" should, as they put it, be ''ill-used," but they had no word of sympathy for the lady whose dress had been wantonly spoiled by the little scoundrel If 1.-the poor wean" had been taken home to get decided taste of the tawse at the paren-
 tai hearth, or been sent to f'the office'' and
 sentenced to half a-dozen strokes of the
 birch, should have been greatly pleased
 because it was exactly what the little rough"
 deserved. The sort of children am alluding
 to need good deal of correction, and any
 mode by which the little roughs of to-day
 could be prevented from becoming the big
 roughs of future years would be really wei
 c0ma. ~.