The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1882-08-04
BOYS AND ssBOYS."

/ II - SHafleS Ouuieg W amer we DeleNe,
| who urges that boys should be caught young,
| put in barrel and fed through the bung-
| hole until they have arrived at years Of dis.
cretion. And yet after many and torcIble
reasons for regarding boys as q blessing In
/ disguise, and so well disguised as to be mis-
taken for something quite the contrary, most
/ everybody will agree with the eulogy he pro-
nounces upon the boys. after all" he
says, "there is something like about q
| boy"
Boys are the terror OF cats, their mothers
and their elder sisters but the cats would
lead but dull career without them; while a
mother would scarcely know what life really
is II she was freed from the constant anxiety
she feels about her boys. What unruffied
but Improbable hours OF lazy enjoyment
would fall to the lot Of elder sisters. were 1t
! not for their younger brothers Sloth and
ease and 3 mistaken belief that this world is
not world of annOyances and discomforts
would enervate their characters. Boys make
them feel that we are not put here simply to
enjoy ourselves, but to develop our charac-
ters. Sc with teachers. What q monoto-
nous existence would be theirs were 1t not
for boys A teacher Of girls alone would
mistake earth for paradise, and so not hav-
| ing any use for Heaven and not believing in
any such place as refuge from earthly mis-
cries would never strive to get there. But
teacher Of boys. every week looks forward
to better and brighter world, makes good
use of Sunday in fitting himself for it, and in
hoping that he will get there sometime, 10
make up for his trials here.
The ash man who should not get a snow
ball down his back; the rag peddler who
never found the wheel Of his cart suddenly
coming of the street car conductoriwho did
| not have to drive the boys from the rear
platform the passer5y who did not get
base ball in his abdomen or . bean in bis
ear: the nurse girl and her baby who were
not scared out of their wits by the sudden
rush OF the velOcipede upon their heels,
would not enjoy their tranquil Intervals OF
existence nor fully know the value OF peace
and happiness. So that after all boys are OF
! very great use-especially as 8 discipline
! and q means Of moral improvement; and
they are not to be dispised, but rather to be
/ cherished and loved, as they are very apt to
/ be az soon as they have passed their eigh-
/ teenth year.
/ But there are "boys" and boys-'boys"
/ with quotation mark and boys without -
/ It is the "boys" with these marks that do
not not deserve much charity, and do get
but precious little liking and admiration. 1t
y is the boys" with these marks that frequent
[ drinking saloons, stand on the street corners,
become rowdies at an early age, are riotous,
foul -mouthed. violent and even blOodthirsty
before they are twenty-one. This is the
III -.
They become street TouGhs. If not burglars
and highway robbers; OF a disSipated, vi.
cious, lewd and going to perditiOn in drOVes.
1t is gangs of this kind in large cities and on
the frontiers, who are known as boys" but
who belle the name A mean but true spec
linen of them are the Malley 'bOys"-younl
men well advanced in manhood, but cover
ing up their debsuchery, disoluteness, riot
Gus living, and even GTsver Offenses, by pre-
tending to the giddiness and thoughtfulnes'
of bOyhoOd. They have no claim TO any
such excuse or any such exemption. They
are men mature in wickedness and crime
and cannot hide their sins under cover Of
bOyish folly.
The same may be said OF the "James boys
who long since arrived at mature life, and in
I
icsome impulsiveness suggested by the wOrC
boys" long since resOrted to robbery snC
murder as the business Of life, not as tn,
sport OF Irrepressible and hot-headed youths
The politicians, too, love to hide thet
tricks and their games with the public ser
vice by pretending in q iOcose and iightsOm'
way that it is the "bOys" who are really re
sponsible for the evil deeds of caucuses AM
conventions, OF wire pulling and politica
deviltry generally. They imagine it soften
the Offense if they assume that it Is tn
''bOys" who must be looked after and look
ed to for the wrong doing in politics, where
as the majority OF these "bOys" are gra
with the many years they have given q
learning and practicing their contemptibl
political frauds and msneuvers. No, in jus
tice to the real boys, whose youth excuse
much because 1t is ''their nature to- tn
"boys" Of the street-corners, the frontier
and the political managers ought to have tn
name taken from them.