San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1883-09-13
TkeCsds OF the Ieys.

'''--'''-'--r Phe-Csds sfthe Bsys. .-
When You seea boycoming down the
street with a ball of cord in his hand
and aNlook on Shis' serious face like
that worn by the picture of the early
Christian father standing in the arena
waiting for the new lion to be called
to dinner, it is sign that if you cast
your eyes upward, you can see that
boys kite dancing nimbly in the air
to the lascivious pleasing of whole
colony of telephone wires. p" p"
When you see boy going along in
the merry sunshine with his hat in his
hand, shaking his hair with pine
stick to get it dry and now and then
leaning his head on one side, pound
ing the other with his hand and prac.
tically kicking his feet into the air.,
in desperate efforts to get the water
out OF his ears; or when you see him
holding warm stone to his ear for
the same purpose, it is a true sign
that you may think of that boy, by
and by, standing speechless when his
mother asks him how his shirt came
to be wrong side out You must not
run down the street in the direction
Of his home under the impression
that the boy is being basely murdered.
You can't kill boy .~
WITH SKATING STRAP.
And in noe signoes you will know
that boy has been in swimming when
he should have been at school, learn
ing that "twenty-six propositions are
followed by the accusative," all the
way from ad to ultra.
When you see boy about 5:45
p. m. with ink on his nose, and the
CRIME of chalk on his hands, his hair
disheveled and the two upper buttons
of his jacket gone, his collar rumpled
and his necktie twisted awry, and q
suspicious-looking flush, and two or
three scratches adjoining his face, you
will know that he was 'kep in,
after school, and was tainted for the
same by another boy when he came
out; and if you want to know the
rest of it, it will not be necessary to
go into particulars, but just ask him
(which whipped?" If a joyous look
of triumph dances in his exultant
eyes, you can know that just around
the corner you can find a boy
with g bleeding nose and a generally
demoralized facade. But if the lad
you question looks downcast, multis
cum lachrymis begins his Grafton,
like Divatiacus, by saying, well, he
was a great deal bigge'rn me" you
may know that your boy got" licked"
When you see a boy with the peck
cts of his pantaloons bullying out IN
til he looks like a great humble bee
laden for the hive, while he walks
along trying to look as thin as o split
latin, and wearing o profound express
ion of
SUPERNATURAL INNOCENCE,
you know, without referring to this
code of signals, that boy has been
lingering in somebody's orchard, and
does not care to have undue publicity
given to facts that only concern him
personally. i.
When you see boy on the distant
hillside suddenly leap into the soft
summer air, holding one bare foot
tenderly, but firmly in the welded
fingers of both hands, while he hops
around in irregular but excited orbits,
at the same time voicing his grief
with wailing shrieks, mellowed by
the sunny distance, then, without
going to the telephone, you may know
that barefoot boy had trod upon the
busy bee that nestled in the perfumed
clover.
And whenever and wherever you
see him, in mischief OF out of it
that is, just coming out of it or ready
to get into some more; awful bad, or
with many fearful failures and dis
graceful stumblings trying to be good ;
forgetting your commandments which
thunder upon him by the hundred,
well nigh as readily and repeatedly
as you forget the ten that infinite
wisdom has laid upon you; in all his
noise, his poor little struggles, temp
tations, triumphs and failures, his
piteous little troubles and his
fearful, honest penitence, in all the
Ightess of a boys life, your heart
must grow mellow and tender for the
little germ Of manhood, so full of
wonderful possibilities, SO rich with
seeds of strength that viii npen
for good or evil, as you walk and live
before the boy; ever as you look at
him, remember what you were thirty
or forty years ago and say, GOD
bless the boy. "-BurliHgtoa HarEge.