News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1884-02-14
From the Milwaukee SUM-

From the Milwaukee SUM-
81 heard that you and your chum
made up purse to pay a fellows fine,
and save him from going to the house OF
correction, said the groceryman to the
bad boy. "You fellows will get to mix
ing IN with thieves, and the first thing
you know, you will get pulled by the
police, and saltpetre won't save you"
well, sir, if we hadn't happened
down to the police court, that morning,
that boy would have been ruined. The
Judge had just said, five dollars fine, or
ten days in the house of correction, and
the policeman led the boy out, and as
he passed me l thought his face was
familiar, and as I knew the cops sister,
he let me go to the station and see the
boy. He used to live where We did, be-
fore we came here, and his folks were
rlch then, but his father failed and his
mother died, and the boy never learned
to do anything, and he has been, for a
year, walking around from town to town,
eating when anybody offered him a
meal, and going without when they
didn't. 'Tother night he struck this
town, and he was hungry and he didn't
have ambition enough to even 90 and
beg piece of bread, and he stood lean
ing against an iron fence, ready to
freeze, when q policeman took him in.
The ambition was all chilled out of him,
and he didn't make any defense at the
charge of vagrancy, and WIS going to be
sent up with thieves and drunkards,
when we happened to see him. / tell
you, it don't make any difference how
rich boys father Is, every boy ought
to learn to do some kind of work, be-
cause the time may come when he will
have to work or starve. Well, he was
tickled to see me, and cried some. and
said when he got out of Jail he guessed
he would go and drown himself, cause
he wasn't no good, and he talked about
his mothers dying, until it broke us all
up, and then we paid his fine and I took
him up to our house, and gave him some
of my clothes, and we tried all the even
ing to think of some work he could do,
but he never learned to do thing when
his pa was rich, except to walk down
town and back. / never see a boy so
helpless. happened to think when we
were little boys, we used to go in his
mas kitchen on baking days, and they
would give us some dough to mix, and 1
asked him if he remembered it, and he
said he did. That was the only thing
he could do. So went down to the
bakery and told the baker that l had a
friend who didn't know anything on
earth but to mix dough, and | wanted
to get job for him. Well, sir, it hap
pened that one of tine bakers was off on
drunk, and the boss said to bring my
friend in, and I told the boy, and i'm
\ l.,
as though he was brought up on dough,
and knew all about it, and [ took him
down there, and the baker gave him a
job, and he caught on so well the baker
is going to give him six dollars a week
after next week. o, dear, but he could
sling dough. Now this shows what a
little thing will save boy, but it was a
narrow escape, and every boy should
learn something. Seems singular, don't
it, that the only thing that boy knew,
by which he could earn living, was
something he learned when he was play
ing, in childhood, in his mas kitchen.
Say, wish was an orator, and could
go around giving lectures. would talk
to boys and girls entirely, and would
show them that they were the biggest
fools on earth to neglect to learn
trade.
''Yes, that is all right, but what do
you know, by which you can earn a liv-
ing?' asked the groceryman of the bad
boy, thinking he had him.
''Me, said the boy, indignant at the
idea that he didn't know anything. ST
could be dozen different things that 1
have learned. L could come into this
grocery and double your business, by
keeping it clean, giving full weight,
treating everybody kindly, keeping good
wearing clean shirt and smile instead
of dirty shirt and a frown, as you do. 1
could"
'That will do, you can go" and the
groceryman let the boy out and closed
the grocery to go to dinner, while the
boy went to the barn to feed his pas
frotfar