Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-10-26
BOB BURDETTE'S BOY,
Likewise All His Extensive Connec-
ton and It's Duty Toward him.
THE FIRST AS WELL AS LAST BOY
Sui G eneris and Will be Until Time Shall
be No More on Earth.
PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY LIMNED

Bob Burd ette was happy last night.
With reasonable health he couldn't well
help being so, as he faced an audience of
about 1000 in old CITY Hall composed of the
Y. NJ. C. A. and various other kinds Of
people, and he talked two hours and five
minutes, during which time humor and
pathos were so blended as to suit any reason
able makeup, and he, as he phrased it.
never turned a hair. The auditorium was
filled, the stage was filled, and there were
235 people in the balcony.
MIR. Burdette stated in the outset that he
didn't propose to tell anything new. He had
been forced to do so at times when working on
newspaper, but lecturing had made him
lazy, and he proposed to repeat the Oldest
lecture IN the world. His subject was 'The
Boy" but it grew as he proceeded, and
finally embraced the girl and her mother.
grandmother, father, cousins. sisters, aunts,
etc. 1t wasn't the boy of the period, but of
all periods, from Cain down. Since Cain,
everything had changed but the boy. He is
the same yesterday to-day, and will continue
the same while time shall last, boys in this
respect being like puppies, kittens, colts
and the young of all domesticated animals
as we'll as of wild.
THE GOOD OLD TIMES.
He referred to the fact that everything in
the olden time was better than it is to-day,
and instanced many things, but neglected to
include old rye. Cain couldn't help being
bad boy and coming to miserable end.
He had only Adam and his wife to watch
him and guide him, while it is well known
that the services of at least 30 people are
necessary to keep boy in the straight and
narrow path. How could he escape learn
ing to lie, steal, swear and murder, when
there was no one to teach him to become a
Magee or a Quay. Politics, with its
humanizing influences, was unknown
in Gains boyhood days. There
were no Sunday school teachers in Gains
day, and he was forced to create his own
theology. Adam and Eve could not tell
him that once upon a time such and such
things occurred, and science hadn't ex-
plained that six days meant six periods Of
millions of years each. Cain knew better
He could climb to the top of the genealog-
ical tree, and couldn't be stuffed or put off
with evasive answers.
The lecturer would encourage boys to ask
questions. Stupid boys never do. They
either 90 to an asylum, or get rich, and in
either case do not need to know much.
Boys learn from other boys and the lecturer
believed they got more from their environ
ment than from heredity. There are many
things boy loses when he becomes a man.
He can no longer make friends with dogs;
cannot make strange noises like boy, nor
can he give nick-names as boy can, that
describe one so perfectly that one wonders
why he wasn't christened the pame the boy
gives him.
BOYS TOYS THE BEST.
A boy can make anything he wants and
the mechanical ingenuity of boys and girls
has been injured by the toymakers. No
mechanical toy made by the man who serves
three years apprenticeship to trade and
has thereby earned the right to 60 out on a
strike, gives the satisfaction to the boy that
does the locomotive or wagon that he
fabricates for himself. The elegant French
doll that does everything bat cry when it is
hungry. does not give the satisfaction that
the rag baby Of 30 years ago gave our
sisters
Scores of things that only boy can &C.
complish were narrated; the troubles, per-
plexities and general merriment he causes
to his mother, to his father and his older
sister when she has beau were graphically
narrated, and how he torments everyone by
his explorations, his muddy boots and gen.
eral juvenile cussedness were touched up,
when it was shown that with all his tergiver-
sations the girls couldn't have a successful
picnic without him; an earth
quake or wind was sure to
break it up and the pathetic side was delin-
eated. Childhood is not the happiest period
of life, and its SORROWS should be commiser-
ated The scars of childhood's s sorrows are
often carried to the grave. The boys room
should not be the one over the back stair
way, looking out on a chicken yard. His
surroundings often make him hoodlum.
His room should be fixed up as elegantly as
that of his sister. He should be allowed to
lock himself in ii when he chooses and in
dulge his humors unrestrained. We mean
right when we often do wrong.
A BOYS CRITICAL PERIOD.
There is critical period just when a boy
is in the transition state between boyhood
and manhood; when his mustache is sprout-
ing, when his feet are too large, and he can
not find room for his hands. At this time
his father should be a friend and conf6ant
and teach him at home what he may learn
in corroding way from outside association.
Boys crave the companionship of their
elders and the old boy may renew his youth
in companionship with his son to their
mutual advantage. The transition from
eirlhood to womanhood is almost insensible
Her feet are too large. at one time in her ex-
istence, especially when she rides in street
car. but it is for very brief period. We
take her on our knee and kiss and hug
her and a few weeks later find that she has
bloomed into lovely woman and she no
longer sits on your knee-not in public at
least. But the boys probation is more e1-
tended. He is very awkward. His first
battle is with his mother when he first OBJ
iects to her cutting his hair. Then he be-
gins to cultivate a mustache, and it is as
difficult to get out as is the prohibition vote.
At this period it is of the utmost importance
that the father cultivate him. He hungers
for his fathers confidence as we'll as that of
his mother and needs support as he never
needs il. .afterward.
The remainder of the lecture was devoted
to description of the young mans court
ship and settlement in life, and was word
painting that all of middle age, or any age
for that matter, could appreciate. 1t was a
picture of the generative dream of joy,
hope, fear and sorrow that has been on the
boards since mankind shed its prehensile
caudal appendage, and perhaps before, and
laden with all that makes lite worth living,
or that carries our aspirations beyond the
clouds and beyond the tomb.
The next entertainment given by the Y.
M. c. A. will be the Munden Sisters
Vocal Quartet on November %.
VEILED IN MYSTERY.