The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1890-04-16
GENUINELY BAD BOYS.
To Cure Them Requires Heroic TfeAts
ment at the Right limo.

ment at the Right Time.
There are some genuinely bad boys;
they are almost hopelessly bad; not only
boisterous and rude, but vicious, exas-
perating, desperate. They devote their
energies to devising ways and means OF
tormenting not other mean boys-a
mean boy is exempt from their arts
but the innocent. If they find an ami
NAL that is powerless to harm them,
they delight in tormenting it. The
more piteous its cry, the greater their
enjoyment. They are never quite so
happy as when they find way to make
good boy miserable, unless it be some
device for making a good woman
wretched They focus all their wit
upon making the good and the innocent
of this world suffer through their acts.
1t requires the highest human in
genuity and the greatest skill to do any
thing for them, or through them for the
good of the world. 1t is about as much
as the average philanthropist can hope
for, to protect the innocent from their
malice; and yet the fact remains that,
if properly dealt with, they often make
the grandest men in the world. They
have the energy, intensity and grit to
make mighty men, if only they can be
rescued from themselves. 1t is of little
use to lay down any rules for dealing
with them; it requires an expert, a
genius in the art of training, to accom-
plish any thing with them or for them.
Whoever has such boy to deal with in
the home, school, church or society
should witness the training of a
vicious horse by the genius. There
was never a horse SO vicious that he
was not susceptible to the arts of an
artist A horse that has bitten, kicked
and stamped his keepers to death is
turned loose in the presence of man,
who does not leave him till it is safe for
a child to come into his presence. There
was never sane boy so mean, so base,
so cruel, so fierce, that in the hands Of
an expert he could not be made as gen.
tie, as serviceable to humanity, as the
horse that came from the hands of
Rarey.
Experts are not numerous, and the
bad boy has rare genius for keeping
out of their way. There are. however.
few principles that may be laid down
safely regarding his treatment. He
must be respected. We must never be
impatient with him. Never irritated
by him. There is no possibility of con-
trolling or benetiting such boy if we
allow ourselves to get ratified" Just
as he continues to torment the kitten
in proportion to the intensity of her cry
ing, will he invent devices for our
vexation so long as our irritability is
apparent. There must be no weakness,
no vacillation, no hesitancy to apply
heroic treatment at the right time in
the right way. No one on earth so re-
spects authority, so bows before mas.
ter, as wild, fierce, desperate boy. I
have seen wild Mexican horse that
had never been touched by the hand of
man, with every fiber of his being thrill.
ing with strength, and every impulse
vicious, so conquered in five minutes as
to be led quietly by the bit. The treat
ment seemed so cruel that my blood
almost chilled; but saw that it was the
greatest possible kindness to do prompt
ty, vigorously, all that would ever need
to be done to show him that he was in
the hands of a master.-Eev. A. E. Win.
Shin in Golden Ru1e