The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1891-11-26
A MAYNARD SON.
He Read the Flaming Adven-
lures of the James Gang,
Aud was Bent on Entering the Wide
World to do Likewise.
A Washington County Boy Lured into
the Paths that Lead to Prison.

Occasionally there leaps to light an
evidence of the influence of the bad
example OF the James boys,
Authors have taken advantage Of
the wonderful and daring adventures
OF these peerless robbers and despera-
does and cast them into the weird form
uf romantic stories, inviting the atten-
ton OF the young. BY many, these
stories are read only as a matter of di
version. The pages are scanned, the
daring exploits of those terrors in
human flesh are noted with an absorb
ing interest for the time being, but
when duty calls from diversion the
picture vanishes aud the man who is
established in honesty and well-doing
receives no bias to evil from the pass.
time he has spent in the company OF
men whose hands are crimson with
the blood of innocent people.
But there is class of individuals
whose proneness to evil doing is aided
and abetted by the study of such
pictures as the novelists are wont to
draw of the James gang and the noted
desperados OF the world. In fact there
are those whose earliest visions accord
with such life, and they picture for
their manhood laurels from sangunl
ary fields of daring exploits on the
way to fame" and fortune. They
have peculiar and growing ambition
to satisfy. They are eager for such
literature as strengthens and lifts them
up in the winding course OF their
earliest visions They follow the pen
of the imaginative novelist, and as
they read, each thought fastens itself
on the heart and reflects its image on
the wayward soul, Deeper and deeper
they go. They study what they con-
ceive to be the strong points in their
proposed profession as reflected in the
lives of the intrepid schemers whose
course has excited the imagination Of
the magazine contributor
When they have become fully in
formed, when they have imbibed to
overhowing, when the whole system
has become infused and leaking at
every pore, then it is that they bid
goodbye forever to the noble aspira-
tons of childhood, depart from the pa
rental roof and 60 out into the wide
world under the mask of desperate.
Behind is the once happy home, the
meadows fresh and green, the ripi ling
waters of the cry stal brook, the shadow
of the church tower, the deserted arena
Of moral combat-all that is in the
realm of high social, moral and reli-
gious life is cast away into the fathom.
less night Of starless past They 60
never again to meet on terms of parity
the associates Of their youth.
Strange as it may seem, almost in
our own midst, where the influence ot
; church and college has been in the
forefront in shaping the destlnes O
our young men, we have case OF con
torted human principles in young
, man OF excellent parentage. For the
last few years he has been reading anC
. training himself in accordance will
the fascinating history Of the jane
gang He has failed to take in con
sideration the fact that most younj
men of similar proclivity have under
e taken to act the history of the Jane
: gang and grow rich from their plunde
q only to find themselves foiled in tn
first attempt and lodged in prison t
o pass a life of solitary confnemen
q and misery, bringing shame and degra
/ dation to parents who fain would hav
seen their sons on the high road t
honorable distinction.
= 1t is only few days since the youn
" man in question took from his father
stable horse, and declaring his il
tentions to join the "royal league" {
n midnight robbers, rode away, til
is peace and happiness of his home lo
Of in the romantic dreams OF weird III
of systematic plunder The last thi
v was heard of him he had just been r
released from the custody of sheri