The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1893-04-04
CITY AND COUNTRY BOYS.


Summer Idlers Can DO Some Reforming
If They WIN.
A distinguished man, whose boyhood
was passed partly in the country and
partly in the city, recently testified
that he found his boy companions in
the country much worse than those in
the city
1T is our habit to think of the coun-
try" he said, ''as the abode Of innocence
and purity, and of the city as the haunt
cannot recall hearing a single bad word
from my schoolmates in the large insti-
tuition which l attended in Boston. l
feel sure that some must have been
uttered, for there were several hundred
boys in the building, but / cannot re-
member hearing any.
my experience with the boys in the
country is however, in MY memory
very different There were two or
three dreadful boy there. who cor
rupted the whole school. They were
foul-mouthed and full of iniquity."
A family of boys who spend their
summers in the country and their
winters in the city have frequently re-
marked the same thing. They find
good boys in both places, but more bad
ness in proportion in the country, and.
as they themselves express it, their
badness is worse" Somehow" re-
marked one of them naively. 1.-THE city
boys are more polite about it, and
maybe it's only that that makes them
Been not quite so bad" Nearly all who
possess an intimate acquaintance with
both city and country will testify to the
general truth of these conclusions
The reasons are not far to seek. In
the city schools the youth are more
carefully graded than in the country.
not only in the direction of mind, but
of morals A normal and well-brought-
up boy has a much wider choice
as to his playmates in the one than
in the other, and such boy will usual
ly select his friends among the better
boys. In the country he Is thrown nee
pssarily with children with whom his
parents would much rather he should
not associate The democracy of the
village Is absolute, however, and any
attempt to establish an aristocracy,
even of virtue. is de eply resented by
the parents of the obje ctionable youth.
Such parents usually consider their
children as good as the rest
In the city he has comparatively little
opportunity to put in corrupting work
among good boys The bad boys herd
by themselves and become often for
midable gangs, the terror of peaceful
citizens and even the police. In the
country the bad boy has only few COM
panions as bent on sin as himself, but
he has free access to W. l-brought-up
children, often influencing them to
deeds of evil which they remember with
shame as long as they live.
There seems suggestion here for
those who live in the country or who
pass more or less time there each year,
who love it and cannot bear to think of
the plague spots upon it, to put in some
missionary work among the country
bad boys A months effort, unobtru-
Rively and spontaneously given, among
doubtful boys in country place may
raise the tone of whole neighborhood
for years afterward. To show such
boys that you respect the good In them,
to praise them for whatever they excel
In, to show an interest in their worthy
pursuits, to take them, in short, at their
best-this work might be more far
reaching in its good effect than the get
ting up of bazaar or the giving OF
straw berry festival m Y. Times