The Forrest City times., 1894-02-16
BOYS.

cent. it seemed as if heaven. in answer to the painters prayer, had sent him yer itahle angel for a model. Every feature was perfect. from the lovely blue eyes to the smiling coral lips; golden curls fell in profusion over the beautiful brow. while the dimpled cheeks and rounded arms spoke of health and physical perfection. The painter was enchanted, and. for a moderate sum, the babe was sent to the studio. The picture was at last finished. and the canvas showed forth life like image of the little innocent. The cherub rivaled those of Raphael and the painter became famous, and into his busy life were crowd ded orders for pictures by the score Years passed by and the painter was now old and gray. yet his hand had not lost it's cunning. He once more needed model. but for picture of a different sort. This time Fallen Human ity " was to be represented. At last one day there came into the studio creature so bleareyed, so bloated. SD degraded that the painter shrunk involuntarily from him. Yet, for love Of his art, bargain was struck and the sittings began. Dur ing the hours which followed the painter learned something of the past life of this miserable wretch. with its repetition of
 
 could he believe his senses when he learned that this debanched piece of bru- fality had once been the smiling. innocent babe which. in his earlier days. had served him for a model. What had transformed him into the vilest of Gods creatures? Who can tell the causes that first led to his downfall? After the first step, the descent was easy.
 If we look around Us we can see this story verified every day. As the doting mother iulls to sleep upon her bosolA her prattling infant; as she presses her lips to his tiny fingers which caress her cheek so softly. a chill colder than death would pierce her heart could slye know that these same fingers would one day clasp the iron bars of a felon's cell. Yet she may, by her very negligence, be the cause of the result It has been said, and wisely. that to reform boy. one must begin with his grandfather. The law of heredity is un- failing and memorable. What may seem to the parents a social pastime, indulged in in a moderate and (sO-cailed) gentle manly manner. may piove deadly in- heritance to the boy.
 Boys, as a class, are much abused and much-maligned class. When we consider the training and example that most boys have. we cease to wonder that so many 'turn out bad.n Almost as soon as the boy Is out of his swaddling clothes the mother looks upon him as one who will eventually overcome her, and so. too weak in moral courage to enter the arena against him, she gives up at once. Then the child begins to hear such expressions as these: II do not know What l will do with my boy. If he was a girl, now. 1 could manage him. but the bare thought of raising a boy makes me shudder." The child begins to wonder at all this. and concludes that he is of some importance in the household. He IS proud of it, and begins to show it in words and actions. He is next regaled by hearing all his d0- ings expatiated upon to every neighbOr that drops in. He takes up the idea that he is very smart, tries to show of. and soon develops into the hard-hearted. smart Alec species so often met with. He finally makes himself unbearable at home and is sent to the store with father. as mother ''can't make him mind" If there is any thing that is contemptibie it is to hear a mother say that she cannot make her baby mind At the store the father. who is quite proud of this miniature reproduction of his own foihles, bores his friends by impressing upon them the fact that the child came by his faults honestly. and then he relates. for their delectaton. some of his own boyish pranks. Any father who has at heart the moral development of his boy will not relate in his presence the disgraceful escapades of his own boy hood. For. baby though he may seem. he immediately resolves in his sage little head the problem If father did so and 50. why can't I?" The transition to the street is easy. Here. among the gamin with whom he plays, he learns and treas ures up all the vileness that einanates from this prolific source. Then he listens to the dirty conversations of men Oil the street corners. and their obscene jokes are new revelations to him-a wonderland in which he revels. In fact, he lies awake ct night to think of il all. and goes to sleep to dream of it. Thus the seed which pro duce the future debauchee are sown in fife heart of the baby. In few years he has learned to smoke cigarettes on the sly and to lie about it al home. Next he learns to steal money to buy them with He has now become so rude at home that he is threatened with being sent to school, and the pious hope Is expressed that the teacher will whip him every day. He i'm nediately takes dislike to the idea of scuuoi-iooks upon it as pfisOn, ana tne teacher as a mortal enemy whom 1t is his duty to worry. And, when he does go no imp of Satan could devise more varied means by which to worry that same teacher. Meanwhile. at home he Is given a, n bedroom the worst room on the place. Here We find the faded carpet the cracked mirror. the broken-b back chairs and tooth less comb. Who has not seen the "boys rooin.s with its unsightiy furniture and lhlf. made leii2 If aIx naTt of ihS house.