The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1896-11-14
HOW HE WRITES FOR BOYS
Father Finn Is a Charm and De-
light to the American Catholic
Youth.
He Writes Such Stories That the
Boys Believe He Was Onetin1e
a Boy Himself.

| A New Era Has DaWned for Fresh
Readable and Enticing
Juvenile Books. ....
One of the prominent Catholic papers
recently called the Reverend Francis Finn
the discoverer of the American Catholic
boy, says the Catholic Union and Times.
Father Finn is not only a discoverer,
but g pioneer He discovered this species
of boy and broke through the tangled
paths Of apathy and prejudice to make
him known. He deserves all the honors
! that we who were boys, and still are l.
hope, boys at heart, can give him.
| There was time, not SO long ago,
when there were no Catholic boys in iic-
! tion--that is, there were no boys Of ones
| own species in the books which boys
read as idealized pictures of their own
| lives. And you may as we'll try to keep .
| the healthy minded boy from stories as
i from sweets. If you do not give him a
story book occasionally he will find one
| for himself and one that may poison his
mind forever. His imagination, his point
| of view OF life, may be changed during his
! whole existence by the counterfeit pre-
sentiment Of the story teller.
In my time we had the Rollo books and
Oliver Optic and the adventures of that
| Frank Wood who performed such strange
| things on board of the man-of-war; but
no Catholic American books, with live
boys in them, except the little New York
Irish American children OF Mrs. Sadliei',
and they were not at all typical Of the in
land boy. They were always undergoing
persecution for the sake Of their religion,
whereas I rather think We prosecuted
the ''know-nothings" wherever we found
them. There was, Of course, the little
Savoyard with the white mice, who was
| so unreally good as to be tiresone. There
! were, too. the little people Of dear OLD
Canon Schmid God bless himD. But they
were of the old world, and we wanted
something of our world; yet, in all books,
there were no pictures of the American
Catholic boy, with the confessional as a
great factor in his existence and all the
spiritual influences Sand motives that are
part Of his life. Tom Brown ut Rugby
, aud Eric had begun to be classics even
III. those days, but the thoughts and the
ways Of boys@in. the Jesuit or Christian
| Brothers schools had not been inter-
preted. Later, there came great crowds Of
! story ~Writers-the most eminent, perhaps:
| were Alger ana Hantz--but none giving a
picture of the life of the American Cath
olic boy.
Suddenly one came, and this was Father
Finn. He has never told us whether he
| thought he had a. mission to boys or not.
Probably not, since Tom PIayfair' was
| written in 1885, with no thought Of pub
lication 1t was what the boys wanted,
and they knew it. at once. Elder people
criticised their taste, wondered, and read.
| They found the incident of the thunder
storm improbable, and told the boys SO.
the boys simply pitied them, and talked
| '"Tom Playfair' with enthusiasm. 1t
turned out later that this "imprcbable"
episode, the killing Of two boys by the
electric current in thunderstorm, was
! founded Oh an incident which occurred at
the Jesuit novitiate during Father Finn S
residence there. But the boy in England
was charmed, as well as the boy in Amer
! lea; and the book had to be translated into
German, SO that the boy in Deutschland
should known what it was all about. 4
! surprising thing was that the Old boys,
| too, liked tom Playfair," and even the
/ older girls--because Father Finn's boys
are boys and every honest-hearted human
creature loves boy. AS for the Catholic
lads in England they were delighted.
One of the acleverest boys for his age in
! T.iyerpool, or in London either, said to
me: IF peoIl esthink Father Finn's boys
are too pious, they just don't know our
boys--ttat's all. There are boys I know
at school just as .fervent as any of Father
| Finn's boys
After tom Playfai1'' came "Percy
Wynn. published in book form in 1881.
After this came Harry Dee" with the
! famous and glorious game of baseball.
| It was as if Father Finn had tucked UP
his cassock and t'tielded" in his nine.
| The author was Sin the game, you were
| in it, everybody was i'll it while the game
! lasted-and the whole world seemed to
stand still until it was done. Here was a
| writer who knew the art Of being boy
! from A to Il. There were no-1 mean that
he knew just how boys live and think
and pray and act, and that he was ''out Of
sight for, in speaking of Tom Play
| fair the language Of the universities is
| 100 unelastic; it will not fit. The boys
! themselves do not use it when they speak
| Of Father F'inn's books. And as TO the
| cltIelsfolk, which of them eau fail to enjoy
| the celebrated exorcism scene?
a;sssEIarysy Dee merely Whsttei the youth
| full appetite for "Claude Lightfcot" and
MOSTLY Boys" There is more than rls-
nor that aroat Or book is coming, and We
may be quite sure that no boy who has
| the other hooks will be content without
I the latest; and let us hope that there will
| be a latest until Father Finn is i'm
pelled to bring his stories down to the
grandchildren of some of his heroes, and
| that there will be a big Finn bookcase
lin every weil-coastituted home.
| While most Of us were bewailing the
I fate Of Catholic children without books
specially their own, and offering them
sugarcoated tracts, Father Finn suddenly
gave them what they wanted And they
| s.took'' to him and his books. And they
liked him and his books better than any
lother books they had read, because he un-
4 derstood them and because when he
wrote, he became a boy again. There is
one thing no man can do: that is, deceive
children especially boys. A girl may be
blinded by her feelings, as it were; but a
I bay always keeps one eye open. II l, be-
Ilieyedsir1 evolution as LIDO not--I should
hold that the immed late link of the us,1al
boy to his ancestors is the weasel! It
il the kin.iness, the Z cheerful the
Iearngst svmpath !, and the idealism OF
Fatllers Finn that makes boy love him.
BYsfdsal lismI & mean lerso HUM
M tlle 10y sno himself
would Us Il I, Y q