The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-02-23
145 years ago, and as he is now dead I
feel at liberty to write his biography.

145 years ago, and as he is now dead
feel at liberty to write his biography.
Sometimes it is perfectly tiresome
waiting for q man to die SO that you
will feel safe in saying what you think
of him, but if he happens to be largo,
robust man, it certainly pays to do So
This boy was known far and wide us
the meanest, most notorious, hopelessly
bad boy in Connecticut. No other boys
made any claims whatever when he
was around, and for years he carried
the bolt. He knew all tho little, fine
tricks Of meanness and cruelty at the
age of 10 years that it generally takes
lifetime to acquire. When others studied
all day hard to devise new kinds Of
wickedness and lay on their stomaohs
nights by the light of pine knot and
patiently worked out the more difficult
problems of meanness and lawlessness,
this lad seemed to breathe it all in the
very air.
His wonderful genius as successful
bad boy was remarked by those who did
not know him ut all. He was prodigy
of wickedness, miracle of mennness.
He loved to get little boys into his
hands and then duck them or otherwise
scare them out of their senses. He sue
ceeded in Gripping several little school
mates and blew out the teachers eye
one day with cannon fireoracker. He
loved to see his little friends fall into
his traps, and very few of his intimate
friends succeeded in dying natural
death.
could go on, page after page, telling
Of the funny pranks of this bad boy if
chose, and it would make you laugh
till the tears rolled down your checks
to read how he filed the asylum, the
hospital and the cemetery with his
friends.
Whenever any of the neighbors' dogs
saw this humorous boy they would con-
ceal their tails as fur as possible and go
to Canada till the bad boy had grown
up Or died.
He was great lover of fun, and in
one evening, with q skull covered with
phosphorus and worked by machinery,
he SO scared three little girls that they
had fits all the rest of their lives.
He knew of more ways to produce q
laugh and brighten child into spasms
than any boy of his ago in Connecticut,
and you must remember that this hap
pened over 100 years ago, when boys
didn't have the advantages they have
now.
Everybody said that this boy would
certainly come to some bad end. He
could not escape, they thought. No boy
could be so lawless and disagreeable
and still amount to anything. There
were thousands of straitlaced, puri-
tanical croakers who said that the boy
would sink to nothing whatever or land
in the penitentiary.
He said, however, that he was just
sowing his wild oats, and that when
he got his crop i'll he proposed to re-
form and make his mark.
Year after year he lived OH just as
full of the "Old Scratch" as ever. Now
and then he would burn barn just to
see tho cattle scatter and watch the
farmer hustle out in his shirt with a
pail of water.
But observe how the prophecies of
his neighbors failed.
1t ought to encourage every bad boy
in the United States today whose rela-
tives and friends speak harshly Of him.
This lad at last grew to be man and
was known all over the civilized world.
His name is familiar to every one, and
i'll the history Of our great land you
will find long account of him. Still,
he had the reputation of pulling frogs
to pieces while they were alive, of leav-
ing mud turtles on the track for tho
passenger train, SO that he could hear
them pop. and of putting the kittens on
the kitchen stove to sec them dance.
Bad boy, do not be discouraged. Hope
on, for there may be future for you.
Do not lose hope when your parents
talk back at you. You have just as good
q chance to DO known all over tho world
as the boy Of whom I have told you.
He was poor too. He had to SOW his
wild oats first, as you say, but he stead
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