The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-05-10
THE NATURAL BOY.
A Little Fiend Who Needs Close Ma.
ternal Care.
New York Evening Post.

New York Evening Post.
Observation teaches US that by nature
boy Is a predatory and pugnacious desperate.
Dull in mind, and averse to exertion except
for the purpose OF gratifying his inordinate
appetite, or his taste for wanton cruelty, his
one desire in life is to avoid doing what he
is told to do, his greatest pleasure is fighting
and mischief. His apparent thoughtfulness
and gentleness when women are present is
sometimes a shyness arising from the fact
that he never quite knows what a woman
will do IL made the victim OF some pecu-
larry dastardly trick such as he is always
meditating. Her tendency to scream and
then bring down on him punishment acts as
deterrent. Sometimes it is merely due to
| the fact that he takes the opportunity TO
have one OF his boyish day-dreams. in which
| he gloats over pictures OF the horrors which
his reading calls up before his mind. of the
misdeeds of Kid. Blackboard. sixteen-string
| Jack and other noted cut-throats. One Of
| his great pleasures is the torture of animals,
and his highest form of sport Is a practical
| joke causing annoyance. or. better STILL acute
| physical pain. Cleanliness ne detests for
| two reasons-first. that washing involves
| trouble, and, second, that he much prefers
| TO be dirty. The bath. which to the adult is
| a luxury. Is to the boy something to be
| evaded at all hazards. Few people who have
| not tried 1t have any idea OF what subter-
| fuges and falsehoods boy will resort 10 in
| order to avoid a bath, although the same
| boy will swim in q forbidden river until his
| teeth chatter and his whole body is blue with
| cold, simply because it is forbidden, and be-
| cause the object of swimming is not cieanli-
ness. Such is the creature whom it has
| hitherto been one OF mothers main func-
| tons to soften and reclaim. No doubt the
thought OF what he would become without
her has reconciled many good woman TO a
ten-hcur maternal day.
| The employment of boys in offices, in dry
| goods shops and as messengers is, as we
| have said, a feature of modern city life. We
| think OF them as innocent and deserving
minors because, with that hypocrisy which
| is another marked feature OF their charac-
| ter, boys when on duty in public places
| know how to assume a look OF virtue which
| is wholly foreign to their thoughts. They
| are nothing but boys whose real nature will
| come out the moment an opportunity is at
| forded them. Probably most of them have
| homes and during the hours of their EN-
| ployment they are under constant super
| vision Were il not so. their numbers would
| soon swell the gangs OF boy ruf1ians VINO.
under leaders like Billy. the Kid, rob and
| and Mulberry Bend. The only difference be-
| tween the immature thug of the Sums and
| the boy as he exists about US, Is that the
| latter lives under greater restraint.
Wherever there are boys there is danger
| to life and property. If any one were asked
to ses Srsn sa on sSrnr afternoon in New
| York, what safer place could be thought OF
| than a well-known and frequented dry goods
establishment? Yet case recently disposed
| OF by the Court of Appeals shows that the
presence of cash boys involves very serious
| risks to purchasers. A lady walks into a
| way and Fourteenth street and has no SOON
| er taken a seat at the handkerchief counter
than cashboy snaps pin from an elastic
and the evidence shows that the eashboys
ping pins , sS0u t the s s,Sre that IN this this
| habit was so well known to the defendant
| ana to mis- fioorvalkers that a rule forbidding
! for two years and a half before the accident.
| but without any effect whatever. IL also ap-
| pears that on the day Of the accident two OF
| the cash-boys were heard TO exclaim. shoot
the dicer''-"dicer" being their thieves slang
for hat worn by child accompanying the
lady The cash.boys we're , then noticed to pc
| lady and child and INDUCING in smothered
| laughter, and as soon as the dicer got into
convenient range one OF the iive or SIX cash
r rsl n sWay No doubt they hold their sides
they had. Ten thousand is the amount OF
| the verdict which their employer must pay;
| the lady loses her eye. Nothing. Is said as to
| discovered. 1t seems to be assumed that he
| escaped, probably for the reason that the
| one ethical rule observed by boys Is never 10
| reveal the identity OF any culprit not OF adult
/ age.
Such is the boy as we know him. not only
| watched and often punished by his father,
/ but provided with a mother who sacrifices
herself that ne may be rendered ut TO live.
| What would become OF the world, the con-
| servative may fairly ask. IL the emancipa-
| ton OF the mother were TO give him to a
still greater measure OF freedom than be
| now enjoys.