The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-12-26
CITY BOY AND COUNTRY BOY.
Both Have Ways OF Becoming
"Tough." but the Latter Reform

"TOugh," but the Latter Reform.
There are two ways for a boy to be
tough" The city boy is free to choose
Neither makes the mistake of Il wrong
choice. The rule by which boys are guided
in this matter is one that has no EXCEPTIONS
The city-bTed youth never makes the mis-
take of seeking the path which leads the
country lad astray. The boy who has been
in close communion with nature all his life
never adopts the route OF his cousin Of the
town They travel in parallel llnes but the
lines are wide distance a.part. There is as
much difference betW een them, too, as there
IS between q country road and an asphalt
pavement The difference is in favor of the
former. in that it is generally lined with
obstacles which soon tire the traveller and
induce him to abandon the journey he is
Undertaking. The latter offers such easy
and inviting progress that those who start
seldom fail to reach the end.
When city boy yields to that mysterious
influence which either lands him in the
Dr1dewel or teaches him great moral truth
he usually seeks saloon as an initial step.
This is true il the opinions of policemen
JuristS, preachers and reformers count for
anything. He acquires taste FOR beer and
cigarettes and learns how to swear and use
slang. He becomes acquainted with other
boys who have already learned how TO be
tough" and they are his friends at once
Ihey help him along, and put him next
using an expression which has a world Of
meaning to them. If his environment is
particularly bad he gets along famousy
some husky policeman. He may spend a
night in the station, or his father may have
some politician friend who sign bail
bond. In either event the boy gets q good
start on the asphalt pavement.
Once upon a time two city boys, having
had their preliminary training, resolved to
enter upon career of excitement and adj
venture. They were tired of the humdrum
of an everyday existence. They longed for
quickened pulse and a sense of danger
One of these boys bought a cheap revolver
other
tured a Slung-ShOt with a strip of leather
cut from an old shoe and lump of solder
One night they waited in an alley until a
tired mechanic came along, and then they
scared him into giving up his weeks wages.
The next night they stopped a man who
was not In the humor TO be robbed. He
knocked the revolver out of its owner 8
hand and then knocked him down. He
grail bed the other boy and held him until
a policeman came along, and then went to
the station to enter a complaint Two weeks
later both of these youthful highwaymen
took up a long residence at the raforma-
tory institution at Pontiac, but they never
Not for the purpose of sermonizing, but
merely for the sake of comparison, suppose
hese two boys had been reared in a coun-
try village, just as two other boys were
reared once upon a time. Would these coun-
try boys have chosen the career of the
highwayman and risked spending their de-
Ginning days behind iron gratings? Take the
experiences of Bert and Bill, who had spent
their fifteen years in a small town on the
banks of the Wabash river for an answer.
They were good boys. They would be called
goody-good boys in big city. They at
tended Sunday school regularly because
their parents insisted. Neither had been
guilty of using any rougher language than
gee whiZ" aid gosh, and neither had
tasted the poisonous weed except in the Sc
crecy of some hayloft, and then with many
misgivings. The only saloon in the village
had never welcomed them behind its door.
They were really and truly good boys.
One day in the early summer. when the
trees were heavy with foliage and the grass
was the greenest, when the air was balmy
with faint suggestion OF the far-off south
land and the Wabash was like a mirror be-
meath a clear blue sky, a feeling of restless
ness came over Bill He confided to Bert
that he was tired of living in a miserable
little river town, and Bert agreed that he
had the same sensation of disgust They
went down to the river bank and spraVled
on the grass beneath the shade of a huge
sycamore. They wondered what the world
was like, and whether they would ever be
able to walk on paved streets, where there
were tall brick buildings, and theaters and
gas lamps and street cars. where everybody
had plenty of money and fine clothes. They
plotting about one hour. They knew this
would be doing something terrible. What
teachers say? 1t made no difference to the
youthful plotterS They would see the world
and make their fortunes in some foreign
Bert and Bill owned a skiff together which
the river had brought to them during the
spring freshet Bert also owned a single
killed ground squirrel. Bill had horse
pistol which his grandfather carried in the
Mexican war; With these two formidable
weapons to protect themselves against the
possible assaults of Indians and border out
laws they got into their skif one night and
started down the Wabash, never expecting
to see their homes again until they had
a bag as big as fioursaek filled with gold.
1t was a trying moment when they set the
beat af1oat. Each boy had been guilty of
stealing for the first time in his life. Bill
had broken into the family smokehouse and
taken two OF the finest hams he could find.
He had stolen a jar of raspberry jam, a
bottle Of pickle and a loaf of bread from his
mothers cupboard. Bert contributed a jelly
cake with frosting on its top, roll of but
ter and some strawberry preserves.
j wlas The clearest kind of sailing the
fr sight and the rext day Bert had not
forsstteu geography in which there was a
mar showing the course of the Wabash.
and the boys calculated on landing in the