The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-11-13

an uftHlHA tHdt WOulQ tdho tHO CIOosO
out of the trousers or soil the hands
becomes distasteful. They turn
deaf ear to the advice of the negro
song that runs,
''Take off your coat, boys, and roll up
your sleeves,
Jordan's a hard road to trabble.'
Be it the Jordan road, or any other,
if it's "hard one to trabble,' they
don't propose to go. Nothing is toll
Grated that would interfere with the
careful polishing of the finger nails.
They are in stage of arrested de-
velopment. The outside fellow has
grown until he fits into frst-class
clothes of the regulation cut and the
required number of buttons. The
inside fellow, even if in early years
he has been manly and strong and
little rough, seems to have shrunken
to fit the new clothes.
The boy who used to love wres
tie or a tumble with other athletic
fellows finds vigorous exercise not to
his taste. The lad who liked battle
with the waves and vigorous rub in
] the cool of summer morning takes
kindly now to Turkish bath, with
some other fellow to do the rubbing.
He has entered upon a period of
enervation, mistaken too often for a
period of true refinement. The height
of his collar, the style of his tie, the
breadth and stiffness of his cuffs, the
size of his seal ring, the freshness of
his gloves, the careful parting of his
hair all come to be, at this stage,
matters of supreme and vital import
| ance.
We know of one instance, in which
young man who had been a few
years earlier rollicking, jolly, big
hearted boy, actually helped him
self to the silk stockings of his sister,
that his manly limbs might be en-
cased in nothing but the best. And
when he was taken to task for this
trespass upon the feminine hosiery,
he justified himself by saying that
| his allowance was too small to get
what he ought to have, and that
nothing but silk was fit for gentle
| man.
Another hoy, whose father was
well-dressed man, constantly sup
piled himself with his fathers neck
ties, handkerchiefs and scarf pins,
until one day his indulgent parent
said: Tom has only one grudge
against me, and that is that l am
three inches taller than he is, and he
cannot wear my trousers. He helps
himself to all the rest of my belong
ings, and when | am dressing to go
out to dinner, am lucky if Tom has
not already arrayed himself in my
best"
We remember another instance,
equally authentic, of the rapid growth
of the ideas of young man with
reference to the conduct of house
hold. His father had secured for
him position where he would have
to begin at the bottom and work for
year at not more than three dollars
a week; yet on the ground that he
was now man of business he gave
his parents some good advice as to
changing their mode of living, and
substituting butler, who could
also do service as valet, for thequiet
maid who had, up to the present
time, been quite sufficient for the
table service of the home. His larger
views as merchant in embryo, and
as business man who went down
town" every day, demanded an ex-
pansion of the family life, and hehad
the air of being quite able to pay the
butler and the valet himself 1t was
an instance of going into business on
his cuffs.
We are glad to notice that this
peculiar development seems to be
only stage and phase of progress.
Boys go through itas they go through
scarlatina and measles and whooping
cough. With their cuffs they put
on their dignity. Out of this sham
dignity their next progress may be
into truer manliness. The disease
is accompanied with intense admira-
ton of ones self, and symptom of
this is very apt to be great disgust
of whatever is not in accord with his
new ideas. The younger brothers
and sisters are simply, at this period,
so many little bears and monkeys to
be suppressed and kept out of the
way. The cry or laugh of little
child is apt to make our young lord
ask "why children should not be
kept in the nursery instead of being
allowed to be troublesome to older
folksi" Even the mother looks old