The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1897-06-27
Kansas Boys and Their WAYS


Kansas Boys and Their Ways
With . boy. the second spoonful Of susa,
in h.s coffee Is always taken surrepis.ously
and with fearful glance at his parent
There never was a boy who dsd not re-
solve that When he got rich he would gel
all his wealth in nickies and see how big q
room il would take to hold them.
Give q boy q big piece Of work to do
and he will pause every hour in his ssrug-
g.es to feel his muscle and imagine how I,
IS hardening.
A majority OF boys are at some time in
their youth seized with the retroactive hor-
ror that they might have been born some
body's else son.
never-fading delusion with boys is that
there is something 20 eat in a refrigerator
A hungry boy will go 10 a refrigerator
four or five times In quick succession. and.
seeing nothing but a crock Of lard and a
few cold potatoes. viii slam the door and
storm around. be overcome with the idea
that he overlooked something. and go and
look again.
One blade in his knife a boy never uses.
That Is the small lblade with file surface
and a small tip on the end. The file a boy
does not understand, but the tip he win
tell you is lance" He never finds any
body willing TO be Ianced and consequently
never uses il.
Present a boy with knife and he will at
once breathe heavily on the largest blade
to test the quality OF steel. II the moisture
dries off very quickly the steel is very
fine.
Let a boy be away out on the prairie by
himself and get a sand-burr in his bare
foot. He will haul the foot up and grab
hold of the burr and saying perenptorily
and audibly TO himself: Think Of your
yank the burr out and go on.
perfectly satisfied that he allev,ated the
pain OF the operation.
Night after night boy will shut his eyes
with the determination to note just the
second he goes to sleep Years of failure
will not discourage them from trying this.
The most common fiction with all boys is
that they have somewhere in their system
the point of a needle which they broke of
n one of their feet sometime in the misty
past. With this idea uppermost the young
ster examines pimple Of boil with al
most certain anticipation that the needle is
about to appear and be rescued.
Frequently boys will plant trees near
heir fathers barns. Their idea is that the
tree Will grow up. and in after years they
viii clinmb II and drop off limb on the
-oof Of the barn. Many a boy has grown
70 a man and gone out and surveyed the
rec. grown just as he planned it, and
aughed.
No eye IS so acute as that of boy. II
lis father has a big barn and a dove-cote,
he boy may be mile away from home and
eeing a bird, yell with unniis akable con-
'iction and correctly, too: There goes one
II our pigeons"
Start two obstinate boys to playing cro-
luet and they will keep at II all day. First
hey agree that the champion" shall be
lie who wins the first two out OF three
James. One is beaten and he demands that
hey make the champion" the winner OF
ne first three our of five. He who loses
hen demands he shall be champion" who
wins the first four games out OF seven.
Then they will start all over again with the
esult that they are both champions" IN
he end and entirely satisfied.
A boy will pause before a tree or bush in
peechless admiration, not at the foliage
f bloom or form, but because he has
mong the intermingling branches detected
daisy Skinny club" or 'bean-shooter
rotch."
Until boy Is fifteen he loves his father
o much that If his father is a policeman,
e says that he VIII be a policeman when
e is grown. After he passes fifteen, he
nds there are greater men than his father
nd decides to be president II is not un-
Il he is father himself. poor and debt
aden, that the old tie of sympathy and
ove for his father is renewed.
Every boy feels the necessity OF claiming
hat he has seen somebody grab snake by
ne tail and crack its head of. simply be-
ause every other boy claims to have seen
he same thing.
Most of the smaller boys believe that a
make does its damage with Its forked
,ngue. They have heard Of the fang OF
curse. but with that peculiar incredulity
to youth they do not accept II.
With great bravado all boys assure their |
elbows that garter snakes are not poisonous |
VI away down deep in their souls all boys |
elieve that garter snakes are.
One Of the fond ideas OF boys Is the de- |
20 take a tad-pole and keep |
i'm in a rain-barrel and watch him until |
e turns into frog. II is never done. He |
lans to do II in the morning and has for
often 1t forever by afternoon.
It Is childish belief that hgh,ning-bug.
nd turtles are both stubborn. When a /
oy catches turtle and sets him on a /
,ck. 4 never appeals 10 him tina: the tur-
e is frightened. but that he is just keep
g his head In for meanness. Boys then
,metimes become cruel. When they catch !
liSh;ning-bug and put him tn a glass
ottIe for a Lantern and the injured
sect refuses 10 fash any longer, they
Ut It down to the bugs o5stinacy.
No boy IS ever able 10 ;eii when a wound /
oes not need the bandaSe longer. His
other viii put II on for hin-usuaiiy over
S big toe. The wound Will heel but he
Il go On wearing that ban5sge day after
sy II viii slip of and he will slip 3,
,ck on again with beautiful pers;stency
1use nixii be viii kick II OF while he IL
sleep and il The afternoon OF the next |
~ discover. 70 rs zrez. sston.shneaf.
at Il is gone Then ne discovers that
: toe Is well.
A Pointed Reply.
Some little tine ago Kaiser Wilhelm was
esent AZ the enrolnea, o. recruits FOR one
his famous regiments ~ he Guards |